The Intercultural Turns in the French Translation of Double Entendre in Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel

Abstract

Translation of literature is a field in translation studies where theories, processes, approaches and principles of translation are amply applied. Since literature mirrors experiences and imagination, culture occupies a central theme in its presentation. To furnish readers with their cultural nuances, authors often use such literary devices as tropes, proverbs, festivals, education, etc. The present study centres on intercultural turns in the French translation of Double Entendre in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel. The objectives of this study are to: identify cases of double entendre in The Lion and the Jewel and how they are re-expressed in French translation; explain the cultural implication of the use of double entendre in the original text and how this is understood by the translators of the target text; assess the level of intelligibility of translation of double entendre in the target text compared to the impression it makes on readers of the original; analyse cultural turns in reproducing double entendre of the original text in the translation. The study adopts a comparative approach in inter-textual study. Peter Newmark’s communicative approach of translation is used to describe to what extent double entendre translated into French as Le lion et la perle represents the double entendre in The Lion and the Jewel. The study finds out that: double entendre is a culture-based trope and it can be understood only if the two speakers involved are vast in the culture of its usage; readers of the target text may read the product of double entendre in the translation as an ordinary play on the actors’ intelligence; intelligent use and application of double entendre in drama lends weight to conversations in drama. The study concludes that the use of double entendre by Wole Soyinka in the drama is a cultural challenge in its French translation.