Centers of Excellence

The Glissant translation project

Project

2017 Project submitted by Louisiana State University | Embassy of France support: $ 9000

Project coordinator: Alexandre Leupin

Summary of the Project

Edouart Glissant is world renowned as a poet, playwright and worldwide influence, essayist, novelist and philosopher. The official classification of Glissant’s entire work as “national treasure” by the French government and the concomitant filing of his achrives at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris is a vibrant testimony to the Glissant’s importance. It should be notted that the majority of queries to consult these archives come from American scholars and are a testimony to Glissant’s status in Anglophone countries.

Perhaps surprisingly given his importance, fame and worldwide influence, include Introduction à une poétique du divers (1996), Traité du Tout-Monde (1997), La cohée du Lamentin (2005), Une nouvelle region du monde (2006), Les entretiens de Bâton-Rouge (2008), Philosophie de la réaction (2009), L’imaginaire des langues (2010). Most of glissant’s notions are crictically relelvant to present day debates in criticism, philosophy, history, anthropology, and poetics in America and beyond. Thus, English translation would assuredly find a large public.

Here are the 5 stages of the project :

1. - Secure the support of an American or English publishing house and for them to obtain the translation rights from Gallimard. This can be strongly facilitated if the publishers doesn’t have to choose the translators and can be assured of financial support for translation and/or publication.
2. - Choosing and contracting the translators. To that effect, a committee of three or four bilingual academics familiar with Glissant’s thought will be constituted.
3. - Translation of the above mentioned works, spread over three to four years, and executed by the translators chosen by the committee.
4. - Beginning in the fall of 2017, an annual symposium at LSU will gather translators, academics (faculty and students), translatologists. Topics will range from Glissant’s notions to the translation of short text.
5. - Building of a website dedicated to the project, enabling exchanges between academics, students, and translators and opened beyond the core group, thus allowing exchanges all over the world.