{"id":162,"date":"2006-11-03T08:32:18","date_gmt":"2006-11-03T08:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/?p=162"},"modified":"2011-07-29T16:01:33","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T16:01:33","slug":"a-welcome-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"A Welcome Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

[My editorial from this month’s<\/span><\/span> Northwest Passages<\/span><\/a> newsletter]
<\/span><\/span>
\nBurlington, Vermont, USA (in body)
\nSomewhere on the Canadian Prairie (in heart and mind)<\/p>\n

October 30th, 2006<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Giller and GG season again in Canada, the tenth such awards season we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen from up close since we launched Northwest Passages way back in 1996, a time when we had to work hard to persuade publishers to let us sell their books online. Although the face of publishing and bookselling has changed tremendously, the debates that ensue once the finalists for these major awards are announced are usually pretty much the same. Readers, booksellers, and the media are quick to note the big names left off the lists (notable absences this year include Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, and David Adams Richards) and then scramble to find out all they can about the lesser known writers and books that have made the final cut.<\/p>\n

The fact that there are always major surprises on these shortlists is a testament to the work done by the individual juries who, after reading all of the submissions, settle upon what they deem to be the most worthy books of the year. In so doing, they produce a shortlist which often differs greatly from the most popular or critically-acclaimed books of the year. In any case, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left off the list is usually far less interesting than what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on it and this is especially true with this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fiction lists for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Award. Each of these lists is notable in a number of ways, but both the English-language lists have received a lot of attention for the fact that many of the writers are not terribly well-known by most Canadians and all but one book on each list is published by a small press. There is also, for the first time in recent memory, a complete absence of women writers on the Governor General\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s English fiction list \u00e2\u20ac\u201c something that seems almost ludicrous in the country of Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Jane Urquhart etc., although Munro pulled her latest book,<\/span> The View from Castle Rock<\/span><\/em>, from Giller contention as she accepted the chance to be on this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jury. The fiction list that seems the least eclectic of the three and which includes three male and two female writers all in mid-career is the French language GG shortlist.<\/p>\n

The most remarkable of these three shortlists, though, is undoubtedly that created by the jury of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, whose task it is to award $40 000 to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153 the author of the best Canadian full-length novel or collection of short stories published in English.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jury, comprised of writers Alice Munro, Michael Winter, and the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Canada\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s former Governor General and a writer in her own right, has made an interesting and controversial choice in selecting for the shortlist two works in translation:<\/span> The Immaculate Conception<\/span><\/em>, Lazer Lederhendler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s translation of Gaetan Soucy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1994 novel<\/span> L’Immacul\u00c3\u00a9e conception<\/span><\/em>; and<\/span> A Perfect Circle<\/span><\/em>, Sheila Fischman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s translation of Pascale Quiviger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2004 novel<\/span> Le Cercle Parfait<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve talked before in this newsletter about the importance of translation in this country and the real lack of awareness among anglophone and francophone Canadians of each others literatures. Ask the average English-Canadian about Qu\u00c3\u00a9b\u00c3\u00a9cois literature and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll most likely hear him or her fondly reminisce about reading \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Hockey Sweater\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or seeing the animated short of that story by Roch Carrier; ask the average francophone Quebecker, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll most likely hear the names Atwood or Richler, authors whose works were translated into French and published by publishers in France, not Qu\u00c3\u00a9bec. Despite the best efforts of publishers like Anansi and Cormorant in English-Canada and Bor\u00c3\u00a9al in Qu\u00c3\u00a9bec, the willful amnesia that allows each language group to overlook the incredible literary works produced every year by the other does not seem to have ameliorated much over the last thirty years.<\/p>\n

In this respect, the decision made by this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Giller jury is a courageous and important one. First, it seems that the jury is hoping to bring greater attention to works in translation. Translated works are always a hard sell for publishers, especially in the English-speaking world. In 2004, for instance, less than half of one percent of all books published in the US were in translation, a much lower rate than in the rest of the world (sadly, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have similar stats for Canada close by). The figures are higher in Canada, but one of the things that often draws potential buyers away from translations is the notion that somehow the translation is a lesser version of the original. This sentiment is so prevalent that in recent years Canadian and American publishers have publicly mused about omitting the names of the translators from the front covers of books, hoping that this will lead more readers to pick up these books and, in the process, discover how great translated works can be.<\/p>\n

If, as I suggest above, this decision is both courageous and important, it is also, as Andr\u00c3\u00a9 Alexis persuasively argues in the Globe and Mail of October 14th, unavoidably flawed. Alexis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 commentary entitled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since when can the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 English novel be written in French\u00e2\u20ac\u009d begins by highlighting the fact that both of the original versions of these two novels are deserving of recognition. Both won awards when they were published and Lederhendler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s translation of Soucy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s novel is also up for the this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Governor General\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s award in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Translation (French to English)\u00e2\u20ac\u009d category, as is a translation by Sheila Fischman. Alexis argues — and I disagree with him here — that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153taken from its original linguistic contexts, [a translation] does not have the same resonance, or the same meaning\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the original.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that a translation doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have its own unique resonances and meanings in its own language (English, in this case). For us to recognize that, though, we also have to acknowledge the artistry of the translator and this, as Alexis astutely points out, is exactly what the Scotiabank Giller Prize nominations fail to do.<\/p>\n

Alexis writes: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The members of the Giller jury, in nominating<\/span> The Perfect Circle<\/span><\/em> and<\/span> The Immaculate Conection<\/span><\/em> for this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Giller Prize have, I think, tacitly suggested that the original language of a novel is less than essential to the novel itself. At least, that seems to be what the jury is saying, in that the names of the translators [. . .] are nowhere near as prominent in the announcements\/press releases for this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Giller Prize as the names of the writers of the French originals.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The only problem I see with Alexis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 complaints is that he lays the blame for this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153great insult to the translators\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the shoulders of the jury, when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear to me that what is really at issue here is the Canadian publishing industry and the media\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continuing unease at promoting the role of literary translation in this country. The translator for them seems to be merely a vehicle for transforming a French novel into an English one, as if the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153essence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of a novel is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a story, a plot, characters\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclanguage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 play of the originals\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. If Sheila Fischman and Lazer Lederhendler were truly being recognized as artists, writers in their own right, then, as Alexis suggests, they should be receiving equal attention and an equal share of the prize money (all authors on the shortlist who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ultimately win the prize still receive $2500).<\/p>\n

Flawed as it may be, and I think Alexis is mostly dead on with his criticisms of the decision, I still think this was a positive decision by the jury. Placing works in translation alongside works in their original language should, ideally, lead us to ask these questions about translation (as Alexis has done) and to think differently about the role of the translator. In this year alone, the Giller has been more effective in getting us to consider these issues than any recent award or nomination in the translation categories of the Governor General\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Award, which recognize the importance of literary translation but also ghettoize it. More importantly, it has drawn our attention once again to the fact that many of this country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most talented writers write in French. And, without the thankless and underestimated collaborative artistry of translators like Sheila Fischman and Lazer Lederhendler we might never get the chance to read their work. A translation might not help us to understand completely \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the language and tradition\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from which the original has emerged, but it always serves to remind us that our own \u00e2\u20ac\u0153linguistic contexts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are not all that Canada has to offer.<\/p>\n

The Giller Prize will be awarded on November 7 and the Governor General\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Awards on the 21st. Watch for the special Giller Prize and GG bulletins from Northwest Passages alerting you to the winners of the awards.<\/p>\n

Works Cited
\nAlexis, Andr\u00c3\u00a9. “Since When Can the ‘Best’ English Novel Be Written in French?” The Globe and Mail October 14 2006, sec. R: 7.<\/span>
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[My editorial from this month’s Northwest Passages newsletter] Burlington, Vermont, USA (in body) Somewhere on the Canadian Prairie (in heart and mind) October 30th, 2006 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Giller and GG season again in Canada, the tenth such awards season we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen from up close since we launched Northwest Passages way back in 1996, a time when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canadian-literature","category-worldlit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulwmartin.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}