Retelling the Caribbean

Retelling the Caribbean examines heterolingualism in Anglophone Caribbean novels and their Finnish translations. Heterolingualism, such as various types of code-switching, is utilised by many Caribbean authors to represent the linguistic multiplicity of Caribbean cultures. Switching between different languages is a natural part of communication in Caribbean communities. Consequently, issues of language and cultural representation have become an integral part of the Caribbean literary tradition. This study is located at an intersection between the notion of intercultural translation employed in Postcolonial Studies and the notion of interlingual translation that is at the centre of Translation Studies, examining both the original novels and their Finnish translations as forms of translation. The book maps the strategies used by the Finnish translators of these heterolingual texts, comparing them to the strategies used by the authors in the representation of Caribbean language and culture in the original literary works. Through textual analysis of works spanning five decades of translated Anglophone Caribbean fiction in Finnish as well as translator interviews, the book sheds light on some of the central issues related to cultural representation in the translation of heterolingual literary works.