How can two populations talk to each other across the divide of language? Montreal writer David Homel talks about his experience translating Quebecois French literature and if he thinks translation may help the "two solitudes" of anglophone and francophone Canada come together. We get into David's role as a journalist and "translating" Quebec culture for audiences in France too and how he found himself in the middle of a polemic. We also consider other cultural groups he has translated, like the Haitian-Canadian Dany Laferrière, writing across gender, and contemporary Quebec divergences in francophone and anglophone writers. As the Quebec ruling party, the CAQ, continues to criticize the English and immigrant communities to the French-speaking majority, what can bridge these different worlds and help us find belonging with folks often living right next door?
David Homel is two-time winner of the Governor General prize for translation and teaches translation at Concordia University.
Works mentioned: Mapping Literature: the Art and Politics of Translation (1988); "La littérature québécoise n'est pas un produit d'exportation" (2006).
David recommends... The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar.
Photo credit: Marina Vulicevic.
