Translating the Generic ‘man’: A Case Study of the two German Translations of Proverbs in Achebe’s No Longer at Ease
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26512/belasinfieis.v12.n1.2023.46713Keywords:
generic man; translation; German; proverbs; No Longer at Ease.Abstract
Previous research on translation of proverbs have dealt with techniques and strategies of proverb translation and other issues, like culture and orature. However, very little has been done on the question of gender-linked translation in African proverbs and the implication of this in their transfer into another language, particularly German. This study aims at examining selected proverbs found in Achebe’s No Longer at Ease (1960) with the intent of showing how the use of the word ‘man’ in these proverbs has led to a gender-biased translation of the word in the two German target texts. The conceptual approach used is Sapir-Whorf’s theory of linguistic relativity. It was discovered that the generic word ‘man’ used by the author in the proverbs is replaced in the two target texts in German with the gender-specific word ‘ein Mann’, which makes women less visible as referents.
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