Translation of Shakespeare as a tool for the advancement of South African indigenous languages: Romeo and Juliet and Peteni's Kwazidenge
Date
2016
Authors
Dyosop, Ntombenkosi
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Abstract
There are eleven official languages in South Africa. However, only two of these languages – English and Afrikaans – are dominant. It is often argued that this is because the other 9 official languages do not have enough terminology to be used in institutions of higher learning and in technical fields. I argue that the adaptation of literary texts helps in improving the status of African languages. For this purpose this research involves an analysis of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet which has been adapted into an English novel Hill of Fools by Peteni (1976) and later translated into isiXhosa as Kwazidenge (Peteni 1980).
The analysis consists of a comparison between extracts from Romeo and Juliet and Kwazidenge via Hill of Fools using Lambert and van Gorp’s (1985) practical model for textual analysis. I argue that as much as Romeo and Juliet can be seen as a difficult text because of Shakespeare’s English, Peteni was successful in adapting the play into isiXhosa.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation.
Johannesburg, 2016
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Citation
Dyosop, Ntombenkosi (2016) Translation of Shakespeare as a tool for the advancement of South African indigenous languages: Romeo and Juliet and Peteni's Kwazidenge, University of the Witwatersrand, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/22629>