Literary Translation as a Tool for Critical Language Planning.

Abstract

This paper argues that Dev Virahsawmy, an author who manipulates literary translation for the purposes of linguistic prestige formation and re-negotiation, is a critical language-policy practitioner, as his work fills an important gap in language planning scholarship. A micro-analysis of the translation of a Shakespearean sonnet into Mauritian Creole is carried out with a view to exploring the dynamic interconnections between the macro-(social) level of language prestige and that of the micro-(text) level in relation to both the source and the target languages. This exploration proves to be not only valuable in its own right for postcolonial creolistics, but it also informs the debate on the ‘linguistic imperialism’ of English.