Found in translation

In Fact and Fiction: In Defense of a Border, Lavocat, a professor of comparative literature at the Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, reviews the historical controversy around fiction.

Her book clearly deals with a key concern in literature — how to distinguish fiction from fact — by demonstrating that a border exists between the two, as well as exploring the diversity, complexity and fragility of the links between the real and the imagined world, which demands a passionate defense of both fiction and reality. Lavocat takes reference from various literary traditions including Chinese.

Cao, translator of the book and a professor in the French language department of Nanjing University in Jiangsu province, says that during translation, she maintained contact with Lavocat.

The Chinese edition includes updated content the author added in response to the sweeping changes brought by new technology, such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, since the book was first published in 2016.

Cao says that since she began translating in 2003, she has noticed an increasing number of direct translations of French books into Chinese, rather than being translated from English versions, which is resulting in increased accuracy and fidelity.

Meanwhile, a growing number of diverse books have been introduced to China.

She adds that the originality of the translator, especially in flashes of linguistic inspiration surrounding the most accurate translation of a particular word or phrase, cannot be replaced by AI.

Born in the French overseas territorial collectivity of Martinique in the Caribbean, poet and playwright Cesaire was one of the co-founders of Negritude, a literary movement to restore the cultural identity of black people that began in the 1930s among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers in Paris.

He was among the first to reveal that beyond political domination, colonization had a significant impact on ways of thinking that extended far beyond colonialism itself, according to a jury statement.

Cesaire is still a little-known author in China and the translation of his Notebook of a Return to the Native Land is the first of his books published on the Chinese mainland. The translation provides readers with access to more diverse French literature, the statement adds.