La manipulation idéologique dans l’édition et deux traductions de la Description de l’Afrique de Hassan El Wazzan / Jean-Léon l’Africain
In Rome in 1526, Hassan Al-Wazzan / Ioannes Leo Africanus completed the writing of the Libro della Cosmographia Dell’Africa, a major work of the Renaissance which was seen in Europe as one of the main sources of knowledge about the African continent. In 1550, a Venetian scholar named Giovanni Batista Ramusio published an Italian version of Leo’s work in a collection of travel narratives. This edition entitled Descrizione dell’Africa (Description of Africa), however, differs considerably from Leo’s original manuscript. Ramusio made numerous changes so as to produce a text that would meet European expectations and foster an image of the Muslim world that corresponded with the preconceptions of the Christian West. This version has served as the source text for many of the translations that followed. The first French translation was by Jean Temporal in 1556, a publisher and printer based in Lyon.  A second translation was first published in 1956 and then reissued in 1980. This version by Alexis Épaulard is partly based on Leo’s original manuscript, but mainly on Ramusio’s version. This thesis compares the two French translations with Ramusio’s text. The thesis shows that the two French translators heavily intervened in the translated text in order to serve colonialist and expansionist goals. This research highlights the translators’ position as well as the ideologies conveyed by their interventions. The analysis is done at the text and the paratext levels. It also focuses on the historical, political, and ideological context surrounding these translations. Particular attention is paid to lexical choices, allusions and the strategies used by the translators and editors. The works by Maria Tymoczko on translation and political engagement, as well as the texts of Edward Said on orientalism and postcolonial studies, provide the theoretical framework for this research. The analysis shows that the French translations are tinged with a Eurocentric ideology which aims to reinforce hegemonic ambitions in Africa.
Description of Africa Leo Africanus Temporal Épaulard translation ideology