Author:

Abstract:

In his final nonfiction book The Evidence of Things Not Seen, James Baldwin wrote that "it is no longer necessary—and, very shortly, will no longer be possible—for Blacks to define themselves merely in opposition to the European vocabulary. This vocabulary, precisely to the extent that it cannot encompass the Black experience, fails to confront, still less translate the White experience, and the Black experience lives outside this language, and in spite of it." (43) Much of Baldwin’s oeuvre was concerned with ventriloquizing and identifying both the Black and white experience in the US, which has partly informed his re-consecration—after several decades of relative neglect—as a major world literary figure in the twenty-first century. Especially since the release of Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, translations of Baldwin’s work have seen a marked increase in circulation across key European markets (Verdickt 209-211). However, the literal “European vocabulary” of these translations at times undermines or even stands in direct opposition to Baldwin’s rhetoric and message. In this paper, I will discuss the past and present translation strategies of several European language markets pertaining to Baldwin’s use of racial terms—his rhetorical mobilizations of the N-word and the American term ‘Negro’ in particular. I will focus on the (lack of) developments within the Dutch, German, and French context, but will also briefly include Scandinavian, Hungarian, and Italian examples.