Season 03 Episode 05 of the Intralingo World Lit Podcast
Max is the most delightful guest who shared much about the wide-ranging themes he wanted to convey in this story and, as an extraordinarily talented and sensitive translator, Ros offered yet another dimension to this slim but deep novel.
~Lisa
Lisa Carter
Founder & Creative Director, Intralingo Inc.
00:00:36 – Introduction
00:01:35 – Max shares what he wanted to write about: migration from Africa to Europe, Boko Haram, religion, family and LGBT issues
00:03:33 – Max’s story of leaving Cameroon
00:06:36 – Ros and Max’s collaboration
00:09:00 – The language of Camfranglais
00:12:04 – The politics of translation choices
00:14:00 – Enriched the experience for readers
00:15:25 – A place for glossaries in fiction
00:15:51 – A tip for translators and varieties of English
00:17:20 – Max’s approach to language
00:19:32 – Awareness of English as a colonizing language
00:20:53 – Examples of how Max and Ros collaborated
00:23:17 – Vibrancy of sound, color, action in this novel
00:25:15 – Cameroonian students critiqued Ros’s translation
00:26:44 – The themes at the heart of the book
00:30:55 – Max’s personal connections to the themes
00:33:30 – Cameroon today
00:36:45 – The relationship between the protagonists
00:37:08 – The Gay Book Prize in France
00:39:30 – The universal human experience
00:41:10 – The particular experience Max wanted to explore
00:44:05 – Shame, breaking free and where Max wants to go next
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THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY…
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CAMEROON - Interview with author Max Lobe and translator Ros Schwartz