1st Edition
Narratives of Mistranslation Fictional Translators in Latin American Literature
This book offers unique insights into the role of the translator in today’s globalized world, exploring Latin American literature featuring translators and interpreters as protagonists in which prevailing understandings of the act of translation are challenged and upended.
The volume looks to the fictional turn as a fruitful source of critical inquiry in translation studies, showcasing the potential for recent Latin American novels and short stories in Spanish to shed light on the complex dynamics and conditions under which translators perform their task. Kripper unpacks how the study of these works reveals translation not as an activity with communication as its end goal but rather as a mediating and mediated process shaped by the unique manipulations and motivations of translators and the historical and cultural contexts in which they work. In exploring the fictional representations of translators, the book also outlines pedagogical approaches and offers discussion questions for the implementation of translators’ narratives in translation, language, and literature courses.
Narratives of Mistranslation will be of interest to scholars and educators in translation studies, especially those working in literary translation and translation pedagogy, Latin American literature, world literature, and Latin American studies.
Contents
Introduction
Rendering Translators Visible
Translation as Mistranslation
Content Overview
Pedagogical Applications
A Translator’s Note on Translation
1. Reading Fiction as Theory: The Potentialities of Mistranslation
"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" by Jorge Luis Borges
"Nota al pie" by Rodolfo Walsh
"Diary for a Story" by Julio Cortázar
In the Classroom
2. (Mis)Translation in Latin America: A Fictional History
"The Two Shores" by Carlos Fuentes
El intérprete by Néstor Ponce
The Garden Next Door by José Donoso
In the Classroom
3. Publishing Fiction(s): The Market of Translation
El traductor by Salvador Benesdra
El testamento de O’Jaral by Marcelo Cohen
In the Classroom
4. Silence Speaks Volumes: Gender Politics and Interpretation
Ambactus: (servidor) by Nadia Volonté
Include Me Out by María Sonia Cristoff
In the Classroom
5. In Search of an Original: Writing in Translation
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
Traveler of the Century by Andrés Neuman
In the Classroom
Conclusion
Biography
Denise Kripper is an associate professor of Spanish at Lake Forest College (USA) and the translation editor at Latin American Literature Today.
