Queer in Translation

B.J. Epstein, Robert Gillett, B.J. Epstein, Robert Gillett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781472456236
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317072690
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

As the field of translation studies has developed, translators and translation scholars have become more aware of the unacknowledged ideologies inherent both in texts themselves and in the mechanisms that affect their circulation. This book both analyses the translation of queerness and applies queer thought to issues of translation. It sheds light on the manner in which heteronormative societies influence the selection, reading and translation of texts and pays attention to the means by which such heterosexism might be subverted. It considers the ways in which queerness can be repressed, ignored or made invisible in translation, and shows how translations might expose or underline the queerness – or the homophobic implications – of a given text. Balancing the theoretical with the practical, this book investigates what is culturally at stake when particular texts are translated from one culture to another, raising the question of the relationship between translation, colonialism and globalization. It also takes the insights derived from intercultural translation studies and applies them to other fields of cultural criticism. The first multi-focus, in-depth study on translating queer, translating queerly and queering translation, this book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of gender and sexuality, queer theory and queer studies, literature, film studies and translation studies.

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1 Re-mapping translation

Queerying the crossroads

Shalmalee Palekar

My chapter focuses on the nexus between translation, postcolonial and queer studies. Specifically, I shall be re-examining translation practices by foregrounding the perspectives of queer translators as well as dynamic, queer textual tactics in postcolonial (and particularly Indian) texts/contexts. Such tactics might entail ‘discovering’ or ‘exhuming’ texts considered queer in our contemporary understanding of the term; or examining how (primarily Western) queer theory is being translated and retranslated across various cultural contexts to codify a kind of globalized queerness; or of tracing how queer writing might work in repressive societies that engage in censorship.

At the same time the effects of neo/imperialism, neoliberalism and globalization should not be underestimated. Queer researchers from postcolonizing societies are increasingly wary of the ways in which US-centric ideas of what constitutes queerness are becoming tools of ‘legitimization’ and in turn, neo-imperialist control. Culturally specific literary practices and communities are often appropriated and decontextualized by researchers in search of proof of a globally legible and transparently translatable queer experience/identity. The work of postcolonial queer translators is thus crucial in crafting lexical and methodological strategies of resistance that might allow for more productive engagements with local modes of queer life. When framing/translating queer communities and cultures, then, it is unwise to reject all queer theory as an instrument of imperialistic hegemony on the basis of a crude Western/non-Western binary. Rather, it is vital to construct a hybrid queer theory which is capable of accommodating local specificities and pluralities.

Translation of queer theory/experiences and translation as identity construction

A common question facing queer translators across the postcolonial/neocolonial spectrum is the question of translating ‘global’ (read US-centric) articulations of queer identities and communities into and onto the ‘local’ subjects that concern them, without setting up simplistic binaries of foreign/native, Western/non-Western, and while also not ignoring the effects of neo-imperial and neoliberal forces. Maria Viteri’s (2008) study of the Latino LGBT community living in Washington, DC between 2004 and 2006 is a case in point. Viteri points out that

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U.S. identity categories such as ‘queer’ and ‘Latino/a’ are not stable categories but are constantly reinvented and politicized according to diverse constructions of race and sexuality where notions of ‘queer’ space (US) are blurred with narratives from the homeland. That is to say, LGBT Latinos/as’ refusal to occupy a ‘queer’ and ‘Latino’ fixed identity acts as a way to contest, negotiate and re-signify a ‘western’ (colonial, Eurocentric) ‘authority’ embodied by these scripts and labels in a translation/border crossing continuous flux. (Viteri 2008: 63)

Viteri’s idea of translation connects the concept of ‘border thinking’ with a methodological bilingualism in which all the original informant text is in Spanish followed by Viteri’s own translation of it into English. Viteri contends that this technique

provides the reader room to think in-between English and Spanish destabilizing any mechanical rendition of the texts. The notion of ‘border thinking’ constructs a concept of identity that goes beyond biological fixation, constructivist disembodiment and harmonious homogeneity. It is a space for ambiguity in constant transition that ‘translates’ the cultural baggage that seeks to define and fix it. (Viteri 2008: 67)

Queerying translation can also be seen as part of an active construction of queer identity/ies across different cultural contexts. Translators often ask the question, ‘What happens when localized representations of “camp” and “gay identity” are translated?’ In one such study, Cristiano Mazzei (2007) reads three novels originally written in Brazilian Portuguese that explore the gay-male subculture in Brazil, and examines the issues translators face in interpreting sexuality/gender subversions. He also looks at how well translators have captured the ‘campiness’ of the source texts, and analyses how queer camp responds to the process of translation. He then goes on to imagine a future for queer translation studies:

In the collaboration that I envision between translation and queer studies, and since sexual identity adds another dimension to cultural specificity, one further area of research might include how to factor our Western notions of male homosexuality and representation in translation when analyzing non-Western characterizations of same-sex desire, with questions such as ‘Can we apply the same categories of gay camp to the hijra in India or the yan daudu of Nigeria?’ (Mazzei 2007: 98)

Considering the same idea, Roland Weißegger (2011) also interrogates the degree to which translators take part in the construction of identities. Drawing on Butler’s (2006) theory that neither grammar nor style is apolitical, Weißegger debunks the ‘neutrality myth’ in translation studies, arguing strongly that translation is neither an innocent nor a powerless act. In order to textually underline the point, the author uses the term ‘oq’ as both a personal pronoun and an ‘all-purpose ending for nouns describing people’ (2011: 164) and continues: ‘By submitting to certain hegemonic discourses, translatoqs construct identities according to these hegemonic views (and possibly influence these views themselves)’ (2011: 169).

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The problem of translating the concepts of a ‘gay’ identity/community has exercised many scholars. Keith Harvey explores the theoretical and ethnographic aspects of the issue. He examines both the theoretical underpinnings of ‘queer’ and the ethnographic implications of the ‘gay community’, drawing on the work of Carol Warren (Harvey 2000: 145). One of Harvey’s key concerns is whether ‘gay writing’ suffers a ‘translation deficit’ in certain cultures (2000: 147). Drawing on his own experiences as a young gay man in Britain, reading translated versions of French authors such as Genet, Gide and Proust, Harvey contends that without access to such translations he would probably have struggled to find ‘homosexual voices’, since he was not aware of other contemporary sources of ‘gay fiction’ like that emerging in the US. He also points to the importance of these texts having a ‘canonical status’ and so gaining legitimacy or respectability for a young man coming to terms with his identity. Harvey further recounts that ‘the translated text was queer in every sense of the word, and I could use its queerness in the formative process of imagining a community above language and cultural differences’ (p. 150). And he concludes by affirming that

translated literature occupies a special place within the space of literature for gay readers in that translated texts can suggest models of otherness that can be used in processes of internal identity formation and imagined community projection. Translations can achieve this through their subject matter itself, if this presents the reader with explicit accounts of homosexual experience and struggle. (Harvey 2000: 159)

But what does ‘queer’ mean?

The problematics of the translation of specific terms and the shifts in their referents can also be implicated in the issues of appropriation and a ‘hierarchy of legitimacy’. While this is most commonly found in societies which are seen as ‘regressive’ in terms of the contemporary queer rights movements in the West, it also seems to follow a hierarchy of language use. These aspects are seen in three different studies revolving around the translation of the term ‘queer’ and by extension queer theory, across Taiwan, Finland and Canada.

Song Hwee Lim’s ‘How to be Queer in Taiwan: Translation, Appropriation and the Construction of a Queer Identity in Taiwan’, for instance, discusses the fact that one of the words for ‘queer’ in Taiwan is ku’er; coined by a ‘radical intellectual journal’ in 1994. The term has specific implications for Taiwanese queer identity. It is a compound term consisting of the Chinese characters ku (meaning ‘cruel’, ‘cold’ and also ‘very’ or ‘extremely’) and er (meaning ‘child’, ‘youngster’ or ‘son’).¹ And Lim considers the impact the translated meaning has on Taiwanese discourses of same-sex sexualities, asking the question, ‘What does queer theory teach us about Taiwan?’ (2008: 235).

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In order to answer this question, Lim first considers the early 1990s terms for same-sex sexualities in the Chinese language; then the effect of translating queer to ku’er and the politics of translation and appropriation and finally the construction of hybrid queer identities in Taiwan. He links the emergence of the term ku’er with the proliferation of popular ‘queer’ publications, and the subsequent competition between them to capture readers’ attention:

As the translation of queer as ku’er was partly occasioned by the publication of two translated novels, the introduction of a queer discourse in Taiwan may have as much to do with marketing strategies as with identity politics. I would therefore argue that this instance of translation can be appreciated within the context of competing discursive terms for same-sex sexuality in contemporary Taiwan. (Lim 2008: 239)

Lim also considers hybridity, arguing that the connotation of ‘coolness’ associated with ku’er does not translate back to queer (2008: 243). Fran Martin (2003) considers the same processes particularly in terms of how the mix of Chinese and English in Taiwan has led to a kind of ‘cultural translation’ (2003: 3) drawing on the nuances of both languages.

In the case of Finland, Joanna Mizielinksa (2006) asks questions equivalent to Lim’s: ‘how does “queer” function in the Finnish language and reality? Does it have its equivalent translation? And if it remains un-translated, what does it mean or what does it mask? How does it change when it is introduced in the Finnish context? Does it capture something in the Finnish reality that had not been noticed before? In the second part of this chapter, I will consider the American character of queer theory and to what extent it can be transposed into different cultural contexts in general, and into the Finnish context in particular’ (Mizielinksa 2006: 88).

Mizielinksa uses Finnish translations of ‘queer’ as a starting point for asking Finnish queer activists/scholars about the place of English in the queer academic movement in Finland. She finds that one of the local effects of using the English term is that it endows queer theory with an aura of safety and respectability (‘better, more sophisticated, and international’ (2006: 90)) in an academic context. Ultimately she challenges and queries the dominance of American scholarship in the queer field, asking why the US model of queer life still remains the most influential even in those European countries which far outstrip it in terms of progressive legislation regarding sexual minorities (2006: 101). Clearly then the influence of US-centric queer theory is bound up with the use of English and is seen as having a deterministic impact even in spaces that are ‘liberated’ and ‘progressive’.

Finally, Michela Baldo (2008) focuses on the translative meanings of the word ‘queer’ in the post-migratory setting of Italian-Canadian and Italian-North American women writers. She considers ‘translation as a form of displacement’ for the writers she discusses, using as examples specific Italian-Canadian texts and especially those printed in Curraggia, a literary journal founded by and for Italian women living in North America. Theorizing the journal as a space in which these women can explore their (often transgressive) identities, Baldo contends that ‘the writing of Curraggia, like Italian-Canadian writing, revolves around a cultural and linguistic translation which is fundamental in this revisiting of the concept of queer’ (2008: 43).

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On the basis of specific close textual readings of poems and stories in the journal, Baldo also coins the term ‘transqueer’ in order to explain how ‘queer and translation participate in the “narrative construction” of these women writers’ (Baldo 2008: 56). Accordingly, translation is a key theme in the journal as a whole, not just in terms of language but also in terms of experience. The miscommunication between generations, for instance, is a result of a gap in both these aspects of the women’s lives and results in a ‘constant process of translation that seeks to enable communication’.

Tracing and erasing the queer: translation as both interventionist and repressive

The above examples notwithstanding, the role of queer translators in highlighting the queer potentialities of texts is as yet under-researched but holds the potential of opening up some intriguing questions. Kieran O’Driscoll (2008) considers one such case: the translation of Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days (1873/1995) by William Butcher. O’Driscoll points out that the ‘nature of translatorial self-inscription and creativity may include an original deconstruction of a source text, indeed, a radical reinterpretation of the same’ (2008: 1). Butcher’s translation does just such a reinterpretation, taking into account Verne’s life history, the original manuscripts of the novel (before they were censored by their publisher Hetzel), as well as textual analysis. O’Driscoll examines in detail Butcher’s strategies of accentuating a sexual and at times particularly gay subtext in the novel and ultimately concludes that Butcher knowingly ‘overdid’ the homosexual references. Nonetheless, for O’Driscoll, Butcher still offers a very useful case study of the potential methodology that other queerious translators might use. He notes:

The ‘gay’ case study presented in this article has offered examples of how a translator such as William Butcher can, through the use of both his translational linguistic choices and paratextual commentary, present new and sometimes radical interpretations of a canonical work of literature. (O’Driscoll 2008: 28–9)

Conversely, the process of translation can also lead to an erasure of the queerness of both texts and authors, sometimes due to direct censorship and sometimes to the queerphobic biases of a particular translator. Deborah Giustini (2015) sets out to explore this aspect of translation with specific close attention paid to lesbian writers. Drawing on translations of Sappho’s works, Giustini illustrates how the renowned ‘lover of women’ has been retranslated into a heterosexual paradigm. In particular, the editing of the pronouns in the 1652 translation of Fragment 31 by John Hall of Durham is examined (2015: 16). She also looks at Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex) because it ‘has given rise to a good range of gender and lesbian-conscious translation criticism’. Giustini explains how translations (particularly one by Parshley) obliterate any references to a ‘taboo’ lesbian relationship (2015: 17–18).

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Giustini then tracks the beginnings of feminist translation works in English Canada in the 1980s as a direct response to the avant-garde work of Quebecker radical feminist writers in the 1970s. She traces the impetus behind these works to a ‘desire to build transcultural bridges between women’. She further maintains that the application of these practices to both heteronormative and queer texts could result in ‘productive’ examples of queer translation. She notes that while it is important to rigorously contextualize practices of oppression, queer(ying) translators can learn a lot from subversive feminist translation t...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Queer in Translation
• Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 Re-mapping Translation: Queerying the Crossroads
• 2 Queering Narratives and Narrating Queer: Colonial Queer Subjects in the Arab World
• 3 Revealing and Concealing the Masquerade of Translation and gender: Double-Crossing the Text and the Body
• 4 A Poetics of Evasion: The Queer Translations of Aleksei Apukhtin
• 5 Translation Failure in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room
• 6 Globally Queer? Taiwanese Homotextualities in Translation
• 7 Queer Translation/Translating Queer During the ‘Gay Boom’ in Japan
• 8 Gaps to Watch Out For: Alison Bechdel in German
• 9 Eradicalization: Eradicating the Queer in Children’s Literature
• 10 The Queer Story of your Conception: Translating Sexuality and Racism in Beasts of the Southern Wild
• 11 The Translation of Desire: Queering Visibility in Nathalie. . . and Chloe
• 12 Translation and the Art of Lesbian Failure in Monique Wittig’s The Lesbian Body
• 13 Queering Translation: Rethinking Gender and Sexual Politics in the Spaces Between Languages and Cultures
• Index