Queering translation, translating the queer (Baer, Kaindl)
introduction
*What is the link between identity and language? Is there a fil rouge that unites these two words?
There surely is. Gender-related identity expresses itself through our language, if we accept to say “I
now pronounce you man and wife” we are accepting a system that identifies the husband as the
“man”, the masculine, powerful, sexualized partner vs. the role of the wife, not a woman, but just a
wife with her obligations. So questioning language is fundamental, it is a fundamental process in
order to build a different society, where roles are not defined in order to gender.
The “revolution” of queer theory introduced by De Lauretis in the 90’s helped to erase the
reification of identities, problematizing the representation of otherness. But what can queer
theory do to translation studies? First of all, queer theory challenges the dominant model, the
status quo introducing otherness. Applying a queer pespective into translation studies implies
the involvement of this otherness in translation processes. Translation is the dynamic process by
which ideas are produced and transmitted, it is a form of cultural negotiation
chapter 1 - sexuality and translation as intimate partners? Towards a queer turn in
rewriting identities and desires (José Santaemilia)
Inserito in paper 2 mid term exam
What happens when sexuality is translated? What is the role of translation in mediating the
construction of sexuality? How do sexual-related terms travel trough languages? Does our biology,
sexuality and gender lead us to translate differently?
The translation of sexuality vs. the sex/ualization of translation: the most common view is the
1st, we translate sexuality. Translating the language of sex and pleasure is not a neutral affair,
but a political act. Translation and sexuality can together form a powerful interdiscipline capable of
unveiling the most intimate textualizations of our identities and desires for queering translation, it
demands critical attention to the transgressive, anti-normative spaces. A queer turn in translation
studies occurs when we link sexuality with translation. Both categories have to be treated more
critically.
Let’s analyze the translation of erotic literature: it’s the most ancient and sustained manifestation
of sexuality in language. Example: the book las edades de Lulù (1989) by Spanish writer
Almudena Grandes, an explicit erotic text. An analysis of the 1992 English translation of the book
made by Sonia soto, the ages of Lulù, reveals the contradictions involved in the translation of
explicit sexuality:
“Estaba caliente, cachonda en el sentido cl.sico del t.rmino.” (1989: 54)
[I was hot, horny/randy in the classical sense of the term]
“I was hot, turned on in the true sense of the word” (1992: 36)
The English version proves less physical, less colloquial. the English translation has transformed a
bold text about the limits of women’s desire into a somewhat desexualized and sanitized one.
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Another popular topic is the study of censorship and self-censorship in translation. Censorship is
understood as an external constraint on what we can publish or (re)write. By contrast, self-
censorship is an individual moral/ethical struggle between the individual and society. In all
historical circumstances, translators tend to censor themselves.
In this case it is remarkable the work of Delia Chiaro (2007) on the Italian translation of
references to sex and sexuality in the tv series sex and the city. She asserts that the sexual
language in foreign tv series is severely mitigated or even omitted.
For example, references to the male sexual organ (from “penis” to “dick” and even “cock”) are
usually toned down to the childlike term uccello [“bird”], whereas terms for the female sexual organ
(“pussy” or “cunt”) are again mitigated into patatina [“little potato”] or fica [“fig”]. Similarly,
“fuck,” in the sense of sexual intercourse, is rendered as either scopare [“screw”] or farlo [“do it”],
or it is simply deleted.
*why does it happen? Why does sexual discourse conducted by females tend to be mitigated or
omitted? Because there’s a cultural issue: women are not allowed to speak explicitly about sex,
or worse, they are not allowed to speak about how they enjoy having sex. For this, thus, in a
dominant model, translation cannot reflect desire trough language.
Both translation and sexuality are intimate partners, they are heavily rooted in history and
society, with conceptual boundaries and revolutionary potential, they both offer a privileged view
into our inner selves.
chapter 4 - the future is a foreign country. Translation and temporal critique in the
italian it gets better project (Serena Bassi)
It gets better is a campaing raised to spread the message of no matter how much you may have
suffered of homophobia, it gets better. The slogan involves lgbtq people to upload a personal video
on YouTube, telling a personal past hurtful story through a happier present. There has been
produced 15 foreign versions of the it gets better project. This chapter analyzes the italian version of
the project in order to extend our definitions of localization. The it gets better message has to be
tailored to local culture and need. The italian affiliate YouTube channel is entitled le cose cambiano,
changing the idea of improvement (better) with the idea of time and change (cambiano).
self knowledge, localization and capitalism’s pursuit of equivalence:
Queer critique engages sexuality as a modern discursive formation. But the most insidious problem
caused by an anglo-centric monolingualism of queer studies is an epistemological one.
(Localization: Nella scienza della traduzione, la localizzazione – di indole semiotico-linguistica – è
un processo di adattamento culturale di un prodotto, dispositivo o testo (in genere, la traduzione di
un sito web o software), volto a renderlo fruibile dai parlanti di una data nazione (specie in vista
delle locali differenze sociali e comunicative[1]). The asymmetry and lack of semantic
correspondence in linguistic system means that dreams and designs of semantic equivalence can
never come true. A queer-localization has to be taken into account.
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chapter 11 - on three modes of translating queer literary texts (Marc Démont)
There are three strategies of translating queer literary texts:
The misercognizing translation, that ignores queerness;
The minoritizing translation, that reduce queer connotative power to superficiality;
The queering translation.
Misrecognizing translations
In 1912 Alvaro Armando Vasseur published poemas, a translation of poems by Walt Whitman
dedicated to love between men, but this translation misrecognizes or fails to recognize homosexual
desire. The translation of “lover” by “camarada” diluites the sticky thickness of homosexual affects
in the innocence of a watery bromance. Vasseur misrecognizes Whitman’s queer sexuality.
Minoritizing translations
It could be said to be primarily interested in denotation, in finding strict equivalences between one
word and another, even if the text’s queerness may suffer in this process. Minoritizing translations
often serve the goal of an identity politics at the expense of queerness.
Queer translations
This is another mode opposed to the misrecognizing and minoritizing modes. The queering
translation focuses on acknowledging the disruptive force of a text recreating in in the target
language. In this process there are involved 2 types of queering practice: the critique of the work of
suppression or assimination of the previous translation(s) in order to expose the source text’s
specific manifestation of queerness and the recreation in the target language of the queerness of the
text.
chapter 12 - queering lexicography. Balancing power relations in dictionaries (Eva
nossem)
We often analyze translation starting from the word choices, but almost never we question the word
itself. Does each word’s meaning have an innate innocent? Here is important the role of
lexicographers, the creators of dictionaries, they are producers of authoritative sources of cultural
and linguistic knowledge. Therefore lexicography, just like translation, is never an innocent activity.
Lexicographer participate in the powerful acts that create knowledge and shape culture. As observed
in nossem (2005) “queering lexicography” can sound like an oxymoron, because queer is by
definition whatever is the norm and the dominant while lexicography deals with the norms, defines
linguistic norms with dictionaries. However a queer lexicographical analysis is not impossible.
The binarism of right and wrong promoted in heteronormative discourse is questioned by queering
lexicography, activity by which we expose ne unnaturalness of norms to reveal the dominant
discourses of heteronormativity within the final product, the dictionary itself.
Futhermore, the dictionaries assume the special role of an expert, a trustworthy authority. A
dictionary fulfills a special role in creating and transmitting linguistic and cultural knowledge,
becoming itself an authoritative cultural product. Further information regarding the function and
content of a dictionary can be found in the introduction.
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*is a dictionary objective? How can it be? Is there a difference between a monolingual or a
bilingual dictionary?
in a dictionary we have the perception of its objectivity. In the 1980’s the very idea of objectivity
was criticized by feminist thinkers. Donna haraway in situated knowledges describes objectivity as
a “conquering gaze from nowhere”(haraway 1988: 582). Under the facade of objectivity lies
nothing but a privileged perspective, more or less internalized, or dominant discourse in the
foucaldian sense. Foucault also denies the existence of an absolute truth, he claims that certain
truths exist because they are imposed and constructed by a dominant power structure (cf nossem
2015:114). Objectivity and absolute truth are nothing but illusions promoted by norms.
Lexicographical decision in monolingual dictionary making: the first step in making a
dictionary is the collection of words in an initial corpus, often relying on previous works. This
increase the risk of fossilization of previous ideas and words. We reproduce and strenghten previous
values and norms, excluding new developments. We confer authority to certain sources excluding
others.
After creating the corpus there is the formation of lemmas: words that are neutral, non derived, in
its basic form. The choice of lemmas is crucial, because lexicographer decides which word exists
and which word doesn’t. In this step, lexicographers in languages with flectional adjectives and
nouns usually pick the singular masculine form, reiterating a norm that is not frequently questioned.
In a queer perspective, this choice appears as heavily determined from the outside (heteroregulated).
This reinforces the dominant discourse in society, which privileges masculine forms and male
perspective.
Then there is the definition of the lemma, from a one-word definition to pages of explanation. The
meaning of the word is fundamental, if a word is marked as vulgar or obscene then it will be
condemned and excluded from use in many communicative situations.
Lexicographical decision in interlingual dictionary making: the same things said about
monolingual dictionary can be said in interlingual dictionary. Interlingual dictionary lexicographer
has also the power to place source and target words in a relationship to establish equivalence. Is this
equivalence a copy? Walter benjamin cannot be more against it: he spoke about translation as an
echo more than a copy, and he describes the task of translator as ““aiming at that single spot where
the echo is able to give, in its own language, the reverberation of the original work in the alien one”
(Benjamin 1996: 258–259).
In this sense, translation is a queer praxis (spurlin 2014: 204). So interlingual lexicography, like
translation, participates in the distribution of cultural capital among language. So in interlingual
lexicography there are combined the power of lexicography and the power of translation.
Queer(ing) lexicography contributes to detecting structures of power and of heteronormative
discourses in order to make them visible and raise awareness of their existence, a necessary first
step in challenging them. The fact that the dictionary represents such a highly influential work with
the power to reinforce and strengthen heteronormative discourses, but also to weaken and dismantle
them makes this an especially urgent task.
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chapter 13 - queer translation as performative and affective un-doing. Translating
butler’s undoing gender into italian (Michela baldo)
Federico zappino translated ‘undoing gender’ with ‘fare e disfare il genere’, retranslating a previous
italian translation of the same work called ‘la disfatta del genere’, suggesting a hypothetical defeat
instead of the concept of renegotiation, doing and undoing. It is more appropriate to use two terms
(fare e disfare) instead of disfatta, the defeat.
In his translation zappino caught the real intention of butler’s work: Butler tried to clarify that
gender performativity did not refer to one’s choice of performing gender as one’s likes, but rather to
mimicking or imitating the dominant conventions of gender imposed by the heteropatriarchal
system in which one lives. Butler had already emphasized the power of discourse in forming the
matter of bodies, sex, sexuality, and gender. The main aim of Undoing Gender is not to undo
previous misinterpretations of Butler’s work but rather, as stated earlier, to undo—or to talk about
how to undo—restrictive social norms regarding gender and sexuality.
Translation, performance and performativity
The last two decades of translation studies have conceptualized translation as a creative activity.
Translation is no longer seen in traditional terms as a reproductive and derivative activity, a copy of
an original discourse, but as a creative operation, authorial in its own terms. Translation is
performative as it is a constant doing and undoing, it is a dialogic activity that cannot avoid some
sort of fictional or dactual relationship with an ‘other’ (a source text, a source image, etc.).
translation is a transformative activity as it positions itself in a critical relation to power and plays
a primary role in processes of social transformation.
Authorship, performativity, and affect in fare e disfare il genere
Translation creates new authorships. Basile (2005: 2) discusses the notion of affect when talking
about the translator’s affective engagement with the source text, stressing concepts such as desire
and the role of the unconscious in the translator’s labor. Her emphasis is on psychoanalysis, on the
question of the acceptance of the otherness of the unconscious and on the driving force of desire
and the unconscious, their performative role, we could add, in the production of translations.
Affect, which has not yet been systematically theorized in translation studies, is a fundamental
element for understanding the peculiarities of activist translation, especially in queer activist
movements with their emphasis on the body/embodiment. Given these premises, translation as an
encounter between texts and bodies becomes a space of doing and undoing, that is to say a
performative space, which exposes those who occupy it to constant decomposition and
recomposition. Affect is thus a driving force.
Translation as a precarious space
A retranslation of Butler such as Fare e disfare il genere is motivated by the target culture’s need to
retell a story in order to tackle current debates centered around the concept of gender. The Italian
retranslation not only situates itself within the debate on “teoria del gender” but also produces other
debates It reveals and realizes the potentiality of Butler’s Work. As Zappino says, “gender, by being
constantly done and undone by language, relationships, norms, is the place of a permanent crisis
and precariousness” (2014: 355). Theorizing translation as a precarious space of interdependence
and of performative and affective undoings, especially for queer activist translators, for whom
gender and sexuality are already precarious places, should also make us reflect on how to reassign
symbolic and material value to such important labor.
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chapter 14 - years yet yesterday. Translating art, activism, and AIDS across the visual
and the verbal (mark Addison smith)
Introduction: semantic shift and queering language
Words are made up by signs and signifiers. AIDS is a sequence of letters that signifies a death
sentence or a treatable illness, a moment of activism etc. the word itself is harmless, but time and
social context gives a meaning and a perspective.
1916, Saussure course in general linguistics: “As [language] is a product of both the social force
and time, no one can change anything in it, and on the other hand, the arbitrariness of its signs
theoretically entails the freedom of establishing just any relationship between phonetic substance
and ideas” (Saussure 2011: 76). A word’s meaning is initially bound by the historical context in
which it originates but, ultimately, subject to interpretation.
Years Yet Yesterday is a 2014 abecedary of 24 drawings, rooted in queer activism and completed to
mark the ten-year anniversary of playwright and activist Larry Kramer’s 2004 speech, The Tragedy
of Today’s Gays. Here, language from Kramer’s unequivocal speech becomes translated into
nuanced eye charts to explore a decade of queer representation and power (mis)alignments amid the
escalating AIDS pandemic. Each panel of the abecedary is dedicated to a letter in the alphabet, and
drawn using three words.
Agitprop art defines the AIDS crisis
Agit-Prop era il nome con il quale veniva chiamato il Dipartimento per l'agitazione e la propaganda
del Comitato centrale e dei Comitati territoriali del Partito Comunista dell'Unione Sovietica, in
seguito rinominato "Dipartimento ideologico”.
The AIDS pandemic first emerged as a bifurcated crisis born in visual and verbal text. We have a
need to talk about sex, and AIDS—a disease commonly acquired through unprotected sexual
activity—falls under this discussion. Visual art provides an outlet for reversing marginalization by
rattling a community and reverberating voices across a multitude of communication modes. The
AIDS crisis, born out of sensationalistic journal articles, indecipherable medical terms, polarizing
anagrams, and aggressive protest signs, becomes a logical impetus for text-based art.
Translating a duality between voices and seeings
Larry Kramer challenges his audience, using matter-of-fact speech and dueling binaries outlined in
The Tragedy of Today’s Gays, to consider the AIDS crisis in a blurry, bifurcated context. In terms of
clarity, Kramer first blames the escalating AIDS crisis on the gay community’s inability to listen.
gay men are not acknowledging and protecting their history, but, instead, are perpetuating their own
demise by willingly and continuously consenting to drug abuse and unprotected sex. Kramer,
second, attacks a right-wing totalitarian that has gained privatized control over industry, politics,
healthcare, and media, and has subverted power over a diminishing gay culture and community.
Kramer states, “HIV allows them to sell us as sick. a total of 72 words were selected for my Years
Yet Yesterday abecedary from over 9,000 words spoken by Larry Kramer.
The complete Years Yet Yesterday abecedary consists of 24 works on paper. with each drawing
dedicated to a letter from the alphabet and limited to three words sharing that same letter. Within
The Tragedy of Today’s Gays, Larry Kramer is using his spoken words to challenge us to see. As
artistic translator within my Years Yet Yesterday abecedary, I want the audience to perceive binary
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difference between coupled phrases and coupled shades of gray in order to discern dueling
questions—but no visible answers—regarding the past decade of the AIDS crisis.
Jakobson’s verbal-translation modes as visual-art tools
The literal circularity within each drawing’s colorblind chart formation is conceptually deepened
through the definition of intralingual translation, which has direct roots in circumlocution, a
translation mode that encircles specific meaning with a syntactical shifting of word order and
tangential questions rather than singular, linear answers (Jakobson 1959: 233). In what Roman
Jakobson refers to as intralingual translation, or rewording as applied here, the Years Yet Yesterday
series partially functions by communicating antithetical statements about the past decade of the
AIDS crisis depending on the reading order within each drawing’s three words.
For example, within the M drawing, M—Miraculous Meds Maybe can also be syntactically
rearranged as Maybe Meds Miraculous. The first translation, Miraculous Meds Maybe, places
emphasis and responsibility upon the health care industry. The second translation, Maybe Meds
Miraculous, places emphasis upon the medicine itself as a divine pill to eradicate symptoms.
Y—Years Yet Yesterday, restructured as Yesterday Yet Years, speaks to the urgency of time depicted
within this series: a decade of reflection or the passage of a day—and life—in the blink-of-an-eye.
Sharing the title for the complete abecedary of 24 time-based drawings, Years Yet Yesterday
provides a not-sosubtle reminder that the AIDS crisis is far from over.
Saussure asserts that linguistic meaning is rooted in arbitrary connections between the signifier and
that which is signified. Saussure might argue that my (smith) 72 chosen words become arbitrary
only in the manner in which the viewer chooses to connect them. Viewers may choose to
syntactically arrange each individual drawing’s three words in any order to derive dueling meaning.
Or, viewers may extract words from multiple drawings in an effort to draw associations across the
entire series.
Conclusion: audience reception and perception
At the core of Larry Kramer’s speech is a wakeup call for community engagement and AIDS
activism. No two words better embody this call-toaction than I and you, the two words most
frequently spoken by Kramer in The Tragedy of Today’s Gays. In turn, each drawing becomes a
multimodal translation of this controlled verbal behavior in which Kramer is, literally and
figuratively, dying to be heard and won’t stop talking until change happens.
I (smith) view my collective set of 24 Years Yet Yesterday drawings as a testimony to and extension
of Kramer’s tireless advocacy: his hope, coupled with my translation, that more voices—in addition
to his—will call out, reverberate beyond the linearity of his speech, and incite nonlinear activism
within the gay community. As such, my ultimate intent for the Years Yet Yesterday abecedary is to
harness the language of visual arts—one that transcends syntactical linguistic arrangement and
relies upon intralingual and intersemiotic translation modes in order to spark an open-forum
discourse between the individual viewer and a larger community regarding our role within the AIDS
pandemic—yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
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