e-ISSN: 2695-8465
ISSN: 2255-3703
137
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Translating gender ambiguity in literatura: The case
of Written on the Body
Daniel Herencia Aguilar
Universidad de Córdoba
l52heagd@uco.es
Recibido: 19.01.2023
Revisado: 22.01.2023
Aceptado: 31.01.2023
Abstract: The present work analyzes the difficulties resulting from the absence of
gender marks in English when translating towards Spanish. To do so, the novel
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson – a masterpiece in which the identity of
the leading character will be kept in strict ambiguity – would be studied taking into
consideration aspects connected to the feminist and queer theories. Several extracts
from both the original text and the translation by Encarna Gómez Castejón in 1988
will be exhaustively compared to evaluate the correctness and naturality of the
translation. Additionally, if considered necessary, an alternative translation will be
proposed.
Keywords: gender translation, Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body, Escrito en
el cuerpo
La traducción de la ambigüedad de género en la literatura: el caso
de Written on the Body
Resumen: El presente trabajo analiza las dificultades que supone la ausencia de
marcas de género en la lengua inglesa a la hora de realizar una traducción hacia el
español. Para este fin, se empleará como objeto de estudio la novela Written on the
Body de Jeanette Winterson, obra en la cual se conserva deliberadamente la
identidad del personaje principal en la más estricta ambigüedad. En primer lugar, se
realizará una exhaustiva comparativa de diversos extractos entre el original y la
traducción realizada por Encarna Gómez Castejón en 1988 y, posteriormente, si se
considerase necesario, se propondrá una traducción alternativa de los mismos. Para
lograr todo lo anterior, se tendrán en consideración algunos aspectos ligados a las
teorías traductológicas feministas y queer.
Palabras clave: traducción y género, Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body,
Escrito en el cuerpo.
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Contents: 1. The autor: Jeanette Winterson. 1.1. Written on the Body. 2. The translator:
Encarna Gómez Castejón. 3. Gender translation. 4. Linguistics and translation analysis of
Written on the Body. 4.1. Alternative strategies. 5. Conclusions.
1. The author: Jeanette Winterson
Since the practice of a proper literary translation would be impossible
without previous in-depth documentation about the original writer and their
work, it has been deemed vital to present to the readers a succinct summary
of the biography and the literary tendencies followed by Winterson. Similarly,
for those who have not had the pleasure of enjoying the reading of Written
on the Body, the most essential aspects of the plot and the writing of this
masterpiece are presented concisely.
Jeanette Winterson, one of the most prominent and controversial
writers in the contemporary British panorama, was born in Manchester in
1959. As described in her memoirs Why Be Happy When You Could Be
Normal?, she was given in adoption to a highly religious middle-class
couple, John and Constance, from Accrington, a city in Lancashire County.
Despite her adoptive family’s desires, who intended for her to become a
missionary for the Pentecostal Church, Winterson received secular
schooling which greatly deviated from the biblical education that was
conceived apt for her. Furthermore, to illustrate her adoptive family’s
doctrinal obsession, Onega (2006: 4) has pinpointed that they only
possessed six books, out of which half of them were copies of religious
content. Nonetheless, thanks to learning the English language at school and
reading the scarce non-religious novels at home, the young Winterson
experienced her first approach to creative literature.
However, things truly fell apart when Winterson turned sixteen. On the
one hand, the author ascertained that John and Constance were, in fact, not
her real parents. On the other hand, her adoptive family discovered she had
intercourse with another woman, and thus they and the community they
belonged to repudiated her. As a result, she moved with her English teacher,
who helped her persevere in the study of language and literature, and
worked different jobs to earn a living. As explained by Asensio (2003: 19),
these events, even if excruciatingly painful, would cement some of the most
recurrent topics in her future novels, such as love, religion, women and the
pursual of identity.
Fortunately for her, her linguistic capabilities were unquestionable and
she managed to enroll in English Language and Literature at Oxford, where
she studied from 1978 to 1981. These years meant a milestone in her career
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since not only did she have the opportunity to get familiarized with English
literary traditions, but also found inspiration amongst some of the creations
of Woolf, Eliot, Joyce and Yeats.
Once graduated, she moved to London and worked in different jobs
connected to advertising and journalism for brief periods until she was
offered the chance to work in the Roundhouse Theater. The constant flow of
creativity and her eagerness to express her view of the world led Winterson
to apply to one of the most flourishing feminist publishing houses of the end
of the century: Pandora. Even though she was not hired, she was
encouraged to persist in her dream of becoming a writer by the editor-in-
chief, Philippa Brewster. Merely two months after this initial interview,
Brewster published Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (1985), the first
wintersonian novel. According to Onega (2006: 5), this masterpiece acquired
such success that it was awarded the Whitbread Book Award for First Novel
and it was quickly adapted to the silver screen in 1990. Therefore, both
occurrences, and many others, could be used as a testimony of the warm
welcome that the author received from the public and the critics.
Many other narrations followed Oranges, although not all of them had
the same reception among the public and literary critics. A case in point
would be Boating for Beginners (1985), which not only was ignored by the
vast majority of readers but also failed to be included in Winterson’s
webpage as one of her books. his exception being mentioned, the following
novels she published kept the initial momentum, namely The Passion (1987)
and Sexing The Cherry (1990), and consecrated her as an eminence in
contemporary literary production in Great Britain. The aforementioned texts
were also considered deserving of prizes, specifically the John Llewelyn
Rhys Prize awarded to the former and the E. M. Forster Award given to the
latter. Additionally, both of them are considered the introduction of Winterson
to the international market thanks to their translation and commercialization.
Nevertheless, the 90s would mean the start of a much more obscure
and turbulent era for Winterson. The downfall of such a beloved and
renowned author began with the publication of Written on The Body (1992),
a novel she claimed to be her best so far. Unfortunately, this opinion was not
shared by many readers and critics, despite maintaining the same level of
quality in her pieces. In fact, some of the experts who had previously praised
her work became her main detractors. It did not help either that during these
years she was depicted as a conflictive and controversial character in the
media due to alleged sexual scandals and certain misbehavior. Likewise,
other works which did not receive the appreciation they should have include
Art & Lies (1994), Gut Symmetries (1997) and The World and Other Places
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(1998), as well as the essay collection Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and
Effrontery (1995).
The arrival of the new century also involved a new opportunity for
Winterson. After retiring to Spitalfields to avoid the media spotlight, she
published one of her most emblematic novels: The Powerbook (2000). Since
then, her work has remained stable and continuous with novels such as
Lighthousekeeping (2005), Weight (2006), Why Be Happy When You Could
Be Normal? (2011), Frankissstein (2019), 12 Bytes (2021), amongst many
others. Also, it should be highlighted that she has experimented with other
literary genres such as short stories for children or movie scripts and that
she has been tutoring the MA Creative Writing at the University of
Manchester since 2013.
Considering all this, Andermahr (2007:1) captures the essence of her
work and summarizes all her efforts in a very appropriate metaphor:
The reception of Winterson’s work in the print could be represented, in
appropriately Wintersonian terms, as a protracted love story: it began in
the mid-1980s on the publication of her first novel with a coup de foudre,
an instantaneous falling in love, and was followed by a lengthy
honeymoon period throughout the 1980s. Then, in the early 1990s, the
relationship hit the buffers and became, notwithstanding a few voices of
support, an affair of increased mutual disillusionment and recrimination
throughout the 1990s. In the 2000s, some of the magic returned and by
2004 […] the relationship between Winterson and her critical readers
appeared to be finally back in track.
Before ending this brief contextualization about the studied author, it
appears necessary to mention the existing disagreements regarding the
association of the writer to a specific literary movement or ideology. This
categorization becomes more challenging since, as Pykett (1998:53)
indicates, Winterson herself has denied any sort of label referred to her
work.
Firstly, there are opposing opinions on whether the author belongs to
Modernism or Postmodernism, given that her works do present
characteristics associated with both currents. According to Andermahr
(2009:16-19), on the one hand, “Winterson is clearly a modernist in the
sense that not only is she an experimenter with fictional forms, but she views
art as an ultimate value”. On the other hand, “she is also indubitably a
postmodernist engaged in a playful and parodic rescripting of popular and
canonical genres, and in the construction of reality as precisely an intricate
web of fictional worlds”. As a result, despite Winterson confessing to being
inspired by late modernist authors, literary critics highlight her postmodernist
metanarratives which focus on groups of people who have traditionally been
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misrepresented or underrepresented in literature. Another point that is
frequently used to support her pertinence to the postmodernist elite is the
exploration of the deconstruction of opposed situations, for example,
masculinity and femininity.
In a similar vein, Winterson tends to be associated with feminist and
lesbian or queer writing. It is undeniable that within her works a wide range
of sexual orientations and gender identities are represented, combined with
noticeable independence from men and denaturalization of heterosexuality
and patriarchy, all of which could be associated either with the second and
third wave of feminism or with LGBTQI+ rights. One interesting opinion is
found in Doan (1994: 153), who advocates that the feminist and queer
wintersonian spirit can be observed through the deconstruction of traditional
binarisms and the creation of fluid and dynamic spaces to express sexual
and gender plurality. Similarly, Morera (2014: 260) defines Winterson as a
lesbian writer together with Marilyn French, Sarah Waters or Emma
Donoghue, given the discovery of their homosexuality in what she
denominates “coming out novels”.
1.1. Written on the Body
As it was previously mentioned, Written on the Body was published in
1992 and it has been marked by several critics as the starting point of the
wintersonian “dark years”. This novel narrates the story of an unnamed and
undescribed leading character and narrative voice, focusing on sexual
intercourse and the development of relationships. And, even though the
reason the book was initially criticized was the lack of characterization, it is
precisely the inexistence of a limited portrayal of the main character which
has attracted the attention of many researchers. For instance, in the field of
translation, experts have discussed viable techniques to represent the said
character in languages that require the usage of grammatical genders, such
as Italian.
All this being explained, in the present section, the plot will be
summarized and the most relevant aspects of the work will be highlighted.
Additionally, given the lack of a defined gender, it must be clarified that the
pronoun “they” will be used throughout the document to avoid misgendering
the protagonist.
The first pages of the book are focused on the early relationships the
main character forged with different women, which tended not to be long-
lasting given that the central character felt an attraction to married women
who would soon repent from their adultery. It is a period when emotions
were not as relevant when the character merely sought sexual satisfaction.
Although, because of the fear of dying alone, the narrator meets Jacqueline
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and tries to foster a stable relationship even if there was no sexual attraction
whatsoever. The couple lives a period of a mundane routine negatively
affected by monotony until they both meet Louise, an outstanding woman
who, despite being married to Elgin, arouses the leading character. After
overcoming several obstacles, Louise and the protagonist build a fairytale-
like relationship that once more did not endure due to Louise being
diagnosed with leukemia. Knowing this, the main character leaves Louise
and abandons the city, hoping she would return to Elgin, who had a better
chance of treating her. Once again alone, the hero becomes obsessed with
medical treaties and research and tries to reconstruct the sickly body of their
lover through poems. In the end, the leading character realizes that it was
not as heroic as they thought to leave Louise and so they return to find her.
Unfortunately, they do not achieve their quest and return home defeated
while recalling other ex-partners who they failed, both male and female.
Once back home, it seems that the main character finds Louise there
waiting, but the reader cannot be certain that this happened.
According to the critics, the central section is the most conspicuous,
given that the leading character analyzes anatomically and poetically the
body of the lover to understand her suffering. To a certain extent, the writer
implies that women’s bodies are texts that can be read, written, interpreted,
translated, etc. What is more, these pages become a compendium in which
the female body is praised and in which traditional views that conceive it as
a mere object are deconstructed. According to Front (2009:66), “the desire
to decipher the partner’s body, to anatomize that territory is an attempt to
understand the lover through learning about their past and their identity”. As
a result, the author achieves a new usage of language that reinvents the
conception of romance as a genre and as a life experience.
Nonetheless, for the present study, the most relevant attribute would
be the creation and inclusion of a supposedly bisexual narrator who is
lacking any clear assignation of gender. Winterson enhances this experience
by purposely keeping to the bare minimum the details concerning the
physical or psychological attributes of the said character while inserting
extremely sexed stereotypes. Even so, despite all her efforts, when most
professionals have tackled the issue, they have forcefully attributed a gender
to the character, usually leaning to the feminine side of the spectrum. This
ascription may be a direct result of the influence of the writer herself, a
lesbian who publicly has criticized patriarchy and who usually incorporates
some autobiographical elements into her works. Contrarily, other experts
have affirmed that it may be the case of either a bisexual or a closeted
homosexual male pretending to be heterosexual, due to the presence of
some attitudes that tend to be associated with toxic masculinity, such as
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domestic violence. According to Makinen (2005:121), “on closer inspection,
it is the stereotypes about femininity that are challenged directly, while
masculine attitudes and masks, such as hard-boiled insouciance, are more
humorously invoked”. Considering all this, the confusion that this ambiguity
generates creates the perfect scenario to question the classical conceptions
of masculinity and femininity, gender and sexuality.
The last characteristic worth mentioning consists in the inclusion of
feminist and queer values in the narration, thanks to which the ruling
heteropatriarchy of the epoch is denounced. Onega (2006:114) assures that,
as it is stated in the title, “Written on the Body is a self-conscious experiment
in écriture féminine, carried out by an autodiegetic author-narrator, whose
aim […] is no longer self-discovery, but rather self-construction”. Similarly,
the non-gendered narrator would emerge as a crucial element when
challenging the strict categories of sex, sexuality and gender, plus it allowed
marginalized or ignored bodies to be represented in literature in the blank
space of the leading character. In this sense, the contribution of Bradway
(2015:186) attracts attention, because instead of spotlighting the lack of
traits as many others, places the focus on the multiplicity of possibilities:
By not “tell[ing] the whole story,” Winterson forces readers to interpellate
the “true” identity of the narrator’s body. This formal conceit underscores
that the body has no essential identity—it is an “accumulation” of signs,
of cultural inscriptions that encode the body like a palimpsest. For this
reason, critics have read Written on the Body as a paradigmatic text of
contemporary queer fiction.
All things being considered, it should appear evident to any expert in
the translation field that the translation of such a text is no easy task. Not
only does it intertwine concepts linked to the feminist and queer movements
that need to be preserved, but also, depending on the language
combination, the transfer of English nouns and adjectives should retain both
the original meaning and the characteristic ambiguity.
2. The translator: Encarna Gómez Castejón
If something cannot be denied about the translation profession is that
the professionals within this field tend to be overshadowed. However, to
challenge oblivion and to provide further context on the translation process,
it has been considered convenient to include some information on the
background of the translator in the present research.
Unfortunately, as a result of the aforementioned overshadowing, not
much information can be found about Encarna Gómez Castejón, the
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translator who was assigned the transfer of Written on The Body into the
Spanish language. According to her webpage
1
, she is a Spanish critic,
editor, writer and translator who graduated in Philosophy and Psychology
from the University of Murcia. During her career, she has balanced her
translator duties with several other positions, such as editor-in-chief in El
Urogallo, screenwriter in Señas de identidad and literary critic in several
newspapers. Her translations include an extensive list of French writers,
including Paul Valéry, Michel Tournier, Jean Frémon, Emile Zola, Michel
Houellebecq and Pascal Quignard, among others. Nevertheless, her
aforementioned webpage fails to mention her efforts regarding other
languages, despite the inclusion of an image of a singular English novel,
namely Written on The Body. Despite this, thanks to her careful work she
has been nominated for some awards, like the “Premio Nacional de
Traducción” for El vagabundo inmóvil and the “Premio Interallié” for
Windows on the World, and has been chosen “Best Translation of the Year”
by the readers of the magazine Qué leer for Las partículas elementales.
3. Gender translation
In the following theoretical section, a sufficient explanation will be
provided about the challenges that the translation of gender ambiguity
entails and the possible resources the translator possesses to overcome
those difficulties. Also, even though they are not the basis of the present
study, a few broad brushstrokes will be added regarding notions about
feminist translation and queer translation, since, as has been previously
mentioned, the aim of the author was none other than subverting some of
the canonical ideas of sexuality and gender defended by heteropatriarchy
and both ideologies could be easily integrated into the conversation on
gender.
The concept of gender translation is intrinsically connected to the
feminist movement, concretely to the feminist translation that was developed
in Quebec during the 80s and 90s by experimentalist writers, such as
Bersianik or Brossard, and translations, like Godard, Lotbinière-Harwood or
von Flotow. According to Castro (2008:288), these experts considered
translation “a school of thought that defended the incorporation of feminist
ideology to articulate new ways of expression and to dismantle the
patriarchal burden both in language and in society”. Thus, following these
ideas, many translators denounced the vast number of works written by
women that had fallen into oblivion, pinpointed past translations that
1
See http://www.estrellasonora.com/inicionew.html
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misrepresented or ignored the marked feminist undertone of the original text
and resolved to change the image of womanhood through translation
employing non-sexist proposals of linguistic transfers. Therefore, both the
gender and the feminist translation should be understood as a new
translation perspective that, while preserving the traditional goals and
procedures, accounts for the existing gender inequality and intends to
combat it.
Santaemilia (2013:6-9) affirms that this revolutionary proposition was
cemented on five main pillars: 1) the theoretical postulates associated with
the second wave of feminism; 2) the literary trend called écriture au féminin
initiated by Hélène Cixous in 1975; 3) the cultural and ideological shift
experienced within the translation field of research; 4) the poststructuralist
movement; 5) and the deconstruction of the patriarchy. Additionally, the
publication of Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of
Transmission (1996) by Sherry Simon y Translation and Gender: Translating
in the Era of Feminism (1997) by Luise von Flotow are highlighted.
Likewise, the embracement of gender in translation, as well as
different sciences and disciplines, was favored by the queer turn of the 90s,
motivated by the theories proposed by Judith Butler (1990:337-338) on
biological sex, gender identity and gender performativity. According to this
expert, even if a person is assigned a sex at birth according to the sexual
organs the individual possesses naturally, the gender they portray can
fluctuate since the latter is a sociocultural construct resulting from the
actions that are performed by the said individual and the stereotypes that
affect a given sex. Although, the most revolutionary contribution is the
conception of a possible difference between gender identity, the gender the
individual identifies as, and gender performativity, the actions that the same
individual undertakes to portray gender. Therefore, gender is reenvisaged as
a spectrum and not as a binomial and the comprehension of manhood and
womanhood was widened, thus accepting a wider range of realities.
With such a strong theoretical basis, not much time passed before the
incipient understanding of gender through translation disembarked in
Europe. For instance, Brufau (2011:183-184) explains that the analysis of
old translations excelled in Spain with strategies to bring women to the fore
and reflections on the consequences of using gender translation as well as
new translations that could incorporate a gender perspective. The impact
was such that other official languages within the Iberian Peninsula, such as
Catalan, Basque or Galician soon made their contributions.
However, no matter where they are conducted, researches on gender
translation, feminist translation and queer translation coincide signaling a
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common problem: the complexity of transferring linguistic gender. As Castro
(2008:291-293) argues, while the difficulty is reduced when both the original
and the target language grammaticalize gender similarly, it becomes more
challenging when the pair of languages conceive gender differently, for
example in the case of English and Spanish. In this sense, two cases should
be emphasized over the rest: the rewriting of source texts codifying gender
in a way that is impossible to reproduce in the target language and the
usage of a “false” generic masculine. Similarly, the “Male-As-Norm Principle”
complicated the determination of gender given that the masculine gender
tends to be attributed to entities that lack gender marks unless they are
affected by social or cultural stereotypes.
When presented with any of the aforementioned problems, the
procedure would be to apply the habitual translation strategies. Yet, if they
were ineffective, the experts in the field of gender translation have proposed
some alternatives. For example, von Flotow (1991:74) distinguishes three
specific strategies to be applied to feminist translation: 1) supplementing; 2)
prefacing and footnoting; 3) and hijacking, all of which can be either applied
individually or collectively. Albeit the former and the latter involve direct
modifications within the text, prefacing and footnoting opt for changes that
would not alter the original work of the author. It should also be noted that
hijacking becomes the most aggressive practice of them all, since it allows
the translator to disregard the original message of the author to further the
feminist reading of the resulting text, and it should be cautiously used.
In the same regard, a more novel venture opts for the substitution of
sexist terms for neutral ones: inclusive language. It aims to avoid
expressions that are biased or discriminate against individuals based on
their sex, race or religion, among others. Once more, the translator would be
able to choose among an array of alternatives that vary depending on the
language. In fact, as Brufau (2011: 191-192) reports, nowadays there are
numerous style guides edited by different institutions, such as governments,
universities or private-owned businesses, that have been conceived to avoid
sexist writing. Besides, their statistics regarding their usage have shown a
drastic increase in the last decade given the concern to maintain political
correctness. To illustrate some of these suggestions, it has been deemed
appropriate to focus on the target language of the present study, this being
Spanish. Therefore, the foundation FundéuRAE (2019), has compiled all the
existing rules on inclusive language in Spanish. To refrain from incorrect
usage of the generic masculine, they suggest: 1) doubling up to represent
both masculine and feminine, 2) using collective nouns, and 3) modifying the
usual gender desinences in favor of -@, -x or -e.
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All this being said, gender translation has been – and still is today –
heavily criticized due to its connection to feminist and queer translation. As
occurs with the feminist and LGTB+ movements, some professionals believe
that feminist and queer translations indoctrinate readers to forcefully make
them agree with a set of ideas. Nevertheless, nothing could be further from
the truth. Both types of translation share a common aim: granting visibility to
realities and individuals who have traditionally been marginalized due to the
ruling of heteropatriarchy. Seaone (2009: 209-211) argues that, even if the
advantages of feminist and queer practice in translation are numerous, the
professionals within this field have to be cautious about not overshadowing
male or heterosexual culture.
4. Linguistic and translation analysis of Written on The Body
Even though the linguistic and translation analysis of Written on The
Body towards Spanish is a novelty, experts in other languages have
previously tackled the study of the wintersonian masterpiece. Some of them
emphasized the seemingly impossible task, such as the translation towards
French (Schabert, 2010:90) and Bulgarian (Arman, 2012.:75), while others
described the process as a regular transfer between languages, like the
translation towards German (Schabert, 2010:90) and Turkish (Arman,
2012:76). Additionally, and contrarily to the previously mentioned
professionals who merely assessed the intrinsic difficulty of transferring
grammatical gender, Cordisco (2011:282-283) analyzes the text comparing it
to a previous translation published in Italian to scrutinize the translation
strategies that enable such complicated labor. Hence, this latter research
does not only allow us to determine the complexity of the translation as all
the others accomplished but also establishes a reference point to illustrate
which aspects are the most challenging while translating from a language
that lacks gender marks to a language that requires them.
Thus, following the contribution of Cordisco, a careful reading of the
novel and a comparison of both the original work by Winterson and the
translation by Gómez was performed. Three fragments were then selected,
in all of which the protagonist was holding a conversation with Louise and
adjectives were used to describe the couple. Given that the reader is
uncertain about the sex and the gender of the leading character, the
translator would face a case of gender ambiguity in English that would later
need to be resolved to fulfill the necessary imposition of grammatical gender
in Spanish. According to Leonardi (2013: 67), even though the translation of
languages that require grammatical gender is a complicated endeavor, the
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adaptation of original content could be achieved without major losses thanks
to adequate strategies.
In this manner, based on the previous contributions, it was decided
that the inclusion of compensating strategies would be necessary when
discussing the proposal made by Gómez. Along these lines, the
classification established by Malone (1988) would appear to be useful, given
that they comprise sufficient variety to explain the choices that were made in
the Spanish translation. These strategies, even if they could be subdivided
into five groups – matching, zigzagging, recrescence, repackaging and
reordering – are best understood as nine individual procedures: 1) equation,
2) substitution, 3) divergence, 4) convergence, 5) amplification, 6) reduction,
7) diffusion, 8) condensation and 9) reordering.
With all this in mind, all fragments will comprise similar content. Firstly,
there will be a short contextualization of the scene to help the reader
understand the situation. After that, the focus will be shifted towards the term
or terms that imply a certain level of difficulty because of their gender
ambiguity and the strategy used by Gómez will be discussed. Finally, an
evaluation of the outcome will be conducted to assess if the Spanish
proposal is acceptable or if it should be revised in future editions of the
novel. Additionally, in the latter case, an alternative will be proposed.
The first fragment that has been chosen takes place in the early visits
that the main character pays to Louise at her marital house, when their
obsession grows rapidly and excessively, to the point of not being able to
control their actions. After entering the building, both Louise and the
protagonist find themselves in the kitchen, while Louise’s husband is in
another room, absorbed by a videogame.
Source text
Translation
‘Are we going to have an affair?’ she
said.
She’s not English, she’s Australian.
‘No, no we’re not,’ I said. ‘You’re
married and I’m with Jacqueline. We’re
going to be friends.’
She said, ‘We’re friends already.’
(Winterson, 1992:37)
–¿Vamos a tener una aventura? –
preguntó.
Ella no es inglesa, es australiana.
–No, ni hablar –dije–. Tú estás casada
y yo estoy con Jacqueline. Esto será
una amistad.
–Ya es una amistad –dijo.
(Winterson, 1998:41)
During the conversation, even if both characters express reluctance to
commit infidelity, Winterson creates clear sexual tension in the atmosphere
through the movements and gestures exhibited. Louise’s delicate and
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submissive attitude is opposed to that of the leading character, who have
previously allowed themselves to fall prey to desire and lust but who have
also only recently decided to be faithful and committed to their relationship
with Jacqueline. However, it should be noted that the last of Louise’s
interventions displays some sadness or disappointment that disrupts her
characteristic demeanor, thus showing her true intentions for the first time.
Furthermore, the choice of short and simple sentences could be used
to prove the proximity and comfortability with one another, since they can
express their thoughts without much explanation. Additionally, the writer
opted for respecting the most traditional sentence structure, this being
subject-verb-complements. These are notable wintersonian stylistic choices
since the author reserves the usage of subordinate and complex sentences
for sections with more intricate and deeper meanings. In Written on The
Body this can be easily seen in the central part of the novel, where an array
of technical terms is intertwined with lengthy and overtly complicated
clauses.
Shifting the attention towards the translation, it can be appreciated
that Gómez proposes a faithful transfer of the dialogue despite permitting
herself to be more creative in certain instances to preserve the feigned
orality of the text. For instance, she avoids repetition when translating “No,
no we’re not” and substitutes this expression for “ni hablar”, a Spanish
expression that conveys the same intensity. Therefore, thanks to this
substitution/condensation, the translator does not only uphold the rotundity
and clearness in the character’s answer, but she also manages to present
an alternative that would be better accepted by the native readers in the
target culture.
Regarding the translation of the terms “we” and “friends”, both of
which precise the inclusion of grammatical gender in Spanish, the decisions
taken by Gómez are considered wise. On the one hand, the first-person
plural pronoun is omitted since in Spanish it is possible to build a sentence
without the inclusion of these pronouns given that the verb includes
desinences that help establish who they are referring to. In fact, in the first
instance, this is precisely what occurs thanks to the addition of “vamos”, the
present first-person plural form of the verb “ir” (go). Nonetheless, in the
second and third cases, the said pronoun is deduced in the Spanish version
without the need for a literal expression of the people as a result of the
context of the scene. These strategies permit the professional to solve one
of the problems, since choosing the masculine “nosotros” or the feminine
“nosotras” would imply a certain loss of meaning for the whole product.
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On the other hand, the noun “friends” cannot be simply omitted
because it has a more specific meaning than pronouns. In Spanish, it could
be translated both as “amigos” if the protagonist was characterized as a
male and “amigas” if they were otherwise described as female. Still, as it has
been previously highlighted, no gender has been attributed to the main
character and, thus the translator cannot be certain of either option. This is
the reason why the expert chose to use a substitution, turning
“amigos/amigas” into “amistad” (friendship). However, even though the
selected strategy was a good choice, it may be necessary to combine other
techniques to achieve a proposed translation which would seem natural
within a dialogue to the target readers. Therefore, in conjunction with a
substitution, an amplification is suggested to create more viable options.
Consequently, a new version is proposed:
–¿Vamos a tener una aventura? –preguntó.
Ella no es inglesa, es australiana.
–No, ni hablar –dije–. Tú estás casada y yo estoy con Jacqueline. No
será más que una amistad.
–¿Una mera amistad? –repitió.
In the present proposal, most of the published version was unmodified
and the strategies that Gómez were respected. Withal, to guarantee a
better-feigned orality, the last interventions of the protagonist and Louise
were altered. In this sense, “no ser más que” (nothing more than) would be
an acceptable interpretation of the original text while avoiding the usage of
the complex “amigos/amigas” in the penultimate sentence. Moreover, in the
last line of the dialogue, it has been considered appropriate to transform the
enunciation into a question to extol the subtle sadness and disappointment
previously mentioned and to add the adjective “mera” (mere) to accentuate
these feelings. Additionally, seeing that Spanish speakers tend to infer
information from the surrounding context, the original verb has also been
omitted to stress the orality of the conversation. Although to compensate for
the possible loss of content, the simplicity of the verb “decir” (say) is
replaced by the preciseness of “repetir” (repeat).
The second fragment that has been analyzed takes place after the
first sexual encounter between Louise and the main character. After having
committed their respective infidelities, Louise starts feeling remorseful and
the intimacy that they shared is transformed into intrusive thoughts of
uncertainty. She doubts the honesty of her lover, hence sharing some traits
with previous companions.
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Source text
Translation
‘When I said you might not mean it, I
meant it might not be possible for you
to mean it.’
‘I’m not married.’
‘You think that makes you free?’
‘It makes me freer.’
‘It also makes it easier for you to
change your mind. […]
(Winterson, 1992:52)
–Cuando digo que quizá no vaya en
serio, digo que quizá no te es posible
decirlo en serio.
–No tengo un certificado de
matrimonio.
–¿Tú crees que eso te hace libre?
–Me hace más libre.
–Y también hace que te resulte más
fácil cambiar de opinión. […]
(Winterson, 1998:57)
Since the preceding actions shine because of the exposed emotions,
this conversation retains some of the passion that was experienced
moments ago. As a consequence, this linguistic exchange is heavily marked
by their feelings. On this occasion, Louise adopted a sceptical and defensive
stance concerning the hero, even throwing at them some daggers.
Contrarily, the protagonist answers with incredulity and feeling hurt due to
the accusations that the person they love has brought.
The opposing standpoints of both characters can also be noticed
thanks to their contrast within the morphosyntactic plane. Louise expresses
her complex ideas using subordinate and coordinated sentences. This
choice may be because Louise is well aware that she is attacking her lover
but does not want to appear overly aggressive. Notwithstanding, it could also
be a result of Louise needing to express her insecurities but, because of the
avalanche of intrusive thoughts, not managing to convey them properly.
Contrarily, the leading character replies using brief and simplistic clauses.
This character feels uncomfortable when facing the accusations and tries to
avoid answering the questions through evasiveness and ambiguity, a
response that the reader is already familiar with from previous encounters
with ex-partners.
Once again, it can be depicted how Gómez generally uses a literal
translation technique to transfer the original content into Spanish.
Nevertheless, when the expert must face a significant challenge, opting for a
faithful translation is not sufficient, needing more creativity to overcome then.
In the present fragment, no difficulties regarding pronouns or nouns can be
encountered, but adjectives arise as a new problem.
In Spanish, there are two types of adjectives: adjectives with a unique
ending and adjectives that have both masculine and feminine desinences.
The former would not pose an obstacle, while the latter would require a more
inventive approach. On this subject, the translation “free” can be easily
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achieved since its Spanish equivalent, “libre”, works both in masculine and
feminine contexts. Therefore, the gender ambiguity that surrounds the
protagonist would not impede this equation. Contrariwise, the translation of
“married” is a major issue. Neither “casado” nor “casada” would satisfy the
needs of the source text so it is necessary to find an alternative. Additionally,
the proposal of Gómez would not be considered appropriate because, even
if the strategy of substituting the adjective for the noun could be viable, the
context in which it is inscribed does not allow it. Furthermore, no Spanish
speaker would naturally build such a sentence, especially in a conversation.
With all this taken into consideration, a new proposal has been formulated:
–Cuando digo que quizá no vaya en serio, digo que quizá no te es
posible decirlo en serio.
–No he dado el sí quiero.
–¿Tú crees que eso te hace libre?
–Me hace más libre.
–Y también hace que te resulte más fácil cambiar de opinión. […]
After carefully studying the Spanish translation, it was decided that
Gómez translation was not completely erroneous. Indeed, the most logical
change would be transforming the adjective into a noun marked by a specific
gender independently of the identification of the characters. Withal, after
exploring various possibilities within the lexical family of marriage, none of
the options would fit nicely in this specific instance.
As a result, the semantic field of this same celebration started being
considered. Two concepts were highlighted among the rest since they were
common to most marriages: the rings and the acceptance of the new spouse
through “I do”. The association of both elements to the ceremony is
undisputable for any Spanish reader and that is why they both could
constitute a possible translation. However, the most accurate option seemed
to involve “sí quiero” (I do). As a result, in the previous translation, a strategy
of indirect translation was applied to acclaim the aforementioned speech act
and a completely new sentence was created.
The last selected fragment takes place shortly after the previous one.
Nonetheless, there is a considerable separation in terms of pages between
the two of them due to a reflexive break on the part of the main character.
Their connection can be denoted thanks to the term “trophy hunting” and the
temporal reference through the adverb “yesterday” given that, in the
preceding scene, the protagonist asks Louise to take with them a piece of
clothing that would remind them of the good memories that the couple
created under the bedsheets. It is this question the one that leads into the
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earlier fight. After some hours on their own, the lovers reunite and confess
their feelings to one another.
Source text
Translation
‘Yesterday you were angry with me,
you accused me of trophy hunting and
you told me not to declare my love to
you until I had declared it to myself.
You were right. Give me time to do the
work I must do. Don’t make it easy for
me. I want to be sure. I want you to be
sure.’
(Winterson, 1992:84)
–Ayer te enfadaste conmigo, me
acusaste de ir a la caza de trofeos y
me dijiste que no te declarase mi amor
hasta que no me lo hubiera declarado a
mí. Tenías razón. Dame tiempo para
hacer lo que tengo que hacer. No me lo
pongas fácil. Quiero la certeza. Quiero
tu certeza. –dije.
(Winterson, 1998:92)
After the flood of memories that the narrative voice evokes during the
night, the leading character starts feeling crushed by the weight of their sins
and the necessity to expiate them through the relationship with Louise.
Starting at this new conversation, the character takes responsibility for their
murky past and their ignoble decisions, to a point that they describe
themselves as a despicable person, an emotional nomad. For all these
reasons, the reader realizes that their feelings for Louise are real and the
conversation adopts a solemn and emotive tone between both characters. It
should also be highlighted that this intervention represents the first time in
which the hero puts the necessities of another person first instead of their
pleasure.
Regarding grammar, a great contrast can be observed when
comparing the first of the sentences and the rest of them, considering the
former portrays a syntactic complexity improper of the character. So much
so that in this sentence alone Winterson combines juxtaposition,
coordination and subordination. Although, they shortly go back to their usual
way of expressing themselves, characterized by the usage of short and
simple clauses or a subtle degree of subordination. Therefore, some hints
about the maturation that the hero is on the brink of experiencing are
dropped.
Another relevant aspect that should be emphasized is the strong
opposition concerning the used pronouns. While the central character begins
their intervention using the second person singular pronoun “you” to refer to
Louise, they soon change the rhythm of the discourse to place themselves in
the spotlight. This egocentrism has governed the novel when referring to the
mysterious protagonist so the readers would easily recognize them but, at
the same time, the episodes in which a more empathetic approach is
adopted could be interpreted as the development of the said character.
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Lastly, about the grammatical aspects, it must be noted that the
author chooses to include instances of repetition of adjectives and
parallelism, namely “I want to be sure. I want you to be sure”. On this
occasion, most adjectives are either used to talk about Louise or to refer to
the situation in which the events unfold. As a result, the majority of them
would not suppose a problem for the translator, given that their grammatical
gender becomes evident. However, by adding the additional layer of
parallelism, further challenges are to be faced.
Contrarily to the previous extracts, even if Gómez’s translation still
reflects faithfulness to the original text, the Spanish version adapts several
expressions to make it sound natural to the Spanish reader. Unsurprisingly,
this outburst of creativity had to be applied to the translation of the
aforementioned parallelism, but it was also implemented to substitute some
of the other adjectives through strategies of divergence and substitution. For
example, even though it is possible to create expressions with the adjective
“enfadada” (angry), Gómez considered it better to verbalize the said
adjective, which would seem a legitimate choice for the target audience.
Additionally, the translation of “right” and “easy” do not pose a problem
thanks to the strategy of equation.
Nevertheless, as was anticipated, in the case of “sure” the situation is
considerably trickier because of the need to achieve a proposal with an
almost equal grammatical structure. Gómez rightly separates herself from
the adjectives “seguro” and “segura” to preserve gender ambiguity. She
probably explored different alternatives within the lexical family and
concluded that none of the options would suit the target culture’s
expectations. As a result, the translator had to examine valid synonyms and
their corresponding linguistic fields, selecting “cierto” and “cierta” (certain) as
the closest possible equivalent. Moreover, she nominalized the adjectives to
avoid the genderization of the term, achieving a decent proposition. Withal,
despite recognizing the hardship of this particular extract, it is considered
that a less artificial translation could be accomplished:
–Ayer te enfadaste conmigo, me acusaste de ir a la caza de trofeos y
me dijiste que no te declarase mi amor hasta que no me lo hubiera
declarado a mí. Tenías razón. Dame tiempo para hacer lo que tengo
que hacer. No me lo pongas fácil. No quiero dudar. No quiero que
dudes. –dije.
Equally to Gómez, the suggested rendering was created thanks to the
examination of different lexical families. Initially, the possibility of using the
verbalized version of “seguro” (sure), “asegurarse” (ensure), was
contemplated and, even though it would be a valid alternative, the
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parallelism between both sentences would be somehow obscured due to the
presence of additional pronouns in the latter clause. As a result, new factors
were considered. Thus, the attention shifted towards the usage of antonyms,
specifically “dudoso” (hesitant). Notwithstanding, given that this Spanish
adjective presents a double termination, either the verb or the noun should
be used instead. And, even though both alternatives could be applied
without much complication, the former was chosen to illustrate the
suggested modifications.
4.1. Alternative strategies
In the case of facing a translation marked with gender ambiguity, the
translator could also contemplate the possibility of attributing a specific
gender to the wintersonian character. In this peculiar case, the professional
could be influenced by the context of the literary movements and ideologies
in which the author is forcefully inscribed and her life and, consequently,
they could make the mistake of associating the leading character with a
woman figure as if it was an autobiographic novel. Contrarily, the specialist
could also be swayed by the stereotypes about sex and desire and by the
fact that the vast majority of sexual partners of the protagonist are women
and identify them as a man. As Mills (2016:75) affirms, both results are a
direct aftermath of a gendered reading.
Furthermore, even if the associations with the masculine and the
feminine are the most prevalent, they are not merely limited to a binomial
operation. There is a wide range of identifications that deviate from the
standards of man and woman that could be used to characterize the hero.
For example, it could be the case of a fluid-gendered or a non-binary
character. Therefore, the assignation of a particular grammatical gender to
the character would signify the omission of one of the most distinguishable
traits of the work and the invisibility of several realities.
However, it could be argued that the application of alternative
strategies could convey some advantages, despite ignoring some traits of
the original text. For instance, since Written of The Body was initially
criticized in Great Britain for not adopting a feminist approach, a rewriting of
the novel in other languages could solve this by applying feminist
translations strategies to achieve the activist role that was pursued by the
author, this being the reflection on the false immobility of classic gender
roles and the freedom of desire. Amongst them, hijacking is possibly the
most useful one in this particular situation because it allows to deliberately
characterize the protagonist as a woman to raise awareness of a traditionally
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marginalized minority: bisexual and lesbian women. Castro (2008:295)
defines it as a strategy in which
the translator takes over a text with non-feminist intentions thanks to the
introduction of neologisms […]; the inclusion of changes that have no
relation with the original version; the substitution of a generic masculine
for a generic feminine or another inclusive form; the inversion of sexist
elements; the creation of parody; etc.
On the one hand, this approach would benefit the translation given
that a feminine voice would be placed in a powerful position, being both the
narrator and the main character of the story. On the other hand, this decision
would ignore the rest gender identities that could be hidden behind the
purposedly created ambiguity.
Another strategy that has been examined to solve gender ambiguity in
the Spanish translation was the usage of inclusive language, particularly the
substitution of gendered terminations for the highly controversial termination
– e. Despite Spanish linguistic authorities advising against the rupture of
these fixed grammatical norms, the possibility of translating every noun and
adjective within the text with a unique desinence, regardless of the gender
identity and the sexual orientation of the hero, would solve any problem on
this matter. Moreover, while Castro (2008:296) proposes the usage of
parenthesis, slashes, hyphens, capital letters, at symbols and double
terminations, the suffix – e is considered to be the most viable option to mark
neutral gender due to the difficulty of incorporating the others in the final
product whilst keeping the readability of the text. Lastly, another argument in
favor of this atypical suffixation could be that it would create controversy,
which was one of the predominant objectives of the original novel. After all,
as von Flotow (2005:48) affirms, “the focus on gender, and more recently, on
its diversification or pluralization, may be attractive and stimulating for some;
for others, it threatens unity, tradition, belief systems, and power structures”
The latter translation strategy could benefit the queer movement. It
would not only be feasible to identify the leading character as non-
heterosexual but also some traditionally ignored sexual and gender
identifications, such as non-binary and fluid gender individuals, would be
acclaimed. Additionally, there is an ideological current that defends that
some texts, like the one that is studied within the present research, could be
considered “transgender texts”. According to Casagranda (2013:115-116),
these texts can be defined as those that “present a non-dichotomous use of
linguistic gender” and distinguishes three types of texts: 1) texts playing with
gendered forms of address and reference, where female forms are
employed with male referents and vice versa […]; 2) texts using epicene
neologisms […]; and 3) texts introducing genderless characters and/or
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narrators. Written on The Body would then belong to the third category and it
presents added difficulties when translating. Likewise, Leonardi (2013:65)
quotes Lanser to advocate for the adscription of the novel within the queer
movement, guaranteeing that Written on The Body “is a queer novel with a
queer plot as it transgresses and transcends the established norms of
gender, sex and sexuality through references to alternative sexualities”.
5. Conclusions
As it can be deduced by the reading of the present article, the
translation of grammatical gender becomes especially complex when the
linguistic transfer occurs between languages that do not share a similar
reflection of the said trait, for example, English and Spanish. Furthermore,
the level of difficulty increases when the original text is marked by a certain
degree of gender ambiguity, either intentional or unintentional. Within this
research, the problems that were identified were mainly connected to nouns,
pronouns and adjectives, the word classes that require the usage of both
grammatical gender and number. Also, some expressions with gender
connotations can be pinpointed throughout the novel, but they do not pose
such an obstacle for the translator because they are usually stereotypes that
could be easily reflected in the target culture. Nonetheless, if there was a
notable difference regarding these conceptions of manhood and
womanhood between both cultures, they could pose a dilemma for the
translation professional too. All of these, combined with the complications
derived from the dialogical nature of the text, the necessity of creating
feigned orality and the preservation of the style of the author and the
development of the characters, would result in an arduous task.
To solve the aforementioned challenges, the translator could resort to
certain translation strategies. As it has been observed, the most recurrent
ones involved indirect translation, namely substitution, condensation and
amplification, combined with some degree of creativity that enables the
modification of certain terms to create natural expressions in the target
culture without losing any significant content. Finally, it could be beneficial to
reconsider the discussed non-traditional translation strategies, such as the
hijacking of the original text or the usage of the neutral suffix – e. Even if
they would modify the initial intentionality of Winterson, they would enable a
representation of the minorities that the author aimed to evoke throughout
the gender ambiguity of the main character. Withal, the latter techniques
would only be valid in specific projects in which the translator has total
freedom or in which the editor or the publisher instructs the professional to
manipulate the content.
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To conclude, research on gender ambiguity and its translation should
be continued by extrapolating it to other novels that have been translated
into different languages. For example, some novels that tackle the topic of
the subversion of conventional gender roles include Middlesex by Jeffrey
Eugenides, Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal or The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin, among many others. Additionally, this study should not
be limited to narrative works but must be expanded to other genres and
formats.
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