By Rebecca Cruz

Faculty Mentor: Maria Laura Bocaz

Abstract

In the novel ‘El lugar sin límites’ written by the Chilean writer José Donoso, the author intentionally disguises the sex of La Manuela, the trans protagonist, until the moment when La Manuela’s daughter, Japonesita, reveals it when she calls her “father”. By carefully comparing the Spanish and English translations of this novel, we found that the sex of La Manuela was revealed sooner than in the original Spanish version. Additionally, through the examination of primary sources at the University of Princeton and the University of Indiana, which includes correspondence between the writer and the translators Hallie D. Taylor, Suzanne Jill Levine, among others, we were able to get important insights of the challenges that the translators had, when working on the translation into English. In this presentation, I will share some of those challenges and discuss possible retranstlations.