La retraducción como rito de iniciación: La versión en inglés de Rosario Ferré de “La muñeca menor”

María Laura Spoturno

doi:10.17533/udea.mut.335079

Authors

María Laura Spoturno National University of Mar del Plata https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9396-4989

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.mut.335079

Keywords:

Self-retranslation, Rosario Ferré, “La muñeca menor, ” feminist ethos, US Latina writer

Abstract

This paper explores a case of self-retranslation involving two prominent figures of the literary and translation fields in Latin America and the United States: Puerto Rican writer Rosario Ferré and US American translator Gregory Rabassa. Originally published in Spanish in 1972, “La muñeca menor” is one of Ferré’s best-known and popular stories. Rabassa’s initial translation of the story, published in 1980 as “The Youngest Doll,” was soon overshadowed by the second version of the text, which was penned by the author herself in collaboration with feminist scholar Diana Vélez (1986). The study of “La muñeca menor” and its companion English versions revisits the first piece Ferré ever self- (re)translated while it assesses the impact of self-retranslation in shaping her identity as a writer. While discussing various aspects of the texts, the analysis focuses on these questions: (1) To what extent does Ferré’s retranslation make for a new version of the story or is, rather, a revision of Rabassa’s work? That is, does the retranslated version evidence a competing interpretation of the source text? Do these versions display different discursive and literary mechanisms? (2) What is the socio-cultural, literary and institutional re-inscription of the text in the versions under study? What factors have led to this second English version of the story? (3) How do these versions relate to specific cultural, literary and translation fields?

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Author Biography

María Laura Spoturno, National University of Mar del Plata

National Scientific and Technical Research Council.

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