Permagel/Permafrost: el deseo lésbico y su traducción

Gonzalo Iturregui-Gallardo

doi:10.17533/udea.mut/v16n1a10

Authors

Gonzalo Iturregui-Gallardo Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3664-0045

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.mut/v16n1a10

Keywords:

queer translation, feminist translation, lesbian desire, interculturality, literary translation, Permafrost

Abstract

Permafrost (Permagel in Catalan) is a novel by poet and writer Eva Baltasar. Published in 2018, it managed to gain notable popularity both in Catalonia and the rest of Spain. Since its publication, it has been translated into different languages with great success. Its English translation arrived in the UK in 2020 by American translator Julia Sanches. Baltasar’s story centres on a lesbian woman in her forties that, victim of the hostile environment in which she is obliged to live, fantasises about suicide and, at the same time, shows a hedonistic urge that leads her to the enjoyment of her human condition at its maximum, principally through sex. Sexual desire is explored in depth in the novel, unfolded very aesthetically in the author’s prose poetry. She manages to evoke images of strong symbolism and immediacy in a vast array of word combinations and metaphors. This article first explores the impact of the novel in both its original territory and among the English-speaking readership, particularly the topic of sex, which has a strong presence in the reviews. Secondly, it aims to analyse the description of lesbian (queer) desire in the original and its transfer into the English language through the lens of queer and feminist translation. By applying a queerfeminist perspective, the analysis describes the effectiveness of the translation when transporting the contents into another cultural and linguistic reality.

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Author Biography

Gonzalo Iturregui-Gallardo, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Gonzalo Iturregui-Gallardo is a Serra Hunter Lecturer (Tenure-Eligible) at the Department of Translation, Interpreting & East Asian Studies (UAB). He holds a BA in English and French studies from the UAB and an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Leicester. He is currently a member of the Grupo Internacional de Estudios sobre Comunicación y Cultura (In-Com, UAB) and of REICIT (Recerca en Estudis Interculturals i Traducció) and of the Seminario de Interseccionalidad, Feminismos y Traducción (SIFT) (Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies, UAB). He has worked as a Catalan Lecturer at the University of Leeds and as an associate lecturer in the English department of the Autonomous of Barcelona and the University of Barcelona. He has acted as supervisor in the Master of Audiovisual Translation and the Master of Translation and Intercultural Studies of the UAB and in the Master of Applied Translation Studies of the Centre for Translation Studies of the University of Leeds. He has also collaborated with the Open University of Catalonia as external examiner in the Master in Translation and Technologies. His research has been published in international journals such as Perspectives, JoSTrans or Onomazéin. His main research interests, to which he adopts an interdisciplinary approach, are audiovisual translation, media accessibility, feminist and queer translation and gender studies. He combines his teaching and research activity with freelance work as a translator, subtitler, and audio describer, mostly in the field of the scenic arts.

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