Challenges of translating literary texts with nonbinary characters from english to spanish

Abstract

Current ideological changes related to gender are reflected in language. A clear example of this is the use, in English, of they as a singular pronoun to refer to nonbinary people. These elements can also be found in literature. The translation of these texts exemplifies different translation approaches to linguistically represent these aspects in Spanish and how they might or not help to understand them. All this implies challenges when translating these texts to Spanish, as it does not have the same linguistic ideological elements that English has. In this article, I will analyze some examples of literary texts with these characteristics and the challenges they pose for their translation. I will also question what the possibilities to reproduce the structures in a translation into Spanish are. My objective is to problematize how translation choices allow or not for these voices and identities to be recreated on the texts, and to emphasize the role of translation to represent them. The possibility of analyzing this type of translations benefits partially from feminist translation strategies and the stance this approach presents. These strategies give a theoretical and practical background to translate diverse identities.