Displacement literature translated: Cristina Peri Rossi and the English translations

Abstract

In 1972, as military rule took hold in Uruguay, writer Cristina Peri Rossi (°1941, Montevideo) was forced into exile. She had already lost her job as a university lecturer and her literature was banned, as was the mention of her name in the media. After her student disappeared, she left for Barcelona, where she still resides today. In her short story collection El museo de los esfuerzos inútiles (1983, Seix Barral), she thematizes feelings like the impossibility of returning to the homeland, melancholy, and loneliness. In the poetry collection Estado de exilio (2002, Visor Libros), she describes the range of emotions she experienced the years after her exile, from uprootedness to acceptance and genuine feelings of love towards the adoptive city and its people. The books were translated into English, and the translators’ attitudes towards the Spanish text as well as their ideological convictions account for fascinating translation choices. In this article, I argue that the translator employs the texts to go beyond the themes of exile. The translator of El museo prioritizes the literary value and the ambiguity (both formal and content-wise) of the text. The translator of Estado de exilio criticizes the government of the United States, expresses her activist sentiments, and emphasizes the added struggle of being a woman when exiled.