LA VIE SEXUELLE DE CATHERINE M.: A JOURNEY THROUGH ‘WOMAN’, ‘SEXUAL LANGUAGE’ AND ‘TRANSLATION’

Abstract

Catherine Millet’s La vie sexuelle de Catherine M. (2001) is probably one of the most explicit books about sex ever written. It is an extraordinarily frank description of sexual attitudes, without any remorse or linguistic taboos.

In this paper we analyse how Millet’s sexual revelations travel into English (translated by Adriana Hunter, 2002) and into Spanish (translated by Jaime Zulaika, 2001). This allows us a very rich perspective: how sexual language is transferred into English or Spanish; how Millet’s amorality is maintained or toned down in the translating process; what is the relationship between the ‘erotic’ (or the ‘pornogra- phic’ or the ‘sexual’) and the woman author, and so on. The intersection offered by woman-as-author, translation and sexual language is well worth exploring: it offers a multiplicity of viewpoints, mostly contextual and ideological. Translating sexually- explicit language continues to be an area of personal struggle, of ethical or moral dissent, of religious or ideological controversy.