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Navigating Knots: Negotiating the “Original” and Its Embedded Layers of Translations Across Cultural Boundaries

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Translation and the Intersection of Texts, Contexts and Politics

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Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between author and translator by focusing on the power relations generated by cultural as well as gender differences. Throughout the work of translating the ecocritical essay collection titled Knots Like Stars: The ABCs of the Ecological Imagination in Our Americas by Roberto Forns Broggi, Rauch came to perceive the translation process as re-performance of the text as she and the author collaborated to create a new artifact in English. Rauch employs one of the principal metaphors of her translation project—the Incan khipu, a color-coded system of cords—to envision translation as a visual art that does not distance itself from the notion of voice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cortázar divided his novel into “regular” chapters and expendable ones, and urged the reader to not merely read from beginning to end, but to “hopscotch” through the novel according to suggestions included at the end of each chapter.

  2. 2.

    By this, I mean literature in the nondominant language; that is, literature in languages other than Spanish.

  3. 3.

    That is: A vaguely trapezoidal-shaped bag woven from palm leaves and forming a very tight mesh. It boasts a long, narrow handle to hang over the shoulder so as to not impede movement while walking through the forest. It is used exclusively by males and the bags contain among other items traditional medicine for snake bites (such as iguana skin, coati bile, or pijipi herbs), containers of paint with which the men adorn themselves, a comb or a knife. Currently the bags are also used to carry gunpowder and shells. (My translation).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Spanish, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, USA

    Karen Rauch

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  1. Karen Rauch
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Correspondence to Karen Rauch .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. English and Applied Linguistics, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA

    Mohammed Albakry

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Rauch, K. (2017). Navigating Knots: Negotiating the “Original” and Its Embedded Layers of Translations Across Cultural Boundaries. In: Albakry, M. (eds) Translation and the Intersection of Texts, Contexts and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53748-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53748-1_9

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53748-1

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