Skip to main content

Border Writing in Translation: The Spanish Translations of Woman Hollering Creek by the Chicana Writer Sandra Cisneros

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Literary Translation

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting ((PTTI))

  • 1289 Accesses

Abstract

The Chicano borderlands, created as a result of the Mexican/US war in 1846–1848, have produced a rich hybrid literature that deconstructs the idea of homogeneous monolingual nations and cultures. In this case study Johnson focuses on two Spanish translations of Woman Hollering Creek (1991) by the Chicana author Sandra Cisneros carried out by two different translators who chose almost opposite techniques to deal with the multilingualism present in the source text: Érase un hombre, érase una mujer (de Hériz 1992) and El Arroyo de la Llorona (Valenzuela 1996). Using the theories of Bourdieu, Bakhtin and postcolonialism, the study explores the differences between both translations in the construction of the Chicano identity by comparing the techniques used to reflect or disregard this multilingualism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 229.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Unless otherwise stated all translations are mine.

References

  • Anzaldúa, G. (1987) Borderlands/La frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Spinters/Aunt Lute Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appiah, K. A. (1993) ‘Thick Translation’, Callaloo 16 (4): 808–819.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashcroft, B. (2009) ‘Chicano Translation’, in K. Cocannon, F. A. Lomelí and M. Priewe (eds) Imagined Transnationalism: US Latino/a Literature, Culture and Identity, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1981) The Dialogic Imagination, tr. C. Emerson and M. Holquist. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berman, A. (1990) ‘La Retraduction comme espace de traduction’ (Retranslation as a translation space), Palimsestes (Palimpsests) 13(4): 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1990) In Other Words, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1993) The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1999) ‘The Social Conditions of the International Circulation of Ideas’ in R. Shusterman (ed.) Bourdieu: A Critical Reader, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 220–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casanova, P. (2010) ‘Consecration and Accumulation of Literary Capital: Translation as unequal exchange’, in M. Baker (ed.) Translation Studies: Critical Concepts, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 285–303.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chesterman, A. (2004) ‘Hypotheses about Translation Universals’, in G. Hansen, K. Malmkjaer, and D. Gile (eds) Claims Changes and Challenges in Translation Studies. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cisneros, S. (1991) Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cresswell, J. W. (2003) Research Design, London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Aragón, R. J. (2006) The Legend of La Llorona, Las Vegas: SanstonePress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deane-Cox, S. (2014) Retranslation. Translation, Literature and Reinterpretation, London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, J. (1996) Monolingualism of the Other; Or, The Prosthesis of Origin, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donohue, C. (ed.) (2010) Sandra Cisnero’s Woman Hollering Creek, Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganz, R. (1994) ‘Sandra Cisneros: Border Crossings and Beyond’, MELUS 19 (1): 19–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books Classics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Genette, G. (1997) Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, tr. J. E. Lewin, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gentzler, E. (2008) Translation and Identity in the Americas: New Directions in Translation Theory, London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grutman, R. (2006) ‘Refraction and Recognition. Literary Multilingualism in Translation’, Target 18: 17–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Hériz, E (tr.) (1992) Érase un hombre, érase una mujer (There was a Man, There was a Woman), Barcelona: Ediciones B.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, R. (1993) ‘Editor’s Introduction’, in P. Bourdieu The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kovala, U. (1996) ‘Translations, Paratextual Mediation and Ideological Closure’, Target 8 (1): 119–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kratz, C. A. (1994) ‘On Telling/Selling a Book by Its Cover’, Cultural Anthropology 9 (2): 179–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefevere, A. (1992) Translating Literature: Practice and Theory in a Comparative Literature Framework, New York: MLA.

    Google Scholar 

  • López Ponz, M. (2009) Traducción y literatura chicana: Nuevas perspectivas desde Lahibridación (Translation and Chicana Literature: New perspectives from Hybridization), Granada: Comares.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madsen, D. L. (2000) Understanding Contemporary Chicana Literature, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martín Ruano, R. and C. A. Vidal Claramonte (2004) ‘Asymmetries in/of Translation: Translating Translated Hispanicism(s)’, TTR: traduction, terminologie, redaction (Translation, Terminology, Writing) 17: 81–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehrez, S. (1992) ‘Translation and the Postcolonial Experience: The Francophone North African Text’, in L. Venuti (ed) Rethinking Translation: Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 120–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montes-Granado, C. (2012) ‘Code-switching as a Strategy of Brevity in Sandra Cisneros’ DQR Studies in Literature 49 (1): 125–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pym, A. (1998) Method in Translation History, Manchester: St. Jerome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossman, G. B. and S. F. Rallis (2003) Learning in the Field: An Introduction to Qualitative Research, London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saldanha, G. and S. O’Brien (2013) Research Methodologies in Translation Studies, Manchester: St Jerome.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sales Delgado, C. (2009) ‘La construcción de una identidad femenina en las protagonistas de “Woman Hollering Creek”, “Never Marry a Mexican” y “Bien Pretty” de Sandra Cisneros’ (The Construction of a Feminine Identity in the Protagonists of “Woman Hollering Creek”, “Never Marry a Mexican” and “Bien Pretty” by Sandra Cisneros), Divergencias. Revista de estudios lingüísticos y literarios (Review of Linguistic and Literary Studies) 7 (2): 23–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez, M. E. (2009) ‘Para Español Oprima El Número Dos: Translational Translation and U.S. Latino/a Literature’ (Press Two for Spanish) in K. Cocannon, F. A. Lomelí and M. Priewe (eds) Imagined Transnationalism. US Latino/a Literature, Culture and Identity, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 47–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stake, R. E. (1995) The Art of Case Study Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Susam-Sarajeva, Ş. (2001) ‘Is One Case Always Enough?’, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 9 (3): 167–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Susam-Sarajeva, Ş. (2009) ‘The Case Study Research Method in Translation Studies’, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer (ITT) 3 (1): 37–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tymoczko, M. (2000) ‘Translation and Political Engagement. Activism, Social Change and the Role of Translation in Geopolitical Shifts’, The Translator 6 (1): 23–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valenzuela, L. (tr.) (1996) El arroyo de la llorona y otros cuentos (The Creek of the Crying Woman and Other Tales). New York: Vintage Español.

    Google Scholar 

  • Venuti, L. (1995) The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation, London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Venuti, L. (1998) The Scandals of Translation, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vidal Claramonte, C. A. (2015) ‘Traducir al atravesado’, (https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/papers.2143) [Accessed 25 September 2016].

  • Wang, C. (2014) ‘La traducción de la literatura chinoamericana: análisis de las dos versiones castellanas de The Joy Club de Amy Tan’ (The Translation of Chinese American Literature: Analysis of the Two Castilian Versions of The Joy Club by Amy Tan), Sendebar 25: 173–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R. K. (2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods (3rd edn), Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R. K. (2014) Case Study Research: Design and Methods (5th edn), Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Penelope Johnson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Johnson, P. (2018). Border Writing in Translation: The Spanish Translations of Woman Hollering Creek by the Chicana Writer Sandra Cisneros. In: Boase-Beier, J., Fisher, L., Furukawa, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Literary Translation. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75753-7_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75753-7_21

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75752-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75753-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics