Rivista | Rassegna iberistica
Fascicolo | 46 | 120 | 2023
Articolo | José Saramago as a Transiberianist Cultural Translator
José Saramago as a Transiberianist Cultural Translator
Abstract
Saramago left behind his conviction that “we are all translators” and that “writing means translating”. This article aims to show that many aspects of Saramago’s life and work can be approached from a translational perspective, as there is still a gap of critical literature on the subject. Saramago’s thought on translation will be first explained in general terms, through a brief comparison with Walter Benjamin, and then specifically in terms of cultural translation, through what he understood as iberism and transibericity. The numerous texts and interviews in which Saramago reflected on intra- and extra-Iberian relations allow us to analyse him today as a cultural translator. He defended the necessity of an intra-Iberian solidarity capable of preserving differentiated identities, and drew our attention to the need for a trans-Iberian political-cultural translation. I will argue that Saramago translated Luso and Spanish ethnocentrism into three key ideas. Firstly, the multicultural character of the Iberian Peninsula, which is a historically incontestable fact. Secondly, that Iberian cultures, without making them uniform, would share a common basis that differentiates them, in turn, from Europe. And thirdly the idea of transibericity as a “task of translating, while respecting the place from which [we] came and the place to which [we] are going” (Saramago 2003, n.p.), as a dialogue with the alternative doxa that today include Latin American and African post-colonial cultures.
Presentato: 03 Giugno 2023 | Accettato: 06 Ottobre 2023 | Pubblicato 20 Dicembre 2023 | Lingua: en
Keywords Walter Benjamin • Cultural translation • José Saramago • Philosophy of translation • Transibericity • Transiberism
Copyright © 2023 Burghard Baltrusch. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Ri/2037-6588/2023/21/006
