Trauma and Translation in five Contemporary Latin-American Novels: Towards a Possible Typology

Abstract

The essay examines the relation between trauma and its (attempted) linguistic representation mediated through translation in five novels published between 1990 and 2007. In Lenta biografía, by Sergio Chejfec, Insensatez, by Horacio Castellanos Moya, and Yo nunca te prometí la eternidad, by Tununa Mercado, the narrating voice puts into words and translates a traumatic experience lived by another person. In Manèges, by Laura Alcoba, and Mar paraguayo, by Wilson Bueno, the female narrators appear as traumatized subjects who approach their traumatic experience by adopting another language (Manèges), and by the invention of a migratory, contaminated speech (Mar paraguayo). After introducing the topic discussed, the essay focuses on the relation between trauma and narration as well as between translation and narration in each novel, and finally reflects on the attempt to represent trauma through language linked to the act of translation.