Transgender, Translation, Translingual Address

283 Pages·2019·16.255 MB·English

by  Douglas Robinson

Transgender, Translation,
Translingual Address
Literatures, Cultures, Translation
Literatures, Cultures, Translation presents books that engage central issues
in translation studies such as history, politics, and gender in and of literary
translation, as well as books that open new avenues for study. Volumes in
the series follow two main strands of inquiry: one strand brings a wider
context to translation through an interdisciplinary interrogation, while
the other hones in on the history and politics of the translation of seminal
works in literary and intellectual history.
Series Editors
Brian James Baer, Kent State University, USA; Michelle Woods,
The State University of New York, New Paltz, USA
Editorial Board
Rosemary Arrojo, The State University of New York, Binghamton, USA;
Paul Bandia, Concordia University, Canada, and Harvard University, USA;
Susan Bassnett, Professor of Comparative Literature, Warwick University,
UK; Leo Tak-hung Chan, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China; Michael
Cronin, Dublin City University, Republic of Ireland; Edwin Gentzler,
University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA; Carol Maier, Kent State
University, USA; Denise Merkle, Moncton University, Canada; Michaela
Wolf, University of Graz, Austria
Volumes in the Series
Translation and the Making of Modern Russian Literature, Brian James Baer
Interpreting in Nazi Concentration Camps, edited by Michaela Wolf
Exorcising Translation: Towards an Intercivilizational Turn,
Douglas Robinson
Literary Translation and the Making of Originals, Karen Emmerich
The Translator on Stage, Geraldine Brodie
Between Translation and Adaptation: Cultures of Reception in Contemporary
China and Japan (forthcoming), Leo Tak-hung Chan
Transgender, Translation,
Translingual Address
Douglas Robinson
BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks
of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the United States of America 2019
Copyright © Douglas Robinson, 2019
For legal purposes the Acknowledgments on p. xxxiv constitute an extension
of this copyright page.
Cover photograph © D. Sharon Pruitt
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Inc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given
in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher
regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased
to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
Whilst every effort has been made to locate copyright holders the publishers
would be grateful to hear from any person(s) not here acknowledged.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-4554-8
ePDF: 978-1-5013-4556-2
eBook: 978-1-5013-4555-5
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com
and sign up for our newsletters.
Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Permissions ix
Preface x
Translinguality xi
Transgender and Translation xvi
Fucking Binaries xxiii
A Confession xxv
Structure of the Book xxix
Acknowledgments xxxiv
1 Why Should Cisnormative Translation Scholars Care About
Translation and Transgender? 1
First answer: It’s being done 2
Second answer: Paying attention 7
Third answer: Knowledge as emancipation 11
Example: Translating Māori takatāpui 12
Fourth answer: Epistemicide 16
Gender epistemicide more broadly 21
Gender epistemicide more broadly still: EL vs. CL 23
Qualitative EL vs. stealth CL 25
Common sense 28
Fifth answer: Trans-poetics and belonging 33
2 The Semiosphere Must Be Fed by at Least Two Languages 37
OL/UL Introduction 38
The first language (OL): A feminist analytical take
on transgender 38
The second language (UL): A Finnish LGBT novel 42
OL/UL Take One: Radical polarization (positivism vs.
phenomenology) 44
Juri Lotman on the semiosphere and translation 45
vi Contents
OL/UL Take Two: Cautious mutual approach (paranoid reading) 50
Excursus on narrative point of view: Introducing the
“transdiegetic” narrator 57
End of excursus: Back to Take Two 59
OL/UL Take Three: Rapprochement (reparative reading) 69
Conclusion: Icosis 76
3 New Worlds (the Emergence of the Unexpected):
The Ecology of Gender as a Dissipative System 81
Introduction: The normative entelechy of binary gender 83
Symmetry-breaking events and the emergence of the new
in dissipative systems 87
Bakhtinian heteroglossia 92
Emergent mutations 95
New worlds again 100
First Conclusion: Cis-trans(lating) PBL and ABL 106
Second Conclusion: Entelechany 109
4 Becoming-Trans: The Rhizomatics of Gender 113
Introduction: Deleuzean rhizomatics 117
“Becoming-woman” becoming “becoming-trans” 122
Becoming-trans: Becoming-Boi, Becoming-Grrrl
1
(Sassafras Lowrey, Lost Boi) 127
Becoming-trans: Becoming-Animal (Jenni Kangasvuo, Sudenveri) 139
2
Becoming-trans: Becoming-Mineral (Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán,
3
“Cycle undone”) 152
Laozi on surrendering control 161
Becoming-trans: The mystical turn 164
4
Conclusion: The dark night of the soul 169
Concludingly: (Peri)Performative Becoming-Queer 175
Becoming-queer (becoming-lesbian): Early Judith Butler 176
1
Becoming-queer (becoming-whatever): More recent
2
Judith Butler 179
Felman’s Austin on the performative fun of failing 181
Chen’s Austin on marrying a monkey 186
Sedgwick on the periperformative 189
Bourdieu’s secret code 192
Contents vii
Becoming-queer (becoming-nonbinary,
3
becoming-variably-gendered): Kate Bornstein 195
Finally 200
Notes 205
References 220
Index 233
List of Illustrations
Table
Table 2.1 Translational shifts in Otto Lehtinen’s Wurlitzer from
Finnish to English as tracked through verb tense 60
Figure
Figure 4.1 The arborescent argumentative structure in
Schleiermacher’s 1813 Academy address on translation 118
Permissions
Bodhrán, Ahimsa Timoteo. “Cycle undone,” from Troubling the Line: Trans and
Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, edited by T. C. Tolbert and Trace Peterson. ©
Nightboat Books, 2013. Reprinted with permission of Nightboat Books.
Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw. © Taylor and Francis, 1994. Reprinted with
permission of the publisher.
Casagranda, Mirko. “Bridging the Genders? Transgendering Translation Theory
and Practice,” p. 114, from Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice in
Translation and Gender Studies, edited by Eleonora Federici and Vanessa
Leonardi. © Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013. Published with the permission
of Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Conrad, CA. “Somatic Poetry Exercise: Gender Continuum,” from Troubling the
Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, edited by T. C. Tolbert and Trace
Peterson. © Nightboat Books, 2013. Reprinted with permission of Nightboat Books.
Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and
Schizophrenia, trans. Brian Massumi (University of Minnesota Press, 1987), pp. 5,
6–7, 10, 105–6, 116, 134, 247, 276–77, 277, 278–79, 291. © 1987 by the University of
Minnesota Press. Originally published as Mille Plateaux, volume 2 of Capitalisme
et Schizophrénie © 1980 by Les Editions de Minuit, Paris.
Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari, Capitalisme et schizophrénie 2. Mille plateaux. ©
Les Éditions de Minuit, 1980. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Halberstam, Judith. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural
Lives, p. 49. © NYU Press, 2005. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Hale, C. Jacob. “Tracing a Ghostly Memory in My Throat: Reflections on FTM
Feminist Voice and Agency,” p. 56, from You’ve Changed: Sex Reassignment and
Personal Identity, edited by Laurie J. Shrage. © Oxford University Press, 2009.
Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press, USA (www.oup.com).
Kangasvuon, Jenny. Sudenveri. © Teos Publishing, 2012. Reprinted by permission
of the author and the publisher.
Ruvalcaba, Héctor Domínguez. Translating the Queer: Body Politics and Trans-
national Conversations. © Zed Books, 2016. Reprinted with permission of the
publisher.
Shipley, Ely. “Encounter,” from Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry
and Poetics, edited by T. C. Tolbert and Trace Peterson. © Nightboat Books, 2013.
Reprinted with permission of Nightboat Books.