Multilingualism as a Mirror of Strangeness in the Translation of Contemporary Literary Texts

Abstract

This paper focuses on the issue of multilingualism in contemporary literary texts, which contain examples of code-switching or words and expressions in different languages, which contribute to placing emphasis on the foreignness and strangeness of the characters or narrators of the stories. This study stems from the edition of a compilation of short narrative and dramatic texts translated into Spanish by authors who build up stories from a position of in-betweenness, rejection, or displacement. In this context, the presence of different languages contributes to revealing the multilingual and multicultural reality that provides the background for the different stories. They are all concerned about manifesting their vital experiences of (un)belonging to a certain labelled culture or identifiable group, often from a diasporic point of view. Some real examples of translation processes will be provided to show the strategies employed to preserve an effect of strangeness on readers, to reveal feelings of (un)belonging, to manifest a variety of identities, or to make explicit culturally marked terms. Translation is then approached from the perspectives of cosmopolitism, diversity, and postcolonial studies, which rely on multilingualism as a signal of a diversified and multicultural identity.