Transcultural memory and literary translation: Mapping the Field (with a case study on Lydie Salvayre’s Pas pleurer and its Spanish translation)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to map the role of translation in literary and cultural memory studies and of memory dynamics in transcultural contexts. “Translation” is understood both as interlingual translation, that is the rephrasing of a literary text in another language, and in a broader and more metaphorical sense as transfer, transmission and relocation across different kinds of spatial and temporal borders. The first part gives an overview of the state of research, presents basic theoretical and conceptual reflections regarding the intersections of literary memory and translation, and proposes a general framework for analyses of literary texts and their translation that want to elucidate the role of translation for transcultural memory circulation. The second part is dedicated to a particular case study: the translational aspects of the literary memory of the Spanish Civil War, the anarchist revolution and exile in Lydie Salvayre’s novel Pas pleurer and the role of Javier Albiñana’s Spanish translation No llorar as a medium of transcultural memory.

Trends in global literary studies: Mapping using Open Access (OA) journals database

“…However, literature aesthetically does not see this as a mission or ideology in disguise. The results of this study also support Jünke (2021) who examines translation literature. The results of his research show that translated literature is indeed needed by various literary connoisseurs in various countries.…”

A critical review of research on translation and memory

“…It should also be noted that in Memory Studies the importance to account translation and undertake translation analysis has begun to be recognized as well; some scholars no longer just referring to translation metaphorically. For example, in 2021, two papers came out in the Sage journal Memory Studies to foreground the significance of translation analysis in studying transcultural memory (Jünke 2021;Laanes 2021). Predictably, research on translation and memory will keep on developing, at a faster pace than before.…”

“…First, the most studied is memories of the Spanish Civil War and Franco Dictatorship in translation and reception (Bush 2013;Castillo Villanueva and Pintado Gutiérrez 2021;Jünke 2021;Kietrys 2019;Marco 2021;Vieira 2019). Kietrys (2019), for example, investigates the Spanish novel El tiempo entre costuras in screen adaptation for the younger generation in Spain and its US Netflix subtitled version in English.…”