ROMPENDO BARREIRAS, SAÍNDO DAS MARXES. O TRABALLO DAS TRADUTORAS GALEGAS
Breaking Barriers, Coming Out of the Margins: The Work of Galician Women Translators

Author(s): María Obdulia Luis Gamallo
Subject(s): Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Other Language Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: feminism; translation and subversion; postcolonial resistance
Summary/Abstract: Translation facilitates the circulation of ideas and the construction of identities outside of one’s own; it favours those authors and texts that have an impact on the change occurring generally at the global level. In the history of translation into Galician, women have until recently been placed on the margins of a profession that does not have the necessary visibility, nor is it valued financially or even symbolically. Since the beginnings of nationalism, women have been responsible for maintaining and spreading collective identity with a dual reproductive and educational function for the future members of the nation. In contrast to the man-creator of works of the spirit who tends towards the universal, the woman is assigned a procreative function; she is, in particular, a woman-creator of other human beings. The system continues to be dominated by the “power relations” imposed by the nationalist patriarchy since the 20th century, and is a true “oppressive mechanism”. The history of Galician women translators remains full of gaps: translators who never gained recognition and whose names were erased, translators paired with their male counterparts, translators who were forced to move to other literary systems. Paradoxically, the Association of Galician Translators, founded in 1985, is now made up mostly of women, but the rise in numbers has not led to a rise in prominence. Even today, when some critics recapitulate the outstanding translations of a particular period, the work of women continues to be mostly overlooked. Rewriting this story involves paying tribute to four women: Teresa Barro, María Xosé Queizán, Moncha Fuentes and Carme Hermida. They represent two generations of Galician intellectuals dedicated to literary work.

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