"Though We Tremble Before Uncertain Futures:" Translation as a Disidentificatory Strategy in Gloria Anzald�a's Borderlands/La Frontera (1987)

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2020-01-01

Department

Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication

Program

Intercultural Communication

Citation of Original Publication

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Abstract

To date no sociological investigation has explored the role of translation in shaping the US Chicanx identity. This theses will help fill this gap by investigating how the Chicanx author Gloria E. Anzaldúa problematized the connection national literature/monolingualism through the creation of a type of multilingual text in which the wall between translation and original disappears and which I propose to term Unwalled Text. By carefully analyzing the form of an unwalled text, this theses argues that we can understand how such text works as a mirror of the political, social, economic, and cultural components that define one's own minorized identity. Thus, this theses proves that the concept of identity is an inextricable aspect that breathes in and through the use of specific textual forms. And so, this innovative study of unwalled texts has the potential to (i) advance future research on translation studies and (ii) contribute to redefine US' dominant monolingual identities by tracing parallelisms regarding the use of translation as a tool for identity representation between Chicanx and all the displaced translingual communities that undoubtedly contribute to the intercultural nature of today's society.