A PORTRAIT OF THE TRANSLAUTHOR IN DON QUIXOTE

Abstract

This paper aims to explore how Cervantes’ masterpiece Don Quixote problematizes the notions of authorship, originality, translation, and textuality. Using a deconstructionist perspective, which propounds that all text production occurs on the hybrid ground of writing and translation, this paper demonstrates that Don Quixote is a novel that blurs the borders between an author and a translator. In this respect, the fictional text producer portrayed in the novel is a hybrid figure involved in both writing and translating simultaneously. The neologism translauthor , which is a combination of “translator” and “author,” seems to be an apt term to describe this hybrid text producer. The paper indicates that Don Quixote is a novel that provides us with a visible portrait of the translauthor . There is just one narrative voice in the novel, and this voice belongs to the translauthor , who is the father, stepfather, first author, second author, reteller, rewriter, and translator of Don Quixote at the same time.