Language and Characterization in Mercè Rodoreda’s La Plaça del Diamant

Abstract

In Mercè Rodoreda’s widely acclaimed, first-person narrative La Plaça del Diamant (1962), language provides the main sociocultural frame and functions as the primary means of characterization of the female narrator. Natàlia’s account in her own terms of life before, during and after the Spanish Civil War is not only permeated with references to a highly specific historical, cultural and spatial setting and to her outward struggle for survival; her speech also reveals her inner struggle towards self-expression as an unquestioning woman, trying to uncoil verbally the unfathomable experiences of fear, loss and love. This interpretation, which is largely supported by the increasing number of critical studies of Rodoreda’s work, has arguably not been adequately relayed in the two English translations of the novel. This paper examines the various sites of tension among original, translations and criticism, focusing on the narration’s oral resonance, cultural setting and gendered language. An argument is presented for a third translation into English where the narrator’s language may better reveal her nature and situation.