Les stratégies de résistance féministe, lost in translation : comment la prose d'Ena Lucía Portela met les éthiques de la traduction à l'épreuve

Abstract

Can translation truly foster an ethical, non-hierarchical dialogue? This thesis aims to deconstruct this question, rather than to answer it. It is constructed around the notion of ethics of translation: by exploring recent developments in feminist theory and translation studies, we wish to explore different ethics of translation in order to test them with the help of a case study. Indeed, the analysis of Cuban dissident and transgressive author Ena Lucia Portela's style in English and French translations highlights the numerous shifts that her discourse undergoes in translation and which insert her writings in the reception culture's norms. We come to the conclusion that the practice of translation must revise its objectives and strategies, and take into consideration the arguments of its contemporary feminist theories in order to claim it can participate to an ethical dialogue and have a « resistant purpose ». This thesis consists of a transnational feminist assessment of the ethics and practice of literary translation today.