Multiple constraints, multiple avenues

Abstract

Abstract The abstract nature of human agency, as a capacity or a possibility to exert power, complicates its empirical examination. While translated and revised texts represent the cumulative result of the agents’ decisions, they offer limited information on their motivation, goals and sense of agency. In this paper, we employ a multi-method approach to examine the revised edition (Galeano rev. Sánchez 2013) of Mémoire du feu (Galeano transl. Couffon 1985; transl. Binard 1985, 1988), the French translation of Memoria del Fuego (Galeano 1982, 1984, 1986). Through a dialogue between semi-structured interviews (focused on the agent’s choices, motivations and sense of agency) and comparative textual analysis (focused on the result of her decisions), we investigate why Mémoire du feu was revised and how this project unfolded. The interaction taking place during semi-structured interviews allowed for the exploration of some dimensions of the reviser’s work that would otherwise have remained unarticulated discursively and helped us understand the textual results of her decisions. The revision appears as an agent-based process, as constraints were negotiated by the reviser, and resources were selected by her. Finally, the reviser’s sense of agency, widened by her multipositionality, emerged as a crucial factor in shaping the textual product.