Self-retranslation as a rite of passage: Rosario Ferré’s English version of “La muñeca menor”

Abstract

This paper explores a case of self-retranslation involving two prominent figures of the literary and translation fields in Latin America and the United States: Puerto Rican writer Rosario Ferre and US American translator Gregory Rabassa. Originally published in Spanish in 1972, “La muneca menor” is one of Ferre’s best-known and popular stories. Rabassa’s initial translation of the story, published in 1980 as “The Youngest Doll,” was soon overshadowed by the second version of the text, which was penned by the author herself in collaboration with feminist scholar Diana Velez (1986). The study of “La muneca menor” and its companion English versions revisits the first piece Ferre ever self- (re)translated while it assesses the impact of self-retranslation in shaping her identity as a writer. While discussing various aspects of the texts, the analysis focuses on these questions: (1) To what extent does Ferre’s retranslation make for a new version of the story or is, rather, a revision of Rabassa’s work? That is, does the retranslated version evidence a competing interpretation of the source text? Do these versions display different discursive and literary mechanisms? (2) What is the socio-cultural, literary and institutional re-inscription of the text in the versions under study? What factors have led to this second English version of the story? (3) How do these versions relate to specific cultural, literary and translation fields?