Self-Translation and Bilingual Creation in Wayuu Literature: Complements and Incompatibility across the ‘Linguistic Divide’ in the Short Stories of Miguel Ángel Jusayú and Estercilia Simanca Pushaina

Abstract

This article examines the themes of transformation in the literature of the Wayuu peoples. Focusing on two short stories written by Miguel Ángel Jusayú, ‘Ni era vaca, ni era caballo’, and Estercilia Simanca Pushaina, ‘El encierro de una pequeña doncella’, the aim is to analyse the ways in which the writers treat these themes across the bilingual and bicultural contexts of Wayuu society. These issues are tackled through the perspective of translanguaging and self-translation. Translanguaging views bilingualism as a holistic, vibrant corpus, rather than two separate languages, while self-translation focuses on the processes of interconnectedness and conflict in bilingual and bicultural texts. Employing these two complementary theories allows an analysis of the ways in which bilingual Wayuu writers produce multiple dialogues and differences not only between Spanish and Wayunaiki but also between these logographic systems and Wayuu supra-linguistic archives of knowledge and communication.