Unwelcome guests and disparing exoticismsthe other's voice in critical and postcolonial translation

Resumen

Translated short stories are frequently the site of relevant negotiations which take place between (often conflicting) cultural representations, and what we may call the subject or original voice. In my intervention I shall focus on the negotiations and transformations the (original) source voice is subject to when relocated in translation. So-called exotic short stories often act as a symbol or a metonymy of the cultures they are supposed to convey, and translation strategies always function in direct relation to a picture of the Other; that is, the metonymical construction of the translated culture as a specimen. Writers often anticipate and take advantage of the metonymic gap that cultural distance enacts on their readers, and market strategies make indeed use of exotic devices when commodifying cultural texts. To what extent such metonymies are agreed by consensus, and what are the ideologies at work behind, is the main issue which cultural translation theory should be able to answer to.