TRABAJO FIN DE MÁSTER MÁSTER EN ESTUDIOS LITERARIOS Y CULTURALES INGLESES Y SU PROYECCIÓN SOCIAL Poor Things: Finding Bella’s Voice in Translation PDF Free Download
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TRABAJO FIN DE MÁSTER
MÁSTER EN ESTUDIOS LITERARIOS Y CULTURALES
INGLESES Y SU PROYECCIÓN SOCIAL
Poor Things: Finding Bella’s Voice in Translation
GEMA CASTILLO MEMBRIVE
TUTOR ACADÉMICO: Dr. Antonio Andrés Ballesteros González
FACULTAD DE FILOLOGÍA
CURSO ACADÉMICO: 2023-24. Convocatoria: junio
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to all the professors in this degree, because to some
extent they all contributed to the foundations of this master thesis. In particular, thanks to
my supervisor, Professor Antonio Andrés Ballesteros Gonzalez for his time, help and
motivational words. I would also like to thank Professor Mario Díaz Martínez (and his
department) from the Universidad de León for kindly sending me a copy of his stimulating
PhD dissertation, Problemática de la Traducción de la Obra de Alasdair Gray “Lanark”
(1999).
And last, but not least, the completion of this master and its thesis would not be
possible without my partner’s support and encouragement to continue my studies.
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Abstract
Alasdair Gray’s reception in Spain has been limited, but interest is growing, partly because
of the recent film adaptation of Poor Things by Giorgos Lanthimos. This paper aims to
explore whether the Spanish translation of Poor Things demonstrates gender awareness or
sensitivities comparable to the source text, or if it instead reflects instances of sexist
translation decisions and manipulations, and what underlies these translation strategies and
proposals.
To answer these questions, a preliminary analysis of the source text was completed
following Beaugrande and Dressler’s seven standards of textuality (2002), examining
cohesion and coherence, intentionality and acceptance, informativity and situationality, and
intertextuality. Then, key theoretical frameworks on the crossroads of gender and translation
studies were revisited and applied, going back to what has been known as “the Canadian
School” and getting back to recent local scholarly work in Spain. For the selected case study,
this involved exploring how men talk about woman and how women talk. An essential
concept in this study is the examination of Bella/Victoria's female voice as a case of "female
writing”. Bella demonstrates a highly creative and innovative use of language, which
undergoes four distinct phases in the text. As for describing the translation samples selected,
Molina and Hurtado (2002) categorizations of translation techniques were used.
Several sexist manipulations were observed in the text, including women’s
invisivilization and undervalue, the incorporation of sexist stereotypes and an inconsistent
and erroneous representation of Bella/Victoria. Furthermore, Bella/Victoria’s voice Spanish
lacks the independent and subversive spirit of the source text.
Keywords: gender and translation, feminist translation, manipulation, female writing
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Resumen
Si bien la recepción de Alasdair Gray ha sido hasta ahora limitada en España, su obra parece
estar recibiendo más interés en estos momentos, en parte gracias a la reciente adaptación de
Pobres criaturas, de la mano de Giorgos Lanthimos. El principal objetivo de este trabajo es
analizar hasta qué punto la traducción de esta obra muestra conciencia o sensibilidad de
género: si lo hace en un grado similar al del texto de partida o si, por el contrario, se dan
ejemplos de decisiones de traducción sexistas o manipulaciones. También se pretenden
explorar los mecanismos que habría detrás de dichas estrategias o propuestas de traducción.
Para responder a estas preguntas, se ha completado un análisis previo del texto de
partida atendiendo a los siete estándares de textualidad propuestos por Beaugrande and
Dressler (2002), según los que se ha examinado ha coherencia y la cohesión, la
intencionalidad y la aceptabilidad, la informatividad y la situacionalidad, y la
intertextualidad de la obra. A continuación, se han revisado y aplicado teorías clave en ese
cruce de caminos entre los estudios de género y los de traducción; lo que ha supuesto
retroceder a esos orígenes en la “Escuela de Canadá” para volver al plano más local de los
estudios en España. En el caso práctico analizado, esto ha supuesto estudiar cómo hablan de
las mujeres los personajes masculinos y cómo hablan las mujeres directamente. En cuanto a
las propias voces femeninas, el estudio se centra en el personaje de Bella/Victoria para
explorar su voz bajo el prisma de la “escritura femenina”. Bella se expresa con un lenguaje
muy creativo e innovador, que evoluciona a lo largo de cuatro fases distintas. Por otro lado,
para describir las muestras seleccionadas, se ha empleado la categorización de estrategias de
traducción propuesta por Molina y Hurtado (2022).
Como resultado, se han observado varias manipulaciones sexistas en el texto que
incluyen la invisibilización y el menosprecio de la mujer, la inclusión de estereotipos sexistas
y la representación incoherente y errónea de Bella/Victoria. Así mismo, se ha detectado que
la voz de Bella/Victoria no carece del espíritu independiente y subversivo del texto de
partida.
Palabras clave: género y traducción, traducción feminista, manipulación, escritura
femenina
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List of Abbreviations
SL
Source language
ST
Source text
SC
Source culture
TL
Target language
TT
Target text
TC
Target culture
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List of Figures
Fig. 1. Fragment 1 of Bella’s letter in the ST
Page 57
Fig. 2. Fragment 1 of Bella’s letter in the TT
Page 57
Fig. 3. Fragment 2 of Bella’s letter in the ST
Page 57
Fig. 4. Fragment 2 of Bella’s letter in the TT
Page 57
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 9
1.1 Relevance of the Topic and State of the Art ..................................................................... 9
1.2 Thesis Statement, Methodology, and Theoretical Frameworks......................................... 14
1.3 Main Objectives ........................................................................................................ 15
1.4 Structure .................................................................................................................. 15
2. Poor Things: Understanding the Creation to Re-Create ........................................................ 16
2.1 The Plot: The Creation of a Monster? ........................................................................... 16
2.2 Analysis and Contextualisation: 7 Standards of Textuality .............................................. 17
2.1.1 Cohesion and Coherence ...................................................................................... 18
2.2.2 Intentionality and Acceptance ............................................................................... 19
2.2.3 Informativity and Situationality ............................................................................. 21
2.2.4 Intertextuality ..................................................................................................... 21
3. Gender, Language and Translation .......................................................................................... 24
3.1 Translation and Gender Theories Revisited ................................................................... 24
3.2 Bella’s Voice: a No-Man’s Land (and Body) ................................................................. 27
3.2.1 Bella as Territory and as a Monster ....................................................................... 28
3.2.2 Bella Voice as “Female Writing” .......................................................................... 30
4. Case Study: Poor Things in Spanish ......................................................................................... 35
4.1 General Overview: Translation Errors and Translation Techniques ........................... 35
4.2 The Translation from a Gender Perspective .............................................................. 40
4.2.1 Representing and Translating “The Female”: a Case of Mistaken Identities ............... 40
4.2.1.1 Women’s Invisibilization ................................................................................ 40
4.2.1.2 Capitalization ............................................................................................... 41
4.2.1.3 Sexist Stereotypes ......................................................................................... 42
4.2.1.4 Softening ..................................................................................................... 43
4.2.1.4 Generalizations ............................................................................................. 43
4.2.2 Bella/Victoria: a Poor Thing or a Poor Voice? ........................................................ 44
4.2.2.1 Bella as a Child ............................................................................................. 44
4.2.2.2 Bella as a Teenager ........................................................................................ 47
4.2.2.2 Bella as a Young Adult ................................................................................... 50
4.2.2.2 Bella as Victoria ............................................................................................ 58
5. Conclusions: Giving Bella her Voice Back ............................................................................... 61
5. Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 63
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1. Introduction
1.1 Relevance of the Topic and State of the Art
If “a nation is only as old as its literature” (Gray, Poor Things, 126), as the Dostoyevskian
gambler tells Bella Baxter in Poor Things, literature can only grow stronger through
translation. Literary translation plays a pivotal role in shaping how a nation, its culture, and
its ideologies are perceived globally. Not without reason, the importance of a literary piece
is often measured by its global impact and the number of languages into which it has been
translated. Translators must make endless fundamental choices, they need to be aware of a
myriad of linguistic and cultural factors, and, frequently, gamble on the best option. These
subtleties and difficulties also turned Alasdair Gray into a direct actor and active participant
in the translation process, publishing what he described in a 2016 interview as “a rhymed
paraphrase of Dante’s Divine Comedy. I cannot call it a translation as I do not know Italian.
My version is based upon eight different English translations, none of which satisfied me”
(Gray). It could be argued also that the general relevance of translation in Gray’s work is
reflected in the plethora of intertextual references he incorporates in his texts, including those
of works translated into English.
Regrettably, the author’s reception in Spain has been surprisingly limited. The
situation might change with the recent award-winning film adaptation of Poor Things by
Yorgos Lanthimos, released in Spain on 26th January 2024, which might spark new interest
in the novel that inspired the film. As a matter of fact, only three of Gray’s nine novels have
been translated into Spanish, along with a short story out of the five published texts. Yet, he
is widely considered to be one of the most prominent writers in post-war Scotland. A
Glaswegian artist, novelist, and playwright, he pursued studies in the arts and established
himself as a muralist and stained-glass artist. In addition to his work as a secondary school
teacher, he also served as a creative writing professor at the University of Glasgow. He wrote
for the TV and radio and illustrated his novels. Just as Glasgow was integrated into his
literary works, his visual art became ingrained in the fabric of his native city through the
murals at the church-pub Òran Mór (“big song” in Gaelic) and Hillhead subway station.
Since 2021, Gray Day has been celebrated annually on the 25th of February to commemorate
the publication anniversary of his groundbreaking first novel, Lanark, which is widely
recognized as a significant contribution to Scottish literature.
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According to the database on the Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation
(BOSLIT), the following Gray’s texts have been translated into Spanish, in chronological
order:
- Lanark - Lanark: una vida en 4 libros. Translated by Albert Solé and published by
Ediciones de Blanco Satén in 1990.
- Something Leather - Vestida de cuero. Translated by Marcelo Cohen (an Argentinian
translator) and published by Editorial Anagrama in 1993.
- Unlikely Stories, Mostly – Historias sobre todo verdaderamente inverosímiles.
Translated again by Marcelo Cohen and published by Minotauro in 1995.
- Poor Things - ¡Pobres criaturas!: episodios de la juventud del Dr. Archibald
McCandless, funcionario de Salud Pblica. Translated by Francisco Segovia (a
Mexican translator) and published by Editorial Anagrama in 1996.
- History maker – Un hacedor de historia. Translated again by Marcelo Cohen and
published by Minotauro in 1999.
The Database of Books Published in Spain, curated by the Spanish Ministry of
Culture, provides additional data on more recent editions and reprints. This is particularly
useful since the printing and commercialization of the titles published in the 90s were
discontinued, making those editions only available through the second-hand market. In 2013,
Marbot Ediciones re-edited Lanark with the same translator; Unlikely Stories, Mostly turned
into Historias inverosímiles, en general (the same translator appears in the record, which
suggests some corrections) thanks to Rayo Verde Editorial, also in 2013. In September 2023,
Poor Things resurfaced as Pobres criaturas by Libros Walden, after Segovia’s translation
was reportedly corrected based on confirmation from the publishing house via email:
El texto final de nuestra edición de "Pobres criaturas" es el resultado de la traducción
de Francisco Segovia y de dos correcciones: una comparando la traducción con el
original en inglés y otra corrección ortográfica (Libros Walden 2023).
Considering the difficulties in accessing Anagrama’s discontinued edition and the recent
release of Libros Walden’s edition, this study focused on exploring the latter. The translator,
Francisco Segovia, has not only published his own poetry but also translated a total of six
books in Spain, encompassing both poetry and children's literature. When discussing Gray’s
reception in Spain, it is important to note that Lanark was translated into Catalan by Ramón
Vilà Vernis and Xavier Canmasas Martínez for Marbot Ediciones (the publishing house
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responsible for re-editing the Spanish translation), while Unlikely Stories, Mostly was
translated by Josefina Caball for Rayo Verde Editorial.
Due to the unbalance between Gray’s production and its reception in Spain, it is not
surprising that there are limited studies on the specific topic of his Spanish translations.
The main contribution to this topic was presented by Mario Díaz Martínez in his PhD
thesis, Problemática de la traducción de la obra de Alasdair Gray Lanark, in the
Universidad de León in 1998. Díaz studied the reception of the Scottish Renaissance in
Spain, focusing on Gray's work and addressing Lanark’s translational challenges into
Spanish. This included examining its cultural associations and how typographic and
paratextual elements were treated in Spanish, such as translator's notes and intertexts,
revealing significant deviations when comparing the source text (ST) and the target text (TT)
(350).
Attention to the compelling task of translating Gray’s work has also been drawn from
other languages. Lewandowska-Rodak (2020) explored the translation complexities of extra-
narrative elements on Lanark, 1982, Janine and Poor Things in Polish. Salusso (2015)
focused on translating Gray’s Old Negatives poems into Italian. Szilágyi (2013) examined
Lanark from the Hungarian perspective. Additionally, Tims (2019) delved into the problems
posed by irony and unreliable narrators in Poor Things when translated into Dutch. Indeed,
Gray’s works present several intriguing subjects for analysis from a translation standpoint,
including the correlation between text and imagery (including paratextual components),
linguistic wordplay and sarcasm, as well as the significance and prevalence of Scottish and
local cultural elements. These themes are also evident in Poor Things. At the time of writing
this paper, no specific published research on the portrayal of gender in the translation of this
novel has been located. However, various authors have examined Gray’s works, such as Poor
Things, through a gender studies lens or by analysing the treatment of female characters. For
instance, Díaz Martínez emphasizes Bella/Victoria's character as representing the New
Woman and her depiction of "Bella Caledonia”, which references Scotland (“Dissecting
Glasgow” 126). In terms of Gray’s research in Spain, Argüeso San Martín also explored
Gray’s work also from a gender perspective (2020).
Against the backdrop of the recent film release and its extensive marketing campaign,
Lanthimos’s adaptation, starring Emma Stone, has been predominantly depicted or
characterized by the media as a feminist retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The
question of its feminist or un-feminist nature has sparked widespread debate within the
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media in reference to the film. It's worth noting that the filmmaker explicitly avoided
classifying it in this manner:
I don’t really like going into an analytic conversation about what it means, what the
themes are, what the characters are… As I said before, I feel confident about the
script. So that means it conveys a lot of things, I think, to intelligent people. So there’s
no need to discuss it further (Lanthimos, in Variety).
Yet, in an interview for The Guardian, he also explained how he wanted to focus on the
female gaze of the story as opposed to the novel:
… The novel has a very different structure, a very different narrative. Her story is
mainly being told by all these other men, so it has various literary devices that
sometimes refute – is that the right word?—that sometimes announce what they say
as false. We made a shift from the novel because the film is solely about her journey,
her perspective. And I felt that if we were going to do this, this world needs to be
seen through her eyes. So I thought that we should build this world; go into a studio
and build everything, use old-school techniques and make everything ourselves and
paint backdrops and make the sets and have a tactile sense of this world (Lanthimos,
italics in the original).
When discussing film adaptations, the long-standing parallelisms between translation and
adaptation cannot be ignored, as Hutcheon declares:
… because adaptations are to a different medium, they are re-mediations, that is,
specifically translations in the form of intersemiotic transpositions from one sign
system (for example, words) to another (for example, images). This is translation but
in a very specific sense: as transmutation or transcoding, that is, as necessarily a
recoding into a new set of conventions as well as signs (16).
Raw also dedicated a full monograph to the topic, Translation, Adaptation and
Transformation, defending how both areas are “fundamentally different yet interrelated
processes” (3). With this analogy in mind, it could be argued that the filmmaker interprets
the role of the translator in two ways. First, he translates Gray’s story into a different
language—the language of cinema and visual expression. He also transforms specific
elements and plot variations. For example, it might be claimed that the unreliability of the
narrators is translated into several fanciful settings and specific uses of camera techniques.
When discussing Lanthimos works in general Grønstad highlight something connected to
this unreliability:
Unsettling our notions of the various ways in which authority is socially constructed,
Lanthimos’s provocative films interrogate distinctions between the absurd and the
dystopian, as well as between the familiar and the uncanny. Profoundly destabilizing
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the dynamic of the gestic and the pathetic, his oeuvre invites us to reconsider the
relationship between theatricality and ethics (55).
Even if this is not referring to Poor Things in particular, the affinities between both “authors”
are clear.
In terms of the Scottishness of the text, it might be noted that, although Gray’s
Glasgow becomes London, there are several architectural elements and designs that evoke
aspects of Glasgow Style and Charles Rennie Mackintosh's work—including Bella’s attire,
brothel windows or Baxter’s chair which reflect Mackintosh's influence on Glaswegian
landscape. Secondly, as a mediator between writer reception in the TL and target culture
(TC), Lanthimos plays a key role due to the direct access to his film or reviving interest in
Gray’s work through it. In an interview published in The Guardian (2023), Lanthimos
highlighted how he contacted Gray in 2011, back when she was not familiar with his
filmmaking works yet. Lanthimos underlined the “cinematic” nature of Gray’s text and
pointed to the fact that he is a Greek director to explain the deviation from the Glaswegian
setting. The director’s work has been inscribed by many critics in what is known as the
“Greek Weird Wave” or the “Greek Wave” (Falvey 1) and shares some similarities with
Gray’s concerns, themes, or style in terms of social denounce or postmodern traits (Falvey
2-3).
The convenient timing of the most recent edition of the book Pobres Criaturas in
Spanish may just be a coincidence, or it could also be part of a deliberate marketing and
sales strategy. Therefore, it seems relevant in this case to refer to Lanthimos’s film as a
potential driver of this phenomenon and observe how he is “translating” Gray’s text and how
his film is being translated in Spain.
Apart from the limited attention that Gray’s reception received in Spain and,
particularly, Poor Things, and its recent resurgence due to its film adaptation, the choice of
this text was also motivated by its relevance to several modules and contents of this master’s
degree. These include discourse theory, transcultural studies, literature and film, literature
and art or literature and gender violence. Indeed, these perspectives can all shed light on this
specific analysis.
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1.2 Thesis Statement, Methodology, and Theoretical Frameworks
The question explored in this study focuses on what extent the Spanish translation of Poor
Things shows gender awareness or gender sensitivities in a similar degree to the ST, whether
it contains examples of feminist translation choices or if there are instead instances of sexist
translation decisions and manipulations altering the ST.
To answer these questions, a thorough close reading of the ST and TT was completed
independently, followed by a comparative parallel reading of both texts, focusing on
keywords and structures, and selecting pertinent examples. In this process of identifying
significative translation cases worth studying from a gender perspective, the theoretical work
of Flotow (1997) served as the main foundation. The focus was placed on examining the
construction and representation of women, in particular Bella/Victoria and her own voice.
This approach was complemented by key conceptualizations put forward by scholars such
as Bassnett, Chamberlain, Godard and Simon. Within the Spanish context, essential
contributions such as those of Brufau, Castro, Godayol and Santaemilia were consultedf.
This research's key innovation lies in the focus on Bella's voice and on the premise that her
voice can be analysed within renewed conceptualizations of what Cixous described in 1976
as écriture feminine, that is, women’s writing or female writing, highly significant in the
early days of gender and translation research.
As a preliminary step to interpret the text in depth, an analysis of the ST was
conducted as per Beaugrande and Dressler’s seven standards of textuality (2002), at a macro-
textual level. This involved delving into existing research of Gray’s work at a broad level
and specifically in relation to Poor Things, with a focus on a feminist perspective or the
character of Bella Baxter. Due to the significance of Lanthimos's film, his work was also
investigated and, for that purpose, The Cinema of Yorgos Lanthimos (edited by Falvey, 2022)
was consulted. Albeit the focus of this analysis is on Gray’s text and, as such, references to
the film more limited the film is not considered at any point a secondary product but, instead,
a “text” of its own, that engages in intertextual dialogue, just as Gray’s text does. The
differences between both texts will be explored exclusively to the extent of the purposes and
scope of this work.
To conclude, the core of this paper is its practical stage, since translation is eminently
a practical activity. This involved analysing the selected examples, from a gender awareness
perspective, and providing translation alternatives, bearing in mind the whole scholarship
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explored to interpret the text. In this analysis, Molina and Hurtado (2002) categorizations of
translation techniques were used as a basis. When discussing translation errors, the
Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) classification naming is followed. Due to the
objectives of this research, no comprehensive revision of different translation theories has
been included, but several key contributions to translation studies in general have been
revisited.
1.3 Main Objectives
The main objectives of this paper include:
- To explore how linguistic and cultural mechanisms of male domination require
special attention in translation.
- To outline the impact of sexist manipulation in translation.
- To examine how the concept of “female writing” can be renewed and reinterpreted,
and be explored from additional perspectives, beyond a female author’s point of
view.
- To offer alternatives to sexist translations.
- To highlight the relevance of re-translations, and why they are needed.
1.4 Structure
Section 2 of this paper briefly go over the plot of the text to, then, analyse the ST in more
detail following Beaugrande and Dressler’s seven standards of textuality (2002): cohesion
and coherence; intentionality and acceptance; informativity and situationality; and
intertextuality.
Section 3 focuses on revisiting key theoretical frameworks on gender and translation
studies and details how Bella’s experimental voice can be studied as a case of women’s
writing.
Section 4 revolves around the case study, contextualising the TT in general and some
giving a “quality overview” to then examining how women are represented in the TT and
how the challenges of translating Bella’s voice are faced in the TT.
The final section is dedicated to the conclusions, which hopefully would answer the
questions posed in the objective’s section above.
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2. Poor Things: Understanding the Creation to Re-Create
2.1 The Plot: The Creation of a Monster?
Poor Things or Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D.,
Scottish Public Health Officer is a game of authenticities and truths that starts at the very
margins of the novel. Described by many critics as a historiographic metafiction (Berntd
125), it was published in 1992 and won the Whitbread Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize
that year. This is indeed a real fact, and what Alasdair Gray tells the readers: because he
presents himself as the editor of the book written by Dr Archibald McCandles (1862-1911)
and, the Scottish illustrator William Strang, as the author of Gray’s illustrations. Some of
these are based on the classic Henry Gray’s anatomy book.
Set in Victorian Glasgow, the text is structured in an introductory chapter, written by
the reported editor, Alasdair Gray, describing how Michael Donnelly found Archie’s self-
published memoirs. This is followed by Archie narration, the frame story, structured in 24
chapters including letters allegedly written by different characters, illustrations, and portraits
to support his version of the events. At the end, the readers find a letter by Archie’s wife,
Victoria, and historical notes follow.
Archie McCandles autobiography goes back to his years as a Medicine student with
scarce resources when he met the deformed, peculiar (and wealthy) Godwin Baxter, an
incontestable genius in his field, a pioneer surgeon who, ahead of his time, was able to
successfully perform extravagant experiments. It is in his house that he meets his future wife,
Bella Baxter (later, Victoria McCandles).
In the introduction by Gray (the fictional editor, not the writer), the readers are
warned about the strange story that follows and how, as impossible as it might seem, there
are indeed historical data to support all the oddities. Victoria’s letter, which denies the
extraordinary events and provides reasonable explanations to her husband’s terrific tale is
deliberately included at the end of the edited book so that the readers are not predisposed to
believe her version of the story, which according to Gray (editor) is not the real one. The
alleged realness of the impossible events narrated by Archie is reinforced by the many
historical facts. In Archie’s account of the events, a pregnant Bella tries to kill herself by
jumping to the Clyde River. Godwin finds her and, in a Frankensteinian manner, brings her
back to life, transplanting the brain of the foetus into her body to turn her into his companion.
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As her mentor and guardian, he provides Bella with freedom, away from oppressive
Victorian societal standards, and an extensive education. As her alleged uncle (but intended
future lover), he tells her that her parents died in an accident in South America, in which she
lost her memory and got her scars.
As the narration advances, Bella’s brain evolves reaching adulthood and
experiencing a very active sexual awakening. Being Archie’s fiancé, Bella elopes with
Duncan Weddernburn, the family lawyer, and a man portraited as a womaniser. They embark
on a long trip around Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia. As part of that journey of self-
discovery and personal growth, Bella discovers “the world”, she has her first encounters with
poverty, proclaims herself a socialist, and spend some time working as a prostitute in France.
During their trip, Duncan becomes jealous and even mad. In fact, he ends up in a mental
institution and, after some time, Bella goes back home.
According to Archie’s narration, Bella’s body was that of Victoria Blessington. Her
first husband, the notorious General Sir Aubrey de la Pole Blessington appears with her
father on her wedding day with Archie to bring her back with him, unsuccessfully. He
exposes how, due to her erotomania, her doctor was about to perform a clitorectomy to
“cure” her. This was right before her disappearance and attempted suicide. Bella marries
Archie and becomes the first female doctor in Glasgow. On the other hand, Victoria’s letter
is a symbol of “reason”. She escaped from his husband but did not try to kill herself. As a
matter of fact, she was in love with Godwin, but married Archie for practical reasons.
Turning back to Lanthimos’ film, although her origins align more with Archie’s
version of the story, a key differentiator is the filmic focus on the female gaze: everything is
seen through Bella’s lenses.
2.2 Analysis and Contextualisation: 7 Standards of Textuality
The novel could be described as a New-Gothic or Neo-Victorian fiction because it combines
elements of Gothic and Victorian novels with present-day ideas or values, a bildungsroman
tale that explores Bella’s evolution, a pastiche of previous pre-texts, and a postmodern self-
referential story, among others. Boschi pinpoints to different genres contaminations in terms
of visual and textual elements:
Poor Things can be considered as a patchwork of ‘voices’ gathering many different
themes and genres: it is a pastiche, in the sense that it intentionally merges various
genres; it’s a gothic novel offering glimpses of the uncanny and the double through
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most of its characters; it’s a fantasy novel in Todorov’s definition of a genre
oscillating between certain and uncertain; it’s a representation of the grotesque body
in Bella’s construction of herself; as many critics have already underlined, it’s a
political satire dealing with the crucial issue of Scottish national identity (200).
Additionally, it partly has an epistolary nature, an interesting subgenre within Victorian and
New-Victorian literature. In this regard, for Brindle, the difference in time means that “neo-
Victorian novelists stress that material traces of the past are fragmentary, incomplete, and
contractor” (introductory chapter). This fragmentation is indeed materialized in Bella’s body
and voice.
To delve deeper into the novel’s complexities in order to interpret the text,
Beaugrande and Dressler’s seven standards of textuality (11-19) theoretical framework will
be followed, to establish a foundational scheme for source analysis and detect preliminary
areas that might require special attention when translating. McCormick highlighted how “the
very notion of making” is key in Poor Things (91, in Díaz 119). It is reflected in the story
itself and how the characters are created and explicitly emphasized in the title of different
chapters: “Making Me”, “Making Godwin Baxter, “Maxing Bella Baxter” or “Making a
Maniac”. This focus on the creation artifacts in the text encourages the analysis of what
elements are key in the process of “making Poor Things”. For Beaugrande and Dressler, a
text is “a communicative occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality” (11). These
standards are organized into four categories, depending on whether their focus is on the text
itself, the author’s and reader’s attitude, the communicative situation, and the relation with
other texts. Therefore, each grouped element is deeply interrelated with its counterparts.
2.1.1 Cohesion and Coherence
The first group alludes to cohesion and coherence. Halliday and Hasan define cohesion as
“a semantic relation between an element in the text and some other dement that is crucial to
the interpretation of it” (Cohesion in English, 8). The authors highlight several cohesive
resources such as reference, ellipsis, substitutions, conjunctions, and lexical elements
including reiteration and collocation. At a micro-textual level, when working with specific
translation units, it is key to pay special attention to avoid ambiguities and adapt to the
normative and accepted use in the TL and TC, for instance, when dealing with pronouns,
since they are needed in the SL, but not in the TL or when translating the gender-marked
“his” or “her” as “su”, which can refer to both. Apart from textual cohesion, there is also
visual cohesion in Poor Things, created through the incorporation of portraits, typographical
19
elements (such as the asterisks), and the inclusion of anatomic illustrations at the end of
every chapter.
Coherence, on the other hand, is built upon the cohesion devices in place and on the
causality of the narration, the structure of the text, as well as on the description of the setting,
the references to previous widely known events, and its intertextuality or even its
acceptability. Yet, there is a certain degree of subversion towards these standards as well, as
a postmodern narration, and to the extent that it satirizes Victorian novels. Böhnke, when
analysing postmodernism in Scotland, refers to the reluctance among several authors to
adhere to its features and Gray’s aversion to this label, in particular when alluding to his
work (257). Yet, there are several postmodern mechanisms in place in Gray’s work, as many
authors have identified, “his self-conscious style and his frequent use of metafictional
devices” (Böhnke 258) or intertextuality.
2.2.2 Intentionality and Acceptance
The second subcategory of standards of textuality is constituted by intentionality and
acceptance. When analysing the author’s intentionality, it could be argued that Poor Things
shows many intentions or goals, being condemning injustices a major one: denouncing social
injustices, female oppression, and political issues, among others. For Böhnke this social
critique is reflected in the novel, from its very cover:
Underlying the whole novel is Gray's concern for the 'poor things' of the title, the
powerless and suppressed classes of Western society in general and of Glasgow's
Victorian as well as present society in particular. There is strong criticism of the
Frankenstein-like recreation of a false and sanitised version of Glasgow's past during
the festivities in 1990 when Glasgow was Cultural Capital of Europe (Böhnke 259-
260).
In light of these remarks, it needs to be noted that Bella explicitly rejects the idea of
considering herself a “poor creature” (Gray 114).
Particularly interesting is the depiction of Bella as the embodiment of the New
Woman, a free, determined strong woman who does not adhere to the strict societal rules of
her time. She is sexually liberated. For Brindle, Gray is indeed “parodying the literary female
stereotypes with extremes of repressed and overt sexuality. In both novels, the private text
merges metonymically with the female…” (ch. 1). She is also economically independent:
Bella becomes the first female doctor to graduate in the University of Glasgow.
Furthermore, whilst there is no clear reliable narrator and the readers are offered
different versions of the facts, the representation of Godwin Baxter’s criticism and ideas
20
seem coherent, and he is described with admiration either by Archie or Victoria. This
“mentor” could serve as a medium to represent the author’s ideas. An example of this
includes Godwin criticism of the male-dominated medical education and practice in
Victorian times: “Many lives and limbs have been lost, McCandless, by excluding women
from the more intricate medical arts” (88). His intentions to influence Archie’s thinking
throughout the novel could also be interpreted as an intention towards the reader (even if the
story is narrated by Archie).
For Berndt, the novel should be explored from the perspective of the Scottish
Enlightenment and the “Science of Man” and the allegories of social and human nature
(126), identifying Archie with “an epitome of Adam Smith’s suspicion towards passionate
feelings” and Bella, with “David Hume’s embrace of ‘wild sympathy – spontaneous,
passionate, embodied’” (130).
At a general level, a key resource in Poor Things which is intrinsically connected to
the intention of the author is the abundant use of irony in different forms. Tims underlines
also how several authors link the concept of irony to that of intentionality (15). Indeed, Tims
(2019) explores the presence of irony in Gray’s text, including direct warnings from the
author (even in titles, epigraphs, and images), historical statements or facts the reader know
not to be true, contradictory information, and different styles.
Lozano relates irony to the readers, and how they must participate in this game of
“treasure chest”:
The interpretation of irony may only follow a correct detection of the invitation, like
being given a key to a treasure chest. We may be distracted and not notice that
someone is handling the key to us, or we may not know which chest the key
corresponds to. Sometimes we may also be given a treasure map to help us find the
chest (i.e. ironic cues). But only when we use the key to open the chest, we find out
what is inside. Irony requires the participation of the hearer (who may also be an
interpreter) to unlock the figurative meaning (i.e. the treasure) behind a literal
meaning (i.e. the treasure chest). Interpretating irony means participating in finding
the figurative meaning (2).
This focus on the readers leads to the next standard, acceptability. The text is accepted
because of its coherence and cohesion, but also in as much as the readers identify the overt
unreliability of its narrators as part of this game and detect the different ironic cues in
general, as well as its postmodern features.
21
2.2.3 Informativity and Situationality
The standards of textuality alluding to communicative situations are informativity and
situationality. Informativity “concerns the extent to which the occurrences of the presented
text are expected vs. unexpected or known vs. unknown/certain” (Beaugrande and Dressler
16). In this sense, intertextuality plays a crucial role in Poor Things. The allusions,
similarities and references to other literary texts and genres represent what might be
expected. Yet, the level of predictability is disrupted when the text alters these references
and, also, by the use of irony and the elusive representation of a true version of the events,
since there are different contradictory voices and narratives. An example of this balance of
expectations can be found at the very beginning of the novel with the introduction of the
found manuscript gothic trope and allusions to events that will seem unbelievable. The
reader will relate this information to similar known stories. These are key factors when
analysing the situationality of the text also, that is, the setting of the text, which varies
depending on the specific fragment explored. In each communicative situation, there are
three components as per Halliday and Hassan classification: field, tenor, and mode. The field
alludes to “what is happening”, the tenor to “who are taking part” and the mode “what part
the language is playing” (12).
2.2.4 Intertextuality
The last standard focuses to the relation of text with other texts, its intertextuality or “the
dialogic relations among texts” (Hutcheon xii). This is fundamental in the construction of
Poor Things as a basic element of the plot and the formation of its characters and
intentionality. Indeed, intertextual relationships seem endless and acquire several forms:
direct statements or mentions, implicit references or parallelisms, quotes, and definitions,
among others. The text recalls Hutcheon words when she referred to “our postmodern age
of cultural recycling” (3). In this regard, Glendening accurately describes the novel as “texts
interacting with texts, each a collection of intricate and sometimes oppositional narratives”
(75).
As per direct references, there are several mentions to Shakespeare (the main one
when Bella decides to write “in his style”), and other authors including Tolstoy, Dickens,
and George Eliot (127); to varied works such as Hamlet (116), Wuthering Heights (140),
popular Scottish songs (Auld Lang Syne, 72) and The Origin of the Species (114). The most
powerful quote regarding intertextuality and collection of intertexts can be found in
Victoria’s letter:
22
He has made a sufficiently strange story stranger still by stirring into it episodes and
phrases to be found in Hogg’s Suicide’s Grave with additional ghouleries from the
works of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe. What morbid Victorian fantasy has he
NOT filched from? I find traces of The Coming Race, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
Dracula, Trilby, Rider Haggard’s She, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes and, alas,
Alice Through the Looking-Glass; a gloomier book than the sunlit Alice in
Wonderland. He has even plagiarized work by two very dear friends: G. B. Shaw’s
Pygmalion and the scientific romances of Herbert George Wells (257).
Obviously, the backbone in terms of intertextual relationships in Poor Things is Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein, even if the key reference to the pre-text lies just in Bella’s creation,
there are additional allusions in the character names: Godwin Byshee Baxter reminds of
Mary Shelley’s father (William Godwin) but also to her husband (Percy Byshee Shelley)
Unlike Shelley’s monster, Bella is described as remarkably beautiful while her creator is
deemed physically repulsive, with scars covering his face. Bella's monstrous nature
originates instead from her origins, her creation, and sexual desires—considered excessive
and unnatural. Fiorato goes even further suggesting that the true Frankensteinian monster is
indeed Godwin, created by his father. This would explain his rare medical condition, scars,
eating needs and unclear maternal origins (284). Godwin’s name is not the only one carrying
further connotations—Victoria is after all, the “queen” of Gray’s story (Hawley 175).
At a broader level, there is an intriguing engagement with popular Victorian
narratives. The epistolary nature and the plot are reminiscent of sensation novels. However,
Bella/Victoria completely subverts the events and directly rejects her portrayal by Archie
when she says that she is “… a plain, sensible woman, not the naïve Lucrezia Borgia and La
Belle Dame Sans Merci described in the text” (Gray 243).
For Bernstein, unlike Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified
Sinner and Stevenson’s Mr Hyde in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the dual
identity (or representation) depicted in Gray’s texts (Bella-Victoria in Poor Things) is more
positive and optimistic (168). In fact, this dual and hybrid representation affects all
characters in the novel, with some of them even directly exposing this duality (Boschi 196).
Aside these Gothic allusions, there are more indirect connections with other texts
exposing social concerns, even in the visual elements:
For all the novel’s pyrotechnic allusions to Gothic fiction, there are at least as many
to books preoccupied with the social condition of Britain. Among the most prominent
are Caryle’s Sartor Resartus and Samuel Smile’s Self-Help in such chapter as
“Making Me” and “Making Bella Baxter.” The physical appearance of the book, with
its intricate cover design, elaborate drawings, and wildly various typography, points
23
in the direction of William Morris, the English poet, artist, craftsman, and socialist
(Hawley 177).
McCracken-Flesher even points to darker allusions to real world facts, the story of Burke
and Hare and Doctor Knox (144).
To mention an example of a more subtle reference literary text and “close the circle”
returning to the gambler mentioned in the introduction of this paper, Dostoevsky’s The
Gambler does resonate with chapter 14 of Poor Things “Glasgow to Odessa: The Gamblers”,
with even one character sharing the same name, Mr. Astley. The Russian gambler that Bella
meets could be Dostoevsky’s Alekséi Ivánovich, from the story he tells. It seems that this
reference got lost in translation, since in the TT the chapter and its references were translated
literally as “los apostadores”, but Dostoevsky’s book in Spanish is published and widely
known as El jugador.
It is worth noting that The Alasdair Gray Archive, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated
Organisation, dedicated to promoting, curating, and investigating Gray’s work has published
in a website dedicated to Poor Things a comprehensive and explained “Index of Intertexts
1
”.
***
Keeping in mind the main question explored on this work, the object of this study, if
the TT is a sexist translation or not, the aforementioned standards of textuality need to be
linked to the objectives set. This leads to paying attention to the following questions in the
case studies selected:
- How are cohesion and coherence enacted in the ST and translated into the TT, in
particular through the female voices (Bella-Victoria)?
- To what extent does the TT recreate the presumed intentionality of the author and
promote the acceptability of the text, considering the patriarchal critique? How
is this translated in Bella-Victoria’s voice?
- What role do informativity and situationality play in the construction of the
female in the ST and TT?
- What are the intertextual relationships that help build the female? To what extent
are they similar in the ST and the TT?
1
https://www.poorthingsnovel.com/intertexts-/
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In an attempt to answer these questions, a theoretical ground from gender awareness
in translation needs to be set.
3. Gender, Language and Translation
3.1 Translation and Gender Theories Revisited
Nowadays, the concept of “gender awareness” in language, and consequently, in translation,
is ubiquitous. There is growing interest and recognition at a wider level. Worldwide
organizations, either enterprises or public institutions, clearly advocate for the use of gender-
inclusive language in their communications. The guidelines for doing so depend on each
language’s norms. Recommendations for English and Spanish can be found, for instance, in
the United Nations website, including checklists to make sure that a given text is not sexist.
The Spanish Ministry of Justice has published several resources. In a recent 2023
publication, Guía para el uso de un lenguaje más inclusivo e igualitario, various strategies,
that could also serve as translation recommendations, are collected, particularly focused on
making the gender visible or not, depending on the communicative situation. In parallel, a
growing number of private organizations is incorporating more and more best practices in
terms of gender inclusive language.
The traductological theoretical frameworks that focus on women's writing and
translation can be traced back to the "Canadian School" of the 70s and 80s, with scholars
and translators including Flotow, Simon, Godard, and Bassnett. Luise von Flotow is one of
the main referents in the field of translation and gender studies. In her most influential book,
Translation and gender: Translating in the Era of Feminism (1997), she highlights three key
connections or pillars when describing the concept of gender awareness in translation:
prejudices or social stereotypes, language politics and culture, including its context (14).
These unbreakable links between gender, culture, and language are patent already in Simone
de Beauvoir famous statement: “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman” (358). Both
language and gender are products and mirror images of a given culture. But if language is a
tool to express the ideas of a given culture, it is also a mechanism to shape it, and, as a result,
so is translation, as a linguistic process and product. The intersections of these overlapping
domains have been widely debated since the nineties by scholars including Susan Bassnett,
Andre Lefevere, and Mary Snell-Hornby who introduced the concept “the cultural turn” in
translation studied. The problematics of “power, ideology, institution and manipulation”
were central to this (Lefevere 2, in Munday 199).
25
Returning to Flotow’s seminal work, she reviews the impact of Second Wave
Feminism and experimental writing, and she emphasises the connections between writing
and the female body that the French feminist Hélène Cixous previously revealed in “The
Laugh of the Medusa” (1976). This is therefore intrinsically connected to sexuality:
When women ‘write the female body’ they write on a subject that has hitherto been
described in terms of the stereotypes of the lover (‘whore’), the devoted and unsexed
mother, or the untouchable Holy Virgin… Feminist writers have identified sexuality
as the factor underlying these stereotypes, and have responded by breaking open
these stereotypes and moving beyond these clichés. Women’s sexuality and women’s
eroticism, described from a woman’s point of view, have become a preferred area of
experimentation in feminist writing. Writers have looked for and developed
vocabulary for censored denigrated parts of the female anatomy and tried to create
erotic writing that appeals to women. (17).
In a similar line, Flotow also revisits the concept of women living “in exile patriarchal
language” (21) introduced by other 70s feminists such as Mary Daly and France Théoret. In
a similar line, Chamberlain remarks the sexualization of the “belles infidèles” concept in
translation (as in French, “translation” is a feminine word in Spanish as well). There is a
parallelism between women and translation: as wife in a marriage, they can be beautiful or
faithful to the husband (or author), but not both, and the legitimate offspring is that associated
with the father (194-195). In terms of the intersection between translation and gender studies,
Munday highlights the contributions of Shery Simon to the field. For her, “images of
dominance, fidelity, faithfulness and betrayal” are key (in Munday, 205). When referring to
the parallelisms drawn between women’s status and translation’s status as secondary. Simon
points out also to the “fidelity toward neither the author nor the reader, but toward the writing
project (Simon 2, in Munday 225).
The theoretical frameworks linked to the Canadian School have been subjected to
diverse criticisms, including allegations of inconsistency and elitism (Castro and Erun 128).
Indeed, Flotow devoted a whole section to respond to these various remarks in her
monograph, covering topics such as approaches on inclusive language, elitist
experimentations, opportunism, and cultural diversity (Flotow 77-88).
In Europe, the work of Leonardi and Federici has been pivotal—as a matter of fact,
in 2013 they co-edited a collection of articles, Bridging the Gap between Theory and
Practice in Translation and Gender Studies. At a local level, in Spain, Bengoaechea, Brudau,
Castro, Godayol and Santaemilia have conducted numerous studies on the topic. Bengoechea
enumerated in 2014 the primary factors of disinterest in specialized translation, including its
26
associations with manipulative approaches (95), those associated with the Canadian
translators and scholars. Castro and Ergun outlined the main areas of the research on the
field:
(a) to disclose patriarchal translations (often presented as neutral or objective
translations, as if such an unsituated practice of translation is possible) of
feminist texts, and (b) to celebrate feminist translations and reveal their textual
and paratextual strategies to inspire the production of more politically engaged
translations and transnational dialogues facilitated by translation (133).
As part of the aforementioned volume, Santaemilia reviewed the evolution of the different
related concepts examined, including “Women and Translation”, “Translating women”,
“Gender and translation”, among others (5). He discusses the origins of feminist translation
in Canadian female writing, second-wave feminism, and the cultural turn in translation, as
well as post-structuralism and deconstruction. This approach to feminism in translation has
led to terms related to feminist translation interventionist techniques such as
“womanhandling, transformance, hijacking or manipulation” (Santaemilia, “Gender and
Translation”, 6).
In her PhD thesis, Traducción y género: propuestas para nuevas éticas de la
traducción en la era del feminismo transnacional, also revisits the evolution of the different
theories on gender and translation and the two differential stages in the intersectional space
of feminism and linguistics studies. The first stage focused on analysing canonical male texts
and, the second, on recovering female writers’ texts. Women’s writing was simplified and
non-rational (Brufau 338). Brufau contrasts the frameworks of the French theorists, with
Cixous, Irigay and Kristeva as key exponents, and concepts such as écriture féminine, parler
femme and semiotics of maternity; with those of Anglo-American critics including Kate
Swift, Dale Spender, Julia Penelope and Mary Daly, with ideas focused on concepts of
domination (338). This differentiation draws a line between those two groups:
De esta forma, quienes realizaron una lectura culturalista, basaron muchas de sus
estrategias en los paradigmas de la dominación y la diferencia —americana—,
mientras que otras, más cercanas al postestructuralismo, ampararon sus decisiones
en el paradigma discursivo, siempre gestionando la supersignificación y el juego
(Brufau 339).
Brufau introduces then the concept of “traductological turn in feminism” to refer to the
current era of transnational feminisms and intersectionalities (431).
27
With regards the quantitative interest of these intersectional areas of research, that is
gender studies and translation, Franco shares his findings when exploring the BITRA
database in 2018. According to him, publications covering gender and translation studies at
that time in English covered 63,8% of the studies, and in Spanish, the next one in volume,
15,2% (22), with a sharp growth from the 90s (Franco 23). The top journals were
Palimpsestes, Quaderns, TTR, MonTI, The Translator, Translation Review, Meta, Tessera
and T&T (Franco 27). Despite this, the level of interest in each discipline is not equal. While
gender and feminisms have been extensively explored in translation studies, feminist and
gender studies show little interest in translation (Santaemilia, “FEMINISMO(S) Y
TRADUCCIÓN”, 10).
Several different feminist translation methods have been proposed over the years. To
name a few recent ones, Massardier-Kenney proposed in 1997 strategies focused on the
author —recovery, commentary and resistance— and strategies focused on the translator —
recovery, commentary, parallel texts and collaboration (Santaemilia, “FEMINISMO(S) Y
TRADUCCIÓN”, 8). Correspondingly, Flotow amplified in 2019 the classification of the
strategies she already identified in 1991, dividing these in two categories: macro-strategies
and micro-strategies:
Many different strategies are available to deal politically with texts, and feminist
politics in translation has deployed them all and may need to devise more. They range
from macro-strategies such as non-translation, retranslation, and strategic text
selection to micro-strategies such as omission, addition, supplementing, and the
development of various stylistic, grammatical, or neologistic innovations that work
on the details of the text itself (Flotow, “Translation”, 232).
3.2 Bella’s Voice: a No-Man’s Land (and Body)
At first glance, it may appear that Poor Things cannot be analysed using the theoretical
frameworks discussed in the earlier section, given that it is a book authored by a man and
translated into Spanish by a male translator. It seems as though there are no opportunities to
explore a female perspective or acknowledge any feminist translators and the related
strategies—the two main areas of focus of most research on translation and gender studies,
along with censorship. Despite these considerations, gender and its literal and linguistic
embodiment are key pillars of the text, Gray is keenly aware of the often overlooked and
intricate relationship between gender and Scottish identity or Scottish literary tradition, he
“forces his readers to question the gender constructs he presents… Gray creates these bodies
28
within the grotesque tradition that Bakhtin describes as a means of offering resistance…”
(March 328).
The grotesque key body in this case is Bella’s. Indeed, several parallelisms can be
traced with the relationship between female bodies and language explored by Cixous. In
particular, when examining Bella’s body in the narrative, there are two key perspectives to
consider: the representations of Bella as a territory and Bella as a monster and, of course,
how this is interconnected and represented through language.
3.2.1 Bella as Territory and as a Monster
The personification of the nation in the woman-as-territory figure is not new. However, due
to the specific historical context of Scotland, until not so long ago, there was “no strong
tradition of representing Scotland visually as a woman” (Stirling 11). It first appeared in the
beginning of the twentieth century, as part of what is known as the Scottish Literary
Renaissance (Stirling 11-12). On this specific matter, Kirsten Stirling dedicates a
monograph, Bella Caledonia; Woman, Nation, Text (20008) to examine in detail this
traditional figure in Scottish literature, which acquired varied symbolic representations (13)
Interestingly enough, she highlights also how Scotland has ben, in general terms,
portrayed though this personification as a victim and as a monster, which resonates indeed
with Bella’s representation in Gray’s novel. She is a victim in as much as she, and her body,
are manipulated, confined, and silenced by men around her; and she is a monster because of
her alleged origins and “inadequate” sexual desires. Stirling also goes one step further,
aligning the oppression of Scottish women with that of those suffering from imperialist
domination (78). In this regard, Bella can be identified with the “subaltern” in Spivak’s
terms, due to her a “position without identity” (Spivak 476), in the literal and symbolic sense:
“Scottish women occupy a position of inadequacy not only because they are Scottish but
because they are also women” (Stirling 79). Bella is not Scottish, but she represents Scotland,
she is tried to be silenced, her “past” was erased, her body manipulated, her sexuality was
about to be mutilated.
Bella’s personification of Scotland is more evident in the portrait of “Bella
Caledonia” (Boschi 197), following a composition that reminds that of the Mona Lisa, with
Scottish “mountains and the Forth Rail Bidge” behind (Stirling 23). On that regard,
Kaczvinsky adds that:
29
… an identification tween Bella and Scotland is at the very heart of Gray's novel.
Bella’s loss of memory, the loss of her past, impedes any attempt to put together a
clear, coherent self, and her search for a personal identity becomes a metaphor for
Scotland's postmodern search for a national identity, especially in the late twentieth
century, as its ties to England are severed (776).
The parallelism of this relationship can be seen also in Bella/Victoria marrying Blessington
as “the marriage of Scotland and England on a national level” (Kaczvinsky 789).
Additionally, this means that any critique towards women by men in the novel is also “an
English critique of Scotland” (786). In a similar line, for Díaz, the common points between
Bella and Scotland go back to their ambiguous origins and their transformations, from more
her more humble origins to marrying an aristocrat and becoming the first Glaswegian female
doctor, playing different roles along these series of metamorphosis: mother, muse,
experiment, or prostitute (“Dissecting Glasgow”, 126-127). There is one more that could be
added, that of a free woman, that refuses to be perceived as an object. Bella’s portrait differs
considerably from other portraits in the novel, which are more realistic and include a caption
with the “real” names of the characters depicted. For Rhind, this highlights the metaphorical
nature of “Bella Caledonia” (3).
In what seems a direct response to the traditional metaphor of the woman as a land
that can be conquered, there is a clear statement in the film:
ALFIE: Adorable idea. Unfortunately my darling my life is dedicated to the taking
of territory. You are mine and that is the long and short of it.
BELLA: I am not territory. (Poor Things, 02:09:15-02:09:26)
As a side noted, it needs to be noted that Poor Things is not an isolated example of the
woman-as-nation figure in Gray’s work, since a similar case can be found in 1982, Janine
(Stirling 68).
According to Artie’s narrative, Bella’s body is appropriated and manipulated by
Godwin. She is brought back to life or directly born at his hands, on his terms, being the
ultimate ambition of the scientist getting to “own” her body in sexual terms, as his
companion. When discussing Bella’s monstrosity, Alkan highlights how:
… a woman need not be distorted, ugly, or even cruel in order to be labelled a
monster; being a woman suffices enough to earn the name. The female body and
sexuality becomes a site for the monstrous. Moreover, the male characters in the
novel constantly rewrite Bella’s monstrosity (“Making of a Monster”, 69).
30
For Stirling this metaphor has also political connotations and creates specific links between
“land” and “monstrosity” that cannot be separated: “If Bella is Caledonia, her ambiguous
status implies that Scotland is certainly a construct, and probably a monster” (“Making of a
Monster”, 78).
3.2.2 Bella Voice as “Female Writing”
When analysing Bella’s voice in the novel, it is crucial to acknowledge that Archie narrates
this story, and Bella's letters are interpreted and read aloud by Godwin, who then transcribes
them. However, regardless of the trustworthiness of his account, Bella’s distinctive and
innovative language usage could be seen as an example of what Cixous referred to as
"écriture feminine", even if ultimately Bella’s voice represents Gray’s writing as a male
author, and the French concept has been mainly inscribed in a very specific context. She is,
after all, a male creation, both in discursive and literary terms, her body is “re-created” by
Godwin, her discourse by Archie and Gray as a self-proclaimed editor, all situating
themselves within a hierarchical relationship, from a higher position (Alkan, “Doctor-
Pacient Interactions”, 149-150), an order that Bella tries to subvert. It can be stated that Bella
is doubly manipulated by the men around her: in body, in as much as she is brought back to
life, and in mind (at least to a certain degree), as far as her “voice” is only directly seen
though Victoria’s letter and her account of the events under Gray’s (editor) and Archie’s
attack.
As far as her voice goes, Bella’s linguistic traits are attributable to her exceptional
and agile language acquisition due to her infant brain transplanted into an adult's body.
Nevertheless, her unconventional choices and speech developments could also be seen as a
symbolic means of rejecting patriarchal language: she responds to the aim described “to
break up, to destroy; and to foresee the unforeseeable, to project” (Cixous 875). Kaczvinsky
aligns her linguistic “difficulties with her own identity” (784):
The reader struggles to understand Bella, as an adult struggles to understand a child,
or as an Englishman might struggle and strain to understand a Scotsman. Bella’s
language is inextricably linked to England through the genetic history of her body,
just as Scotland is linked to England through the history of its political bodies (784).
Whilst these connections can be made, Bella's voice is actually more complex and does not
truly reflect infant speech or writing. Her linguistic journey consists of four distinct phases,
each characterized by a unique approach to language. As a toddler, she exhibits what could
31
be described as lexical rebellion, challenging conventional syllabic breakdown, and creating
double-meanings and puns. During her adolescence, she displays synonymic enthusiasm,
experimenting with various alternatives to express her thoughts. Her young adult phase is
marked by a Shakespearean drive, using rich and complex language to convey her ideas and
rhymes. In her later stage, Bella apparently conforms to language norms to a certain degree,
since she occasionally exhibits an extraordinary and even exaggerated lexical richness that
could be regarded as the result of ultimately overtaking these rules.
It is important to note that Bella's idiolect is not static, it evolves as she grows,
without losing completely some traces from previous stages. Bella has the mental capacity
of a four-year-old when she first appears in Archie memories. Her word breakdown defies
linguistic conventions and produces puns and double meanings: “Hell low God win, hell low
new man” (Gray 55).
When she is around thirteen, her quick speech is evidenced by the lack of commas
and certain reiterations “Without Bella you will grow glum glummer glummest…” (72). This
begins to showcase the significance of language in shaping her identity. She also begins to
play with written language, omitting all vowels and creating messages that are difficult to
decipher (usually requiring Godwin’s translation). In her first letter to Archie, Bella's
noticeable dissatisfaction with the written word draws attention to the specific aims and
functions of her idiolect:
DR CNDL,
Y WNT GT MCH FRM M THS WY. WRDS DNT SM RL 2 M WHN NT SPKN R HRD.
YR
LTTRS R VRY LK THR MNS LV LTTRS, SPCLLY DNCN WDDRBRNS.
YRS FTHFLLY,
BLL BXTR (Gray 79, italics in the original).
According to Gray’s Archive website, Bella’s key message should be read as: “You
won’t get much from me this week. Words don’t seem real to me, when not spoken are hard.
Your letters are very like other men’s love letters, especially Duncan Wedderburn's”. Bella's
omission of vowels and punctuation shares similarities with spoken language. This is
consistent with Godard's observation that women's language is mobile between speech and
writing and "operates in between, intervening” (44). Her shortened expressions often
foreshadow the abbreviated terms and letter-number combinations later used nowadays by
32
young people in the substitutes of these letters, short-messaging and social media platforms.
In the letter above, "2 M" (meaning "to me") exemplifies this phenomenon.
After running away with Wedderburn and embarking on their travels, additional
language experimentation is evident in her correspondence with Godwin. Bella has engaged
in extensive reading and has been captivated by Shakespeare's work. As a result, she decides
to adopt his style of speech permanently:
Dear God,
I had no peace to write before
we are afloat upon this blue blue sea.
Wedder is snug in bunk and glad at last
not to be do do doing all the time—
the silly chap has done some silly things.
How Auld Lang Syne seems that soft warm bright night
when I bade you good-bye, chloroformed Candle,
then skipped down ladder into Wedder’s arms.
Swift as the wind we sped in cab to train
and curtained carriage where we wed wed wed,
went wedding all the way to London town
and booked into Saint Pancras’s Hotel.
And yet poor Duncan wanted marriage too!
He did not get it. Please tell Candle so.
You never wedded, God, so may not know
eight hours of it takes much more out of men
than they can give without a lot of rest.
Next day was all my own. I saw some sights,
then waked my Wedder with a good high tea… (Gray 120).
Again, Kaczvinsky points out to Bella’s linguistic evolution and the development of
literature in Scotland or a literary language: “Bella writes back to Baxter in Shakespearean
iambic pentameter, until the strain wears her out. Then she adopts a prosaic and
contemporary English” (785).
In this excerpt from the beginning of her letter, in addition to the rhymed verses, there
are still remnants of former linguistic phases. This is evident in the use of repetitions such
as “do do doing” or “wed wed wed”, with the latter being her very own most notable
semantic neologism to refer to sex. When discussing sex and translation, Santaemilia
highlights that:
33
Though sex(uality) is arguably only one of the several variables involved in the
constitution of self besides race, social class, power or gender, — among others the
analysis of its translation is a privileged — vantage point from which to explore the
complex construction of women and men in different languages and cultures, and to
derive ideological and discursive insights into the constitution of gender and sexual
identities” (“Sex and translation: On women, men and identities” 104).
On this frame, Bella’s ways of talking about sex can be regarded as an act of resistance to
male-centric conceptions and definitions, and its translation will require special attention.
Her distinctive language usage mirrors her individual process of self-discovery and the effort
to regain control over her life and sexuality. Due to her rapid mental growth, she has not
been entirely influenced by societal conventions. As such, she is challenging existing norms
through her behaviour, embodiment, and communication. She is disrupting the traditional
male-centred (Victorian) narrative in which female heroines are disappointed by male
antagonists who manipulate them. This rejection of the woman as a victim is evident when
she says “With all his advantages Wedderburn is a poor creature. Bell is not” (Gray 114).
Taking into consideration the novel as a whole, this rejection reaches its epitome at the end
of Archie’s memoirs. There, the General chooses “a Roman end”, which can be seen as a
form of "reverse suicide," resisting and subverting the traditional narrative of women killing
themselves. Another significant example is Wedderburn’s infatuation and madness
representing role reversal in terms of gender roles. This resistance manifests itself both in
content and in form through Bella’s voice.
Instead of adhering to traditional values or expectations, Bella is embracing Cixous’
perspective when she said: “Writing for you, you are for you; your body is yours, take it”
(876). She is “breaking the codes that negate her” (879) in all forms possible. Bella’s bold
language articulation also recalls Godayol’s concept of borderland in feminist translation as:
a reflective and self-critical space in which the representations of the feminine
subject translator are constantly modified and recreated… in which identity and
textuality are constantly (re)written from a point of view of commitment and
negotiation (13).
The main character is interpreting and navigating the cultural, social, and linguistic
(patriarchal) conventions around her as she becomes acquainted with them. Through her
unique interpretation, she is also grappling with how to handle this dynamic relationship.
Language serves as a mirror of these interactions.
34
Experiments with language pose endless translation challenges, because as Flotow
noticed, “the place where power relations are disrupted” in each language may differ in
translation” (22). More specifically:
[Experimental feminist writing]… has foregrounded the issue of gender in language
and caused translators to respond to the resulting technical and theoretical challenges.
When confronted with texts full of wordplay and fragmented syntax, translators have
had to develop creative methods similar to those of the source-text writers; they have
had to go beyond translation to supplement their work, making up for the differences
between various patriarchal languages by employing wordplay, grammatical
dislocations and syntactic subversion in other places in their texts. In the translation
of work that 'writes the body', they have dealt with the fact that in many languages
words need to be created or recuperated to name and describe culturally taboo aspects
of the female body (Flotow, 23).
This is closely connected to comprehending the purpose of a text, which relates to the
intention and acceptance discussed earlier. In terms of translation, these ideas also align with
Hans J. Vermeer & Katharina Reiss’s Skopos Theory, according to which a translation “must
be fit for purpose; that is, it must be ‘functionally adequate’” (Munday 127). The proposed
translation alternatives herein will be based on a functional approach, understood in its broad
sense.
Additionally, it needs to be noted that the exploration of Bella’s voice as “female
writing” or “women writing” does not intent to imply that any form of (female) linguistic
experimentation aligns with this. Instead, the aim is to argue that these theoretical concepts,
associated with a given context and, some, with the “early days” of the crossroads of
translation and gender studies, can be explored from more perspectives — not only to female
writers or translator, but to “female voices” in general—and applied in this particular case.
In Lanthimos’ film, Bella’s voice evolves in similar stages and is supported by non-
linguistic elements. For instance, in terms of female agency, there is a sharp contrast between
the black and white shootings, when she is manipulated and controlled by the men around
her, and the colourful scenes in which she can acts freely, including in her initial suicide.
Colour is then introduced right after her elopement and the first step of her life as a free
autonomous woman.
35
4. Case Study: Poor Things in Spanish
4.1 General Overview: Translation Errors and Translation Techniques
When studying the gender awareness and perspective of a text, it can be argued that there
are two main categories for analysing the different utterances: how men talk about or to
women and how women express themselves, both in form and content, that is,
morphologically and semantically. For the text subject to analysis, both categories revolve
mostly around Bella/Victoria. As such, the translation samples selected examine stereotypes,
linguistic markers of gender and capitalization that expose sexism in language. Additionally,
considering the previous highlights on the experimental use of language in Bella’s speech,
there is a focus on Bella’s particular voice. In terms of linguistic sexism, due to the Victorian
setting of the novel and the purposes of this paper, sexism in the ST or source culture (SC)
will not be under the scope of this investigation.
In this analysis, the translation strategies included in the framework proposed by
Molina and Hurtado (2002) will be used as a general basis. The authors analyse the
inconsistent and confusing terminology used in different theoretical concepts, including
“procedures, techniques, strategies” (499), and propose a dynamic and functionalist
approach which distinguishes the following: adaptation, amplification, borrowing, calque,
compensation, description, discursive creation, established equivalent, generalization,
linguistic amplification, linguistic compression, literal translation, modulation, reduction,
substitution (linguistic, paralinguistic), transposition and variation (511-512).
Before delving into the chosen samples, it is important to take note of a significant
factor that has an impact on the questions being investigated. Pobres criaturas, the book,
exhibits various noticeable translation errors of diverse type, which might be indicative of a
potential haste or lack of attention to detail, which could also be present in the samples
selected in the following section. This remark is deemed necessary since it is indirectly
related to the question of whether certain sexist translation choices in the samples explored
herein might be the result of a conscious decision or simply a lack of sufficient detail—
which, in any case, would make visible the rooted cultural values and ideology of the
translator. Discussing errors is intrinsically related to the concept of translation quality
evaluation (TQA) and, as Drugan points out: “Theorists and professionals overwhelmingly
agree there is no single objective way to measure quality” (35). She highlights the enormous
quantity of different categorization models based on the assessment needs or objectives and,
36
the sharp disconnection of TQA models between the academic field and the professional
industry, something that has already been noticed by several scholars: “academic efforts in
this area are still largely ignored, if not explicitly rejected by the profession” (Lauscher 149,
in Drugan 36).
On this division, Williams lists ten possible reasons that might explain it: academic
frameworks are more focused on literary-like texts; external factors, including complexities
and deadlines; priorities on quality preferences or in case of conflicts; linguistic errors to
consider: lack of agreement on defining “accuracy”; whole evaluation vs. sample evaluation
approaches; the quantity of errors deemed acceptable; errors severities definitions; the
general quality: and the purpose (xix-xvii, in Drugan 38). Although it is true that most of
these classifications are originated outside the literary field and it is true that different texts
and contexts will require different criteria or focus to complete a detailed evaluation, the
most elementary conceptualization could still be applied in descriptive translation analysis.
In a humble attempt or contribution to bridging the seemingly “eternal” gap between
theory and practice in translation studies, this academic paper will follow the professional
error typology of the Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) framework when discussing
translation errors. If academic classifications are neglected in the professional space, this
paper will not overlook the professional’s space contributions. This typology, used in the
professional field, is based on two standards, ISO DIS 5060:2022 and ASTM WK46396, and
is the result of two projects funded by the European Union (Lommel 126). Even if it was not
originally intended for the literary field, literary translations share many similarities with
other areas such as journalistic translation, marketing, and advertising or transcreation in
which this model is applied. It features the following categories: terminology errors
(including inconsistencies), accuracy (mistranslations, ambiguities, additions, omissions,
unjustified euphemisms…), linguistic conventions (grammar, morphology, word order,
collocations, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, cohesion, coherence…), style (including
inconsistencies, register, unidiomatic structures…), locale conventions, audience
appropriateness (including cultural references, stereotypes, and non-inclusivity), design and
markup (including fonts, formatting, layout, position of graphic elements…). On this frame,
it seems theoretically possible to follow these groupings when exploring translation errors
in the literary field. Particularly interesting for the purposes of this study is the mention to
non-inclusivity:
37
1) Offensive expressions associated with non-inclusivity often include unacceptable
use of derogatory terms reflecting differences in gender, ethnic or national identity.
2) Non-inclusivity can also manifest itself in the use of gender-based pronouns or
terms, such as masculine pronouns or terms, where non-gendered terms would be the
inclusive choice. (MQM 2024).
Similarly relevant is the description of stereotypes: “Content that reflects set, possibly
prejudiced, ideas about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong”
(MQM 2024).
Based on the above, and returning to the novel, the most perceptible general
translation errors, following these categories, include:
- Linguistic conventions: Morphology and spelling. These are
predominantly related to the absence of the written accent and the tilde symbol
in Spanish. The most visually evident examples can be found on the “Table of
Contents” section, in pages 26-27 of Pobres criaturas, with examples (bold
added) such as “INDICE”, “FORMANDOME”, “RINA”, “EXTRANA”,
“maniaco”, “Alejandria”, “sabiduria”, “Paris” or “ultima” (bold added to mark
the errors, the correct words should be índice, formándome, riña, extraña,
maníaco, Alejandría and sabiduría). This is not an intentional decision (as
confirmed by the Spanish publishing house by email); nor a consistent approach,
since other words are written properly in that page, and the ST does not present
any error. Typos are present also throughout the whole novel, mostly when
referring to places such as Amsterdam, which appears in pages 101 and 111 with
the missing written accent but including it in page 134; Alejandria (50) and
Manchester (224). There are also other types of typos, such as “nerrviosa”, with
a double “r” (16).
- Accuracy: Inconsistencies. Apart from the inconsistencies in the
use of the written accents, there are obvious issues in the localization of
toponyms and titles of literary works mentioned in the text. The People’s Palace
is inconsistently translated as “Palacio del pueblo” (9) and “Palacio del Pueblo”
(11). References to the “Biblioteca Mitchell” or “Biblioteca Nacional Escocesa”
are also found alongside the “Archivo de Periódicos Nacionales de la British
Library” (15), among others. Further inconsistencies can be noted in mentions
of other literary works; key Scottish literary texts like “… Old Morality, de Scot,
38
o las Confessions of a Justified Sinner, de Hogg…” (14) remain untranslated
despite the fact that, according to BOSLIT database, they were previously
published as Los puritanos de Escocia and Memorias privadas y confesiones de
un pecador justificado, respectively. Considering Scotland’s substantial role
novel, this lack of translation for such a crucial intertextual reference diminishes
its impact. Additionally observed inconsistencies include paratextual elements
treatment between ST and TT—an illustrative case being capitalization
differences where initial letters appear capitalized in the ST but all uppercase
characters are used in the TT.
- Accuracy: Omissions. There are several unjustified omissions in the
TT. To name a few examples, where the ST mentions that “The police surgeon,
Godwin Baxter (whose home is 18 Park Circus) certifies death by drowning”
(12) the TT skips the address (which will be key later for the plot), and just states
that “El cirujano forense, Godwin Baxter, certifica que ha muerto ahogada” (14).
For some reason, “his Newfoundland dog” (4) turns into “su perro” in (44),
which loses the powerful image of the size of the dog.
- Accuracy: Mistranslations. Overall, leaving the gender-awareness
examples aside, the Spanish text presents what could be regarded as minor
mistranslations or deviations from the source texts, and major mistranslations
which introduce contradictions and hamper the understanding of the text. The
first category refers to subtleties which, nevertheless, affect the tone and
rendering of the ST in Spanish. In this group, Godwin’s, and Archie’s voice and
how they interact which each other is particularly interesting, since their tone
and nuances in the TT do not match the ST. This can be appreciated in the
following excerpts (bold formatting added):
ST
TT
“What?” (48)
― Qué. (42)
“Very interesting, Baxter.
What use is it, medically speaking?”
(48)
― Muy interesante, Baxter.
Pero ¿de qué sirve todo eso,
médicamente hablando? (42)
“… I know
this is not the frank answer of
a friend, but I now see you were
never my friend, but tolerated the
company of a harmless, insignificant
madman because other well-dressed
“Sé que ésta no es la
respuesta franca de un amigo, pero
ahora me doy cuenta de que tú
nunca has sido mi amigo.
Simplemente has tolerado la
compañía de un insignificante e
inofensivo loco porque los
39
students would not tolerate yours…”
(50-51)
estudiantes mejor vestidos no
toleran la tuya” (45).
“I will continue to seek
affection by following a
lonelier road.” (51)
“Yo seguiré buscando
afecto por un camino solitario”
(46).
The use of “Qué” without any question marks provides an abruptness which is
not present in the ST—it seems that Archie is annoyed with Godwin and does
not what to hear him. The direct question in the next line “What use…” becomes
an adversative sentence in the TT, which reinforces this hostility (again, not
present in the ST). Similarly, “would not tolerate” becomes “do not tolerate”,
and “lonelier” just “lonely”. In this sense, it could be considered that the tenor
of these interactions is not the same in the ST and in the TT.
Among major mistranslations, it is particularly striking how Pasteur (50)
becomes Pascal (44), or when exposing his socialist ideals when referring to
work, “all work” (50) just turns into “todo aquello” (45). Probably, the most
confusing translation can be found in the fragment where “the rapid lingo of a
London native… which left out first-person pronouns” (204) is translated
literally as “que siempre dejaba fuera toda referencia explícita a la primera
persona del singular” (229). This is then followed by strange constructions,
which indeed included personal pronouns allusions in the TT, such as “pregunto
yo” but omit needed articles and prepositions: “Llegado a Glasgow siguiendo
información de carta Duncan Wedderburn, caballero, encuentro a dicho hombre
encerrado en celda de seguridad…” (229).
***
Going back to the seven standards of textuality previously explored, based on the
previous errors it could be argued that there are some gaps in the translation, since they can
have an impact in all the items. Similar errors are indeed present when describing women
and in Bella’s voice and will be explored in detail in the following section.
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4.2 The Translation from a Gender Perspective
4.2.1 Representing and Translating “The Female”: a Case of Mistaken Identities
When analysing the portrayal of women and their communication in the text, there are
distinct formal linguistic differences between TT and ST due to the language norms of
English and Spanish. In English, gender is more noticeable through personal and possessive
pronouns (she, her, hers; he, his, him), while in Spanish grammatical gender is manifested
through word endings of adjectives, certain nouns, and past participles.
The representative examples selected cover sexism in translation both in form and
content and include women’s invisibilization, wrong use of capitalization, introduction of
sexist stereotypes, softening or disempowerment of the women represented, and
generalizations.
4.2.1.1 Women’s Invisibilization
One striking example is the masculinization of the female when the word “doctor” appears,
even when it is presented as “woman doctor”. In many cases, translating the English gender
neutral “doctor” for the masculine “médico” or “doctor” in Spanish works, since the novel
is set in a time when all doctors were men. However, this changes when referring to
Bella/Victoria, since she becomes the first woman graduating in Medicine in the University
of Glasgow. Surprisingly enough, even when it directly referring to a woman in the ST, the
TT uses the masculine form:
ST
TT
The papers mainly concerned property
dealings between people and families
who had helped to shape the city in its
earlier days, and Michael saw the name
of the first woman doctor to graduate
from Glasgow University, a name only
known to historians of the suffragette
movement nowadays, though she had
once written a Fabian pamphlet on public
health (9).
Los papeles registraban, sobre todo,
transacciones entre personas y familias que
habían contribuido a dar forma a la ciudad
en sus primeros tiempos. Michael vio entre
ellos el nombre de la primera mujer que se
graduó como médico en la Universidad de
Glasgow, un nombre sólo conocido por los
historiadores actuales del movimiento
sufragista, a pesar de que la doctora había
escrito un panfleto sobre salud pública al
estilo de los socialistas fabianos (10).
The translator, apart from wrongly applying the masculine form on “médico” and then using
the feminine for translating the pronoun “she” as “doctora” (doctor), introduces in the first
instance a peculiar and questionable modulation that slightly downgrades her achievements.
41
Instead of becoming the first woman doctor, she was “the first woman that graduated as a
doctor”, which loses the nuance of being a professional doctor and introduces an unnecessary
comparison. It needs to be noted also that the Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas clearly
states that the correct feminine form is “médica”, not “medico”.
More instances can be found in the text. In general, the feminine is only used for
“doctora”. In page 212, Bella says “Seré doctora”, but a few paragraphs later, when Godwin
is praising the work of nurses and women, he “preguntó a Bella si quería ser médico general”
(213). In Victoria’s letter, she even exclaims “seré médico” and “seré tu médico” (283), but
later she mentions “me convertiré en doctora” (284). From a feminist perspective, using the
masculine form in Bella/Victoria’s words is even more problematic as it contradicts her
entire subversive spirit. Furthermore, if her statements are inconsistent overall, her entire
portrayal and message can be seen as unreliable.
In contrast, it needs to be noted that Bella’s mentions to becoming a doctor are
adequately translated in the film:
Source Script
Spanish Dubbed
Version
Spanish Subtitles
BELLA: I will be a
doctor.
(01:56:01-01:56:03)
BELLA: Voy a ser
doctora
(01:56:01-01:56:03)
BELLA: Seré doctora
(01:56:01-01:56:04)
Flotow points out at the relevance of giving visibility to the feminine through linguistic and
grammatical adjustments as “the most important contemporary feminist micro-strategy”
(“Translation”, 235), something that was not achieved in the novel.
4.2.1.2 Capitalization
Another example of lack of gender awareness in translation is related to what seems a
manipulative, or at least incorrect and incoherent, use of capitalization in certain words that
carry connotations of male domination or male power and introduces deviations from the
expected linguistic conventions. The words “general” or “ministro” (“Minister”) require
lowercase in Spanish, as stated in section 4.2.4.1.6 of the RAE’s orthography, “Títulos y
cargos”. Nevertheless, the TT reads as follows in page 10: “Abandonó el Palacio del Pueblo
en 1990, una vez que el Ministro de las Artes de Margaret Tatcher hubo declarado a Glasgow
capital cultural europea” (10, bold added).
42
More prominent is the capitalization of “general” when referring to Victoria’s first
husband, General Sir Aubrey de la Pole Blessington, with inconsistencies even in the same
page, such as page 228 that reads “…murmur cautelosamente el general” but also “…¿Le
sorprende que el General ignorase tal epístola?”, and similar ones also present in page 231.
“General” can also be found in pages 115 and, when referred to as “English Baronet and
Great British General” (250), the titles are translated keeping the SL capitalization “Baronet
Inglés y Gran General Británico” (280). The increased visual prominence, although
inaccurate, heightens the significance attributed to the men being described. This is even
evident in the literal semantic distinction between the words "capital" and "lower" or
"mayúscula" and "minúscula," which denotes something of great importance as opposed to
something insignificant. It cannot be plausibly argued that capitalization was applied just
following the ST or due to a lack of linguistic knowledge in the TL, because the treatment is
not consistent and, whether consciously or not, tends to privilege men over women.
Curiously enough, “Good Queen Bess” (162) is translated as “la buena reina Isa” (177), in
lowercase, even when a queen denotes the highest possible societal rank.
4.2.1.3 Sexist Stereotypes
In terms of contents, the consistent choice of translating “fairer sex” (in page 143 for
instance) as “sexo débil” (161) is noteworthy, since it would literally back-translate as “weak
sex”. While both allusions are considered derogatory, the sexist connotations are higher in
the TT. In this case, “bello sexo” might have been a better choice.
Perhaps, the most striking manipulation can be found in the following dialogue when
Godwin asks Archie about sex:
ST
TT
“I discovered procreation by watching
cocks and hens. Did your father’s
dogs never pup?”
“They were dogs—not bitches... ”
(46).
―Yo descubrí la reproducción mirando a los
gallos y a las gallinas. ¿Los perros de tu padre
nunca tuvieron crías?
―No eran perras callejeras sino machos
finos… (40).
The ST is literally, and inexplicably, translated as “They were not stray bitches but fine
males”. If that was not sufficient, the translator adds the following note to explain that in
English “bitches means both bitches and whores”: “En inglés, bitches, que significa tanto
`perras` como `putas`”. Needless to say, such remark is unnecessary in the TL, since the
43
double meaning of “bitches”/”perras” can be replicated identically in the SL and the TL. The
qualificatives added in the translation, not present in the ST, are beyond justification. The
addition of a positive term to the male noun “fine” and a negative one to the female noun
“stray” produces a highly sexist translation (not present in the ST), which is reinforced by
the translator’s note. As in the SL, the Spanish term “puta” (“whore”) does not carry the
same connotations as “perra” (“bitch”).
In contrast to other translation options previously considered, this cannot be
attributed to time constraints or insufficient proofreading. Instead, it serves as a clear
example of deeply rooted patriarchal ideologies and how they manifest through language
and, as a consequence, also through the intercultural practice of translation.
4.2.1.4 Softening
In other instances, the ST manipulation appears in the form of softening approaches or
disempowering the women represented. Thus, an “elderly lady” (55) becomes “viejecilla”
(50), which would back-translate as “little old (woman)”. The use of the diminutive adjective
generates indeed a diminished portrayal.
It is also noteworthy the light change of meaning in Gray’s introduction (as editor).
When referring to Victoria’s letter included at the end of the book, the ST mentions it was
address to “the descendent who never existed” (10). However, the TT amplifies this into
plural, implying she had no descendants at all, and undermining her representation: “unos
descendientes que nunca existieron” (12).
4.2.1.4 Generalizations
Generalizations can also have a substantial effect in terms of gender sensitivities or even the
portrayal of masculinities. An example of this can be found when Godwin explains “My
voice, alas, did not break, and remains mezzosoprano to the present day, but I woke one
morning with the enlarged penis and heavy testes which afflict most of our sex” (64). This
was translated as “Mi voz, como ves, no me cambió y sigue siendo mezzosoprano, pero un
día me desperté con el pene agrandado y los testículos pesados que tanto afligen a nuestro
sexo” (61), where the idea of just “most” is lost and generalized.
***
Within the MQM framework, the examples explored fall into several error
categorizations: deviations from linguistic conventions, introduction of terminology
44
inconsistencies, non-adherence to the audience appropriateness expectations and
inaccuracies.
4.2.2 Bella/Victoria: a Poor Thing or a Poor Voice?
Bella’s voice and her changes over time may be the most compelling area to analyse. In this
section, her linguistic evolution and its translation will be explored following the stages
previously outlined: toddler, teenager, young adult, and mature adult. Due to the scope of
this study, only a few representative examples from these different phases will be explored.
As mentioned previously, this is interpreted as highly connected to “female writing”. On this
regard, “feminist translation is paralled with “writing in the feminine” as a strategy that
breaks own conventional, patriarchal language and makes audible what has long been
inaudible (Flotow, “Translation”, 230).
4.2.2.1 Bella as a Child
Bella appears in the novel for the first time in chapter four, “A Fascinating Stranger” (53) /
“UNA EXTRAÑA FASCINANTE” (48), when her brain is supposed to be that of a four-
year old girl:
ST
TT
… “Hell low God win, hell low new
man.” …
“Hell low Miss terr Candle,” she said,
“new wee man with carrot tea red
hair, inter rested face, blue neck tie,
crump pled coat waist coat trou sirs
made of brown. Cord. Dew. Ray?”
….
“Cord dew roy, a ribbed fab brick wove
ven from cot ton Miss terr
Make Candle.”
“Mac Cand less, dear Bell.”
“But dear Bell has no candle so dear Bell
is candle-less too, God win.
Please be Bell’s new Candle you new wee
candle maker” (bold added, italics in the
original, 55-56).
―Ho la, God win; ho la, hom bre nue
vo3…
― Hol la, Se ñor, Candle4― dijo ella―,
nue vohom bre pe lo ro jo zana horia, cara
de inter res, paja rita negra, abri goa rruga
do cha le co pan talón ma rrón. ¿Pan ha?...
― Pan na, te la ner va da he cha de algo
dón Se ñor Make Candle5.
―Mac Cand less, querida Bell.
―Pe ro laque rida Bell no tie necan dela,
a sí quee lla tam bien es candle-less, God
win. Porfa vor se ala nueva cande la de
Bella nue voha ce dor de can de las (bold
added, italics in the original 52-53).
To this translation, the Spanish translator adds the following notes:
3 La división silábica de Bella se presta a confusiones y juegos de palabras casi
siempre intradudibles. En este caso ella dice: “Hell low God win, hell low new man”,
lo que podría traducirse literalmente, como “Infierno abajo Dios victoria, infierno abajo
45
hombre nuevo”. Bella, además, suele acortar los nombres; así, Godwin se convierte en
God (Dios) y McCandless en Candle (vela, candela). La misma Bella recibe el apodo
de Bell (campana).
4 Bella entiende el nombre de McCandless como Mac Candle-less, es decir “Mac
Sin Candela”.
5 Bella entiende ahora lo contrario que antes. Llama Make Candle a McCandles;
algo así como Señor Hacecandelas. (52-53).
Bella’s speech reminds that of a child starting to read, highlighting the syllabic breaks of
words, or uttering these breaks in the wrong place. More specifically, this happens with long
or new words (“corduroy”, “interested”) and with words or phrases that present certain
degree of homophony (such as “hell low” / “hello” or “carroty” / “carrot tea” / “fab brick” /
“fabric”). Most of these word breaks do not seem fortuitous at all, typically, they do not
occur in any word or when they cannot suggest a double meaning and word play. In this
fragment, two shocking observations can be made in the translation: 1) these breaks are
consistent in the ST, but they are not in the TT (“ho la” vs. “hol la”, “nue vo” vs. “nueva”,
“candela” split in three different ways), a choice that does not seem justified; and 2) whilst
in English there are 11 words presenting this experimentation (not including the repetitions),
in the translation almost every word is split, which also makes the fragment very hard to
understand for the TT’s reader.
From a feminist perspective, the syllabic division of “Miss terr” is particularly
interesting. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, the origins of the word “mister”
can be found in the 16th century, in “master” (1124). In turn, “a master” is “a person who has
complete control of something” or “a man in charge of an organization or group” (1081).
The breaking of that specific word, in which double-meanings or complexities are not that
clear, reminds of what Cixous asserted when describing the impossibility of defining female
writing: “It will be conceived of only by subjects who are breakers of automatisms, by
peripheral figures that no authority can ever subjugate” (883). Bella is a peripheral subject
in many ways: she is a woman, but she is also a “Frankensteinian monster”, she has lost all
her memories and, as a result, she is not bound to societal norms. It could be argued that she
already refuses to be bounded by any form of male domination, and this is reflected in her
dismantling of mister/master concept or connotations.
Returning to the TT, the translator mainly used a literal technique coupled with some
amplification in the notes (in Molina’s and Hurtado’s terminology). The extreme number of
46
divisions could also be considered a linguistic amplification. The reading difficulties derived
from the excessive number of breaks and the absence of double meanings, paired with the
inconsistencies on her utterances present Bella very differently. There seem to be no intents
on her words, no linguistic experimentation or double meanings, no recreation of a child
starting to read. What could be considered a rejection of patriarchal language in the ST; in
the TT is completely lost: the different functions of the ST are not reproduced. This kind of
experimental and creative language requires a functional translation.
Functional approaches might have incorporated compensations, discursive creation,
and transpositions. Due to the morphological and semantic differences between the SL and
the TT, relaying on prefixes and suffixes, compound words and even placing the written
accent in the wrong place could be fruitful. For instance, “hell low” might be translated as
“bien venido” (“Well come”) and “new wee man” as “des conocido” (“un known
person/man”). There are also other words which literal meaning is irrelevant, such as
“corduroy”: what is most important is not the fabric, but that is a long word, hard to
pronounce. In this case, using “tercio pelado” (“vel vety”, “third hairy) could recreate the
effect in the TT. Since velvet is a fabric representative of a more formal and expensive attire
(and Archie’s style is described as the opposite), the less explicit “velvety” could solve this
issue. This could be regarded as a compensation at a wider level (for other creative terms in
the fragment). It admits also bolder variants such as “tercio peloso” a “neologism” which
deviates from the standard single word. Variants with other fabrics might work also, such as
“antelina” (“ante línea”, “before line”). Being “antelina” a more affortadable version of
“ante” (“leather”), the proposal could work also. Another option could have been the Scottish
fabric “tweed”, being an anglicism in the TL, a solution that mirrors Bella’s difficulties with
words of French origin and replicates double meanings such as “tú id” (“you, go”). For the
TC, it could be considered a compensation at a wider level, for instances where Scottish
references might lose some meaning for many TT’s readers.
In this line, a possible translation of “Miss terr” to preserve its subversion against
symbols of male domination could be “Seño ría” (“Lordship”), a grammatically feminine
word in Spanish. Despite its common use referring to magistrates in the TL, it can be used
in a wider sense in a sense of “status” or “rank”: “tratamiento dado a personas con cierta
dignidad” (Moliner 1532). Furthermore, the origin of the Spanish word differs greatly from
the etymology of the English “mister”. According to Colomines, “señor” has its origins on
the Latin senior, “older” (503). The suggested break also creates interesting double
47
meanings. “Seño” is the affectionate short form of “señorita” (“miss”) used by children in
school and “ría” as a standalone word correspond to the first-, second- and third-person
subjunctive forms of the verb “to laugh”, as well as the imperative. This would back-translate
as “miss laugh” or even “miss, laugh”, creating a degree of linguistic and semantic
subversion more aligned with the ST.
The translator stated in his notes that Bella’s speech is almost always untranslatable,
but that would be the case only if the text was translated on a word-by-word basis, instead
of focusing on the whole text, on its function, understanding the translation as a
communicative act. Bella’s idiolect resonates with Flotow remarks on creative translation
and neologisms from feminist translation practice lenses, this type of translation needs to be
“innovative and equally neologistic” (“Translation”, 235).
4.2.2.2 Bella as a Teenager
After her first encounter with Archie, Bella and Godwin spend a long time travelling around
the word. When Archie sees her again, there are some changes in her speech and her mental
age is around thirteen years old. She uses many synonyms in a hasted speech illustrated by
the lack of commas. They only strange word breaks present are those of less commonly used
words, very long terms, or French borrowings, such as “circumambulation” or “entourage”
(bold added):
ST
TT
“He is still my little Candle, God! You
were the first man I ever loved after wee
Robbie Murdoch, Candle, and now I me
Bell Miss Baxter citizen of Glasgow
native of Scotland subject of the British
Empire have been made a woman of the
world! French German Italian Spanish
African Asian American men and some
women of the north and the south kinds
have kissed this hand and other parts but
I still dream of the first time though
oceans deep between have roared since
auld lang syne. Sit on that bench, God. I
am taking Candle for a walk saunter
stroll dawdle trot canter short gallop and
circum-ambu-lation. Poor old God.
Without Bella you will grow glum
glummer glummest until just when you
think I am for ever lost crash bang
wallop, out I pop from behind that holly
―Aún es mi pequeño Candle, God! Fuiste el
primer hombre que amé después del pequeño
Robbie Murdoch, Candle, ¡y ahora yo Bell
Miss Baxter ciudadana de Glasgow nativa de
Escocia súbdita del Impero Británico me he
convertido en una mujer del mundo! Muchos
hombres y algunas mujeres de Francia
Alemania Italia España África Asia América,
del norte y del sur han besado esta mano y otras
partes pero yo pienso todavía en la primera vez
aun cuando han lanzado su bramido los pro
fundos mares desdén tonces. Siéntate en ese
banco, God. Me voy a llevar a Candle a dar una
vuelta paseo trote caminata y circun-ambu-
lación. Probrecillo God. Sin Bella te pondrás
triste, abatido, abatidísimo y más abatido hasta
que justo cuando pienses que soy una bala
perdida para siempre aparezca entre las ramas
de ese acebo. Cuidado bien, chicos (68 bold
added, italics in the original).
48
bush. Guard him, lads” (71-72, bold
added, italics in the original).
“Yes, all over the world, but mostly in
the Pacific. On the boat out of
Nagasaki I met two petty officers—they
were devoted to each other—and I
sometimes did it six times a day with
each of them” (73)
―Sí, por todo el mundo, pero sobre todo en el
Pacífico. En el barco en el que abandonamos
Nagasaki conocí a un par de oficialillos
(dedicados por entero el uno al otro) y a veces
lo ha-cía seis veces al día con cada uno de ellos
(73, bold added).
“She was the main part of our cortège
retinue ong-to-rage suite train
trail or body of retainers when we left
Glasgow…” (74, bold added)
―Era la parte principal de nuestro cortejo
comitiva cohorte cola séquito o cuerpo de
servicio cuando partimos de Glasgow (73).
In the excerpts of her conversation with Archie and Godwin, there are some arbitrary word
breaks that do not effectively convey the intended effect in the TT. Simpler words such like
“profundos” or “desde entonces” (“deep”, “since then”) and “hacía” (“did”) do not
adequately capture her mental and linguistic evolution. Furthermore, when she mentions
“have roared since auld lang syne”, she is referring to a popular Scottish song, written in
Scots and attributed to Robert Burns that she was playing at the piano when she met Archie,
Auld Lang Syne (Old Long Since). The related stanza would read: “We twa hae paidl’d i’ the
burn, / Frae mornin’ sun till dine; / But seas between us braid hae roar’d / Sin auld lang
syne”, which would translate: “We two have paddled in the stream, / From morning sun till
dine; / But seas between us broad have roared / Since auld lang syne” (Encyclopaedia
Britannia, online). The literary reference is not only lost and turned into an interrupted
comment that downgrades her witty and knowledge.
In terms of Bella’s own representation, in the first fragment, the intensely sonorous
“when you think I am for ever lost crash bang wallop” was translated as “when you think
that I am a stray bullet/loose canon”, which have other meanings and connotations. The
RAE’s dictionary defines “bala perdida” as “tarambana (persona de poco juicio” (online),
that is “crackpot/scatterbrain” and “a person of little good sense”. This is definitely not what
the ST says and projects a very different imagen of Bella’s self-representation. Once more,
these subtleties do not only affect her representation or identity, but also hamper the
credibility of her story.
Returning to Bella’s word breakings, her remarks on her lack of a past and that she
had “no sugar-and-spice and all-things-nice-little-girlhood, no early-love’s-young-dream-
womanhood” (84) reports a similar translation approach. It was literally translated (keeping
49
the dashes also) as “ninguna niñez-de-dulces-caramelos-y-todas-esas-cosas, ningún primer-
ensueño-y-amor-de-joven-mujer” (85). In this case, the idiom is lost, loosing part of its
power, and the excessive replication of the dashes hampers again her linguistic
developments. A transposition strategy could have worked here, using common expressions:
“ninguna niñez-de-color-de-rosa y sueños-de-príncipe-azul”.
At this stage her writing is also very peculiar and personal, since this is the point
where she does not use any vowels, a characteristic that is also patent in what is described
here as her “young adult” stage:
ST
TT
DR CNDL,
Y WNT GT MCH FRM M THS WY. WRDS
DNT SM RL 2 M WHN NT SPKN R HRD.
YR
LTTRS R VRY LK THR MNS LV LTTRS,
SPCLLY DNCN WDDRBRNS.
YRS FTHFLLY,
BLL BXTR. (79)
QRD CNDL:
N BTENDRS MCH D M D ST MNR. LS
PLBRAS N M PRCN RSL S N SN DCHS
Y SCCHDS. TS CRTS SN CM LS DMS
CRTS D MR D TRS HMBRS, SPCLMNT
DNCN WDDRRRNS.
SNCRMNT TY,
BLL BXTR (81, bold added, italics were
removed in the TT, apparently by mistake)
Despite the ST and the direct description of her writing that precedes her letter, “her writing
was so huge that there was only room for a few words on each, though like the ancient
Hebrews and Babylonians she had saved space by dispensing with vowels” (79),
“…obviando las vocales” (81), it stands out how a few vowels are still present in her letter
in the TT.
Later, she will also write to Godwin saying, “I am here”, that is, in her own words:
“M HR” (93 and 95), which was translated inconsistently in the TT as “STY Q” (99) and “Q
STY” (101). Again, Bella is translated and re-created as incongruent. These inconsistencies
are particularly important in a text such as Poor Things because:
… there is no singular truth presented… the reader is offered a fascinating insight
into how patriarchal power seeks to undermine female autonomy, as well as how one
woman (Bella Baxter) works against this. What will become increasingly clear is that
despite the various male characters’ attempts to control and confine Bella, she
censors neither her behaviour nor her actions (Richardson).
As will be explored in further examples selected, Bella is repeatedly translated
inconsistently, and this affects a fundamental pillar of the text —her reliability as a narrator.
50
The translator seems to take a stance, he deviates from the author and the ST, manipulating
Bella’s voice and representation to favour Archie’s version.
In the film, he portrayal of Bella’s early stage of mental development is supported by
non-verbal means, such as the particular soundtrack and the peculiar non-melodic music that
she plays at the piano. The symbolic acts of resistance to the societal norms are demonstrated
through her distinct attire, movements and dancing, and actions, including spitting out food
and breaking dishes. At the linguistic level, Bella’s particular voice is based on grammar
switches, simplifications, and alterations of the expected word order. Thus, she says for
instance “Bella go look at world” (00:13:34-00:13:36) is translated both in the dubbed and
subtitled versions following the ST approach, as “Bella quiere mirar mundo”. In this case,
there is a transposition of the agrammatical “go”, reflected in the lack of needed articles. The
unidiomatic “look at” is also literally translated as “mirar”, since they both work here. Yet,
the following scene shows how she literally “looks at” the world from her rooftop, creating
a certain word play similar to those in Gray’s text. In order instances, Bella alters the standard
word order: “Outside must go” (00:15:05-00:15:06) is translated as “Fuera ir debo” in the
dubbed version and as “Fuera debo ir” in the subtitles. Whilst in this case a matching
translation would have been ideal, both produce similar effects and can be considered
functional. At a very wide macro-textual level, the translations for the film are based on
literal and transpositional strategies that align with the ST.
According to the information available on the Spanish database of dubbed and
subtitled films, eldoblaje.com, the translation for dubbing was completed by Javier Pérez
Alarcón and the subtitles were translated by Lía Moya. Both are highly experienced in
audiovisual translation (again, according to the records in the database), and both won the
ATRAE awards
2
(the Association of Adaptation and Audiovisual Translation in Spain). A
remarkable difference between both versions is that Ducan addresses Bella with the Spanish
formal tone of voice “usted”, whilst the subtitles are in the informal “tú”.
4.2.2.2 Bella as a Young Adult
To wed
Following her elopement with Wedderburn, Bella sends a long letter narrating her adventures
to Godwin. Once again, her personal growth is reflected in a creative use of language. It
2
https://premios.atrae.org/lia-moya/
https://premios.atrae.org/javier-perez-alarcon
51
needs to be noted that Bella’s letter is still written in her own style, partly without vowels,
but the readers are warned that what is presented is a transcribed version from what Godwin
translated to Archie.
A key term recurrent word in her letter is her semantic neologism “to wed”, which
she uses to refer to sex, contraposing it to “marriage”. The translation challenge was not
completely solved in the TT. In the sense of having sex, it was mostly translated as “casar”
(“marry”) without the reflexive pronoun “-se” (“casarse”), rendering it an intransitive verb
and creating grammatically incorrect structures in the TL. The issue this translation choice
poses is that both terms are so closed and similar in the TT that it is hard to differentiate both,
and they lead to ambiguities and potential contradictions in some fragments:
ST
TT
The joys of wedding cannot be locked up,
not even partly, nor can his nipple-noddle
remember I must marry someone else (124,
bold added).
El gozo de casar no puede ser encerrado
ni siquiera un poquillo, ni puedo su mollera
recordar que yo habré de casarme con otro
136, bold added).
This becomes even more confusing when, in some instances, “marry” and its variants are
translated as “matrimonio” instead: “This was fooling him slightly because most people
think wedding and marriage are the same, but it was easier than complicated explanations”
(128) is translated as “… a sabiendas de que lo engañaba un poco, porque la mayoría de la
gente cree que el casamiento y el matrimonio son la misma cosa, pero eso era más fácil
que darle complicadas explicaciones” (142).
Furthermore, in other instances, there is no difference at all between “marry” and
“wed” in the TT:
ST
TT
Most of her customers were married men,
“Is it possible for strangers to wed so
quickly?” I asked, astonished, and she said
many men preferred strangers because
they could not wed those they knew best.
Most of her customers were married men,
and some of them had mistresses too. It
seemed a mistress was what I had been to
Wedder, though a Parisian kind are called
midinettes (175, bold added).
―¿Pueden los desconocidos casar tan
rápido? -le pregunté, sorprendida, y ella
respondió que muchos hombres preferían a
las desconocidas porque no podían casar
con las que conocían bien. La mayoría de
sus clientes eran casados y algunos de ellos
incluso tenían amantes. Al parecer una
amante es lo que había sido yo para
Wedder, aunque las que hay en París son
llamadas midinettes (194, bold added).
52
Apart from losing the wordplay, Bella’s voice is not uniform in the TT. In the film, there
seems to be a wink to her unique sexual terms in what she describes as “furious jumping” or
“saltos furiosos” (00:43:37-00:43:39). Sex and the language used to describe it are closely
linked to personal representation and identity:
If sex is the most intimate indicator of identity, language is likewise the most intimate
way of expressing sexual experience… above all, through language: through the
whole discourse but also through metaphors, euphemisms, synonyms, syntactic
structures, ellisions, or even punctuation.” (Santaemilia, “The Translation of Sex/the
Sex of Translation”, 118).
As such, it is imperative that translation reflects these nuances to shape Bella’s identity
consistently. Otherwise, her representation and identity lose power. Whilst the translation
choice “casar” might have worked, a clear differentiation is needed. Alternatives such as
“unir(se)” (join) could have been applied also.
Writing in verse
When Godwin received Bella’s letter, he tells Archie “…The close-packed sense within her
sentences, her puns, her very cadences are Shakespeare’s” (116). Bella also mentions at
different points: “Writing like Shakespeare is hard work for a woman with a cracked head
who cannot spell properly” (123) and “I will not write like Shakespeare any more. It slows
me down, especially now I am trying to spell words in the long way most people do” (126).
Indeed, part of her letter is in verse. The beginning reads as follows (in this case, to properly
visualise the line breaks, no table is included):
Dear God,
I had no peace to write before
we are afloat upon this blue blue sea.
Wedder is snug in bunk and glad at last
not to be do do doing all the time—
the silly chap has done some silly things.
How Auld Lang Syne seems that soft warm bright night
when I bade you good-bye, chloroformed Candle,
then skipped down ladder into Wedder’s arms.
Swift as the wind we sped in cab to train
and curtained carriage where we wed wed wed,
53
went wedding all the way to London town
and booked into Saint Pancras’s Hotel.
And yet poor Duncan wanted marriage too!
He did not get it. Please tell Candle so.
You never wedded, God, so may not know
eight hours of it takes much more out of men
than they can give without a lot of rest… (120).
The translation, despite including the Shakespearean references, do not reproduce the
cadence effect:
Querido God:
No tuve paz para escribir antes
navegamos ahora un mar azul azul.
Wedder se ha hecho un ovillo en la litera. Está
feliz de no ah ah hacerlo todo el tiempo
—el muy tonto ha hecho algunas tonterías—.
Qué lejana parece la suave y tibia noche
en que te dije adiós y anestesié a Candle
y bajé la escalera en los brazos de Wedder.
Tan raudos como el viento, fuimos de coche a tren
y vagón de cortinas donde los dos casamos,
casamos y casamos hasta llegar a Londres,
donde nos registramos en el Hotel Saint Pancras.
¡Y aun así el pobre Duncan deseaba el matrimonio!
No se lo di. Cuéntaselo por favor a Candle.
T jamás has casado, God, así que tal vez
no sepas que ocho horas de eso le quita al hombre
muy más de lo que puede dar sin mucho descanso… (120, italics in source, bold
added).
Bella’s verses continue a few pages (not too long) and do not reproduce the ST in general.
In terms of poetry and translation, Lefevere’s advocates for an interpretative approach,
54
leaving aside any phonemic, literal, metrical or rhymed translation (384-387). Instead, he
proposes focusing on four factors: understanding the “text as a whole”, evaluating its
“communicative value and sense”, identifying cultural references and choosing “a form
which will most closely match the position the source text occupies” (390-391). In light of
this, if the text makes a parallelism between Bella’s writing and Shakespeare writing, the
readers of the TT need to see that reference too, which is not there because 1) Shakespeare
has not (yet) been translated in verse in Spanish and 2) there seem to be no poetic resources
at all in the TT. Even a few rhymed verses or the election of a few archaic words, as a
transpositional compensatory strategy could have worked.
Furthermore, instead of providing a translation with an elevated discourse, the TT
does the opposite, introducing agrammatical constructions (not present in the ST), such as
“muy más” (“very more”) or a lack of needed articles “de coche a tren y vagón de cortinas”.
God
Bella tends to affectionately call Godwin “God”, creating double meanings on several
occasions. Whilst this, per se, is not directly related to gender or female representation, it is
worth considering it as part of Bella’s speech and its consistency. This is reflected for
instance in the following discussion between Duncan and Bella:
ST
TT
“Bella!” he cried, “all last night people
begged me to stop playing before my luck
ran out. I played to the very end and won
because I was using REASON—not luck.
You, at least, should have faith in me
because in the eyes of God you are my
lawful wedded wife!”
“God will let me leave you whenever I
choose,” I said, “and I will never set foot
in that betting-shop again. I bet you will
lose everything if you go in again—
everything” (131, bold added).
―¡Bella! ―gritó entonces―, anoche la
gente me suplicaba que dejase de apostar
antes de que se me acabara la suerte. Yo
jugué hasta el final y gané porque me valía
de la RAZÓN, no de la suerte. ¡Al menos t
deberías tenerme algo de fe, porque a los
ojos de Dios t eres mi legítima y casada
esposa!
―Dios me dejará abandonarte cuando yo
quiera ―le dije―, y nunca volveré a poner
un pie en esa casa de juego. Te apuesto lo
que quieras a que lo vas a perder todo si
vuelves a ese sitio, todo (145, bold added).
The literal translation strategy loses the double meaning and the reference to both “God” and
Godwin Baxter. A similar example can be found when Bella says:
ST
TT
“All I know about that god,” I said, “is
what I was told by my own God—by my
Todo lo que sé de ese dios que ustedes
llaman God —dije— es lo que me enseñó mi
55
guardian, Godwin Baxter…” (140, bold
added).
propio God: mi guardián, Godwin Baxter…
(156, bold added).
In this case the translator’s proposal of “that god that you call ‘God’” is a slightly unclear
unless the readers have some knowledge of the SL, since no one is referring to God as a
deity using the English word in the TT.
The challenge is effectively solved in the translation of the film in Spanish, both in
its dubbed and subtitled versions, where Bella calls Godwin “Lord”, “Señor” (Pobres
criaturas 00:06:55-00:07:00, for instance). The functional approach maintaining a double
allusion would have worked for the novel also. Indeed, the script includes a pun like those
in the novel (it needs to be noted that “Archie” becomes “Max” in the film):
Source Script
Spanish Dubbed Version
Spanish Subtitles
BAXTER: Are you a
religious man?
MAX: I believe in God.
BAXTER: Me or the
deity?
MAX: Humorous I see,
because you are known
as...
BAXTER: It is a joke
of my own making, I do
not need it explicated
for me (00:06:09-
00:06:17).
BAXTER: ¿Es usted
religioso?
MAX: Creo en el Señor.
BAXTER: ¿En mí o en la
deidad?
MAX: Claro, como se
refieren a él como el Señor...
BAXTER: Es un chiste de
cosecha propia; no necesito
que me lo expliquen
(00:06:09-00:06:17).
-¿Es usted religioso?
-Creo en el Señor.
-¿En mí o en la deidad?
-Muy gracioso. Como lo llaman…
-Yo inventé ese chiste.
No necesito que me lo expliquen.
(00:06:09-00:06:17).
Bella’s handwritten letter
Chapter 15 concludes with six pages, including reproductions of Bella’s letter that, in
Archie's words, was “printed by a photogravure process which exactly reproduces the
blurring caused by tear stains, but does not show the pressure of pen strokes which often
ripped right through the paper” (Gray 146). During her trip with Ducan, Bella visited
Alexandria and witnessed the harsh reality of poverty. This experience left her devastated,
prompting an emotional breakdown in her writing. The pages contain words, asterisks and
various stains and pen traces.
In the previous page, part of her message is translated to Archie by Godwin:
ST
TT
56
Godwin
Translation
“… curing with fire and sword.
Before now I thought
everyone I met was part of the
same friendly family, even when
a hurt one
acted like our snappish bitch.
Why did you not teach me
politics, God?” (146).
… aliviado por el fuego y la espada.
Antes que pensaba que todas las
personas que conocía eran parte de la
misma amistosa familia aun cuando
algún herido actuase como nuestra
gruñona perra. ¿Por qué no me
enseñaste política, God? (164).
Bella’s
message
cyooring with fir and sord. Bee4
now I thot evray wun I met woz
part ov the saym frendlay
family, eeven when a Hurt wun
acted lic owr snappish bitch.
Whi did yoo not teech mee
politics God? (147).
alıbyondo x ½ del fuego i la hespada.
Antes pensaba ke todas las personas ke
conocía eran parte de la mısma,
amistosa famılya, aun kuando algun
erido actuase como Nuestra
GRUÑONA PERRA, ¿X ke no me
ensenaste polıtıca, God? (165).
During this crisis, Bella returns to “an earlier phase”, as Godwin highlights (157): she
transcribes words as they sound. In the TT, a few questions arise. While the omission of
necessary “h” letters seems to reproduce the ST effect, its inclusion does not fit the purpose
of a simplified or more spontaneous writing. The use of the “i” and the dotless “i”, written
accents and tildes should at least be consistent.
Additionally, Godwin’s translation does not totally fit Bella’s message. What is more
(and worse), it seems that it is Bella’s text what does not fit Godwin’s message. Where
Godwin says “por el fuego” (164) apparently Bella would have said “por medio del fuego”
(“x ½”). However, this inconsistency is not present in the ST.
The use of uppercase is even more remarkable. Why was "snappish bitch" capitalized
in the TT? And why highlighting specifically those words with negative female associations?
The following pages are hard to decipher but they contain far more “tear stains” in the TT
than in the ST:
ST
TT
57
Fig. 1 (Gray 153)
Fig. 2 (Gray 168)
Fig. 3 (Gray 154)
Fig. 4 (Gray 168)
In this sense, the amplification of her suffering might present her as a more fragile subject
than she really is, at least to the extent that the ST is concerned. As a side note, there is a
similar letter in the film also (01:22:33-01:22:48).
Returning to the film, it is interesting to note Bella’s similar linguistic evolution and
further winks to the novel, such as her synonyms enumerations (bold added):
Source Script
Spanish Dubbed
Version
Spanish Subtitles
BELLA: I also wish to
dash his body, form,
cadaver into
BELLA: También deseo
arrojar su cuerpo,
forma, cadáver, al mar
(01:06:45-01:06:48).
También deseo lanzar su cuerpo,
forma, cadáver, al mar.
(01:06:45-01:06:48).
58
the sea (01:06:45-
01:06:48).
BELLA: Duncan
Wedderburn, I have
made
friends, colleagues,
comrades (01:07:29-
01:07:31).
BELLA: Duncan
Wedderburn, he hecho
amigos, colegas,
camaradas (01:07:29-
01:07:31).
Ducan Wedderburn,
he hecho amigos, compañeros, camaradas.
(01:07:29-01:07:32)
BELLA: Are all on a
ship and cannot
escape, but there is a
world to
discover, enjoy,
traverse,
circumnavigate
(01:08:09-01:08:14).
BELLA: Estamos en un
cbarco y no podemos
escapar, y existe un
mundo que disfrutar,
recorrer, circunnavegar
(01:08:09-01:08:15).
Estamos en un barco y no podemos escapar.
(01:08:09-01:08:10)
Hay un mundo que disfrutar,
atravesar, circunnavegar.
(01:08:10-01:08:15)
Some parallelisms could be traced between her writing in verse and her interest in literature,
with Wedderburn’s attempted censure to silence and control her:
Source Script
Spanish Dubbed
Version
Spanish Subtitles
DUNCAN: You are
always reading now
Bella.
You are losing some
of your
adorable way of
speaking. (1:11:15-
01:11:24)
DUNCAN: Últimamente
no haces que leer, Bella.
Estás perdiendo parte de
tu adorable forma de
hablar. (1:11:15-
01:11:24)
Ahora te pasas el día leyendo.
(1:11:15-01:11:19)
Estás perdiendo
esa forma adorable tuya de hablar.
(1:11:18-01:11:14)
With regards to the novel, once again, the intentional manipulations in the TT
examined in this section do not appear to be the result of unconscious slips but rather a
deliberate effort to undermine Bella's narrative and, therefore, her agency.
4.2.2.2 Bella as Victoria
At the end of Archie’s manuscript, the former identity of Bella as Victoria Blessington is
revealed, attaching her letter narrating, in an elevated register, her own version of the events:
she is no fantastic monster. Her letter is presented with various font types, in different sizes.
This formatting differences are homogenised in the TT, despite the publishing house
declarations advocating to respect and include Gray’s artwork: “Creemos que el libro solo
59
está completo con todo el arte creado por Alasdair y que prescindir de él habría sido poco
menos que una herejía” (Sisí).
In the TT, her letter exhibits the aforementioned inconsistencies and lack of attention:
there are instances of female references for “médico” (283), wrong use of uppercase for titles
(280) and certain removal of her Scottishness (an “old Scots proverb” (243) is just “un viejo
proverbio” (272). The subtler typos (e.g. "sin mi" on page 284) and her unidiomatic speech,
which can be repetitive at times (“aunque” in page 284 could be an example), do not
accurately capture her style in the target text or effectively differentiate it from Bella's voice.
There is also an intertextual inconsistency when she mentions Archie’s dedication “TO SHE
WHO MAKES MY LIFE WORTH LIVING” (30 and 244). In the ST, no commas are added.
However, in the TT, the dedicatory note appears as “PARA ELLA QUE HACE QUE VALGA
LA PENA VIVIR LA VIDA” (25) and with an extra comma in Victoria’s remark “PARA
ELLA, QUE HACE QUE VALGA LA PENA VIVIR LA VIDA” (273).
In terms of not very idiomatic translations (mostly due to non-ideal literal
approaches), the following example could be mentioned:
ST
TT
The bound volume at last arrived from the
printers and gave him pleasure for many
weeks…and at the end he wanted nothing
but the pressure of my hand on his brow…
(245).
El volumen encuadernado al fin llegó de la
imprenta, y le dio felicidad durante
muchas semanas… y al final lo nico que
quería era la presión de mi mano sobre su
frente… (274, bold added to non natural
expressions).
It needs to be noted that some word and structural choices seem more common in Latin-
American Spanish variants, such as “costos” (271), “se recibió con honores” (272), “capataz
en jefe” (274), “fregando los pisos” (275), among others.
Regarding gender awareness, the first striking item relies on Victoria’s first words
“Dear Grand or Great-Grandchild” (243), translated in masculine as “Querido nieto o
bisnieto” (271). Considering the contents of the novel and the character of Bella-Victoria, it
might have been fitted to use a double structure here, also including the feminine form, or a
gender-neutral term such as “successor”. It also shocks the Spanish reader the un-translation
of the female name in Spanish “Elia” when referring to a man “mi hermano Elia” (276).
60
And last, but not least, the most interventionist translation within her letter can be
found in the form of a note, when Victoria goes back to the shooting episode in chapter 22:
ST
TT
… he says “The bullet had luckily gone
clean through into the carpet,
PUNCTURING THE INTEGUMENT
BETWEEN THE ULNA AND RADIUS OF
THE SECOND AND THIRD
METACARPALS without even chipping a
bone.” The capitalized words might just
convince someone who knows nothing of
anatomy but they are blethers, havers,
claptrap, gibberish, gobbledygook, and
since Archie cannot have forgotten his
medical training to that extent he must
have known it. He could easily have said
“puncturing the tendon of the oblique
head of adductor hallucis between the
great and index proximal phalanges
without chipping a bone”, because that
was what happened. (Gray 258-259, italics
in the original, bold added).
… dice: «Afortunadamente, la bala había
atravesado limpiamente hasta la alfombra,
PERFORANDO EL INTEGUMENTO
QUE SEPARA AL CÚBITO Y AL RADIO
DEL SEGUNDO Y TERCER
METACARPO, sin siquiera rasguñar un
hueso». Las palabras en maysculas
podrían convencer a alguien que no tenga
ni la menor idea de anatomía, pero no son
más que disparates, perogrulladas,
faramallas, galimatías, jerga burocrática,
y como Archie no pudo haberse olvidado
de su educación médica es seguro que lo
sabía. Fácilmente pudo haber escrito:
«perforando el tendón de la cabeza
oblicua del adductor dígito primero o
preaxial del cuarto trasero entre las
falanges proximales pulgar e índice sin
siquiera rasguñar un hueso»,19 que es lo
que ocurrió (Gray 290, italics in the
original, bold added).
To this, the translator adds the following, stating that Victoria’s description is not better than
her husband’s, and that the terminology she uses is not so and includes (incorrect)
neologisms not existent in the TL:
19 El párrafo de Bella-Victoria McCandless no es mejor que el de su marido, al que
critica. Si él describiría la anatomía de una mano, no la de un pie, ella garabatea aquí
una terminología que no acaba de serlo. Por ejemplo, escribe adductor en lugar de
adbductor y hallucis en lugar de hallux (o de su plural halluces), neologismo médico
que no encontramos en castellano y que el inglés tomó del latín, donde la palabra
significaba “dedo gordo del pie” (290, italics in the original).
61
Even if the translator was right, the reader does not need any guidance or predisposition
towards any narrative beyond any mention included in the ST, especially when it is to
directly contradict it. There are a few things to consider here:
- The Latin terms are not a case of “neologismo médico”, but “latinismos” or
“latinisms”, widely used in a technical scientific context in any language.
- They are indeed “proper terminology”.
- The translation proposed is amplified with an over-elaborated description and
inaccurate information not included in the ST: “dígito primero o preaxial del
cuarto trasero” could be back-translated as “first or preaxial finger of the
hindquarter”, which makes no sense in the TL. Needless to say, “cuarto trasero”
is only used to refer to animals and meat.
- Moreover, the translator’s note refers to the term “hallucis”, but it does not appear
in the translation, which renders his note more confusing even.
Again, female agency is directly compromised in the translation. If there are three
key narrative voices in the ST, in terms of veracity of the events and “truths”, Gray as a
fictional editor (to a certain extent), Archie and Victoria, a new voice defending Archie’s
narrative has been introduced in the TT, as part of the translator’s notes.
***
When discussing the challenges of translating gender, Castro highlights linguistic
gender markers (291) and the “Male-As-Norm Principle” (292). To offset these, as
participatory actively feminist approaches, she proposes three strategies including
interventive compensation; metatextuality, that is, including paratextual elements such as
translator’s notes; and “kidnaping” non-feminist texts altering them (294-295). A fourth
approach would be “co-authership” (296). In the TT explored here, it seems that these
strategies were all in place, but in a reversed mode: they were used to sabotage a feminist
voice.
5. Conclusions: Giving Bella her Voice Back
As a way of conclusion, female agency and representation is eroded in the TT due to the
implementation of non-functional literal and amplification translation techniques (as per
Molina’s and Hurtado’s categorization), that introduce errors in terms of accuracy
62
(mistranslations, additions in the form of translator’s notes or within the text, omission),
linguistic conventions (morphology, capitalization), style (unidiomatic choices and
inconsistencies), audience appropriateness (stereotypes and non-inclusivity) and even design
(manipulation of graphic elements), following the MQM framework classification. These
manipulations arise in form (morphological) and content (semantical).
Going back to Beaugrande and Dressler’s standards of textuality, it can be concluded
that:
- The TT fails to reproduce a cohesive and coherence narrative, in particular
through Bella-Victoria voice, which is manipulated in several instances,
threatening her reliability as a narrator and her agency.
- The ST intentionality as a social and, in particular, patriarchal critique is
considerably attenuated, and this directly alters the acceptability of the TT.
- In terms of informativity and situationality, the TT’s manipulations also affect the
information transmitted. Bella’s register and transgressive voice and language is
not properly reproduced.
- Some intertextuality references are lost in the TT. Bella’s self-referentiality is not
consistent.
As per Bella, she is partially silenced, in as much as she is removed from her own
voice as a vehicle of resistance. Her extraordinary voice provides a unique opportunity to
explore what was known as “female writing” from renovated prims, and to relate it to the
corresponding paradigms in translation studies: now, outside the borders from the territory
in which these theories were conceived. Further research on parallel cases applying these
frameworks to other literary voices might support this interpretation.
Bella says in Lanthimos’ film “If I know the world I can improve it” (01:23:08-
01:23:10). In a similar way, translators must pay attention to linguistic and cultural elements
that might reflect even their most subtle interiorized gender stereotypes or prejudices — they
must also “know the world” and retranslate what has been (poorly) translate it to improve it,
to improve the world itself, and to give Bella her voice back. Paraphrasing Adichie’s We
should all be feminist, Santaemilia proposes that we should all be translators: “todos/as
deberíamos ser traductores/as, esos seres que mueven diariamente los hilos invisibles de la
comunicación universal y que asumen sin vergüenza el tránsito responsable entre espacios
63
culturales diversos” (“FEMINISMO(S) Y TRADUCCIÓN”, 10). It could be added that we
should all be feminist translators, or feminist translation critics, even as readers.
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