Talk: "The challenges of self-translation and bilingual writing", 10th March, Sydney

Judith Mendoza-White, bilingual Spanish-English writer, will give a talk on the challenges of self-translation and bilingual writing on 10th March at 5:00 pm at the Sydney University Research Community for Latin America seminar, Australia.

Abstract:
In this paper Judith Mendoza-White looks at the challenges involved in the practice of self-translation and bilingual writing, as she writes in Spanish and English and has produced versions of most of her work in both languages. These challenges go beyond the linguistic realm, as cultural connotations and underlying meaning may remain unreachable to the second language speaker, however fluent and accurate her knowledge of the language may be. In addition to this, the writer’s identity can become compromised in the process of self-translation, as feelings of betrayal to the mother tongue may develop. The author will also look at the dual impact of self-translation, both on the mother tongue and the second language pieces: the two final versions of the same work involve recreation and rewriting rather than translation per se, and often affect each other in previously unsuspected ways.

Source with more information:
https://slc-events.sydney.edu.au/calendar/surcla-challenges-self-translation-bilingual-writing-judith-mendoza-white/