Retranslating Lorca from Anti-Fascist Martyr to Queer Icon

Abstract

Esta comunicación pretende analizar cómo la recepción de Lorca en el mundo anglosajón se ha debido en gran medida a las retraducciones sucesivas de su poesía, las cuales han reflejado la evolución de su estátus desde el mártir anti-fascista de la guerra civil española al icono surrealista de la generación Beat y, por último, el tótem gay del movimiento incipiente de 'Queer Studies' en las últimas décadas. Todas estas interpretaciones de la obra del poeta español se han construido en gran medida en torno a la retraducción frecuente de su obra y estas nuevas versiones han reflejado cambios profundos en la sociedad y la lengua en cuanto a la raza y la orientación sexual. This is an aspect of both Lorca s work and its successive retranslations that is inevitably bound to social and historical context and which has received scant critical attention. Therefore, through a diachronic analysis of the evolution of the English retranslations of his poetry, we will seek to analyse these retranslations in terms of racially and sexually sensitive language and observe some of the solutions proposed. In summary, the paper will attempt to show how the socio-historic evolution reflected in the retranslations of Lorca s poetry was crucial in the changing reception of his work in the English-speaking world.

This paper seeks to analyze how the reception of Lorca in the English-speaking world has been largely due to the successive retranslations of his poetry, which have reflected his shifting status from the anti-Fascist poet martyr of the Spanish Civil War, to the Surrealist icon of the Beat Generation and latterly the gay totem embraced by the burgeoning Queer Studies movement around the turn of the century. All of these interpretations of the Spanish poet were largely constructed around the successive retranslations of his work which have inevitably reflected profound changes in society and language in terms of race and sexual orientation. This is an aspect of both Lorca s work and its successive retranslations that is inevitably bound to social and historical context and which has received scant critical attention. Therefore, through a diachronic analysis of the evolution of the English retranslations of his poetry, we will seek to analyse these retranslations in terms of racially and sexually sensitive language and observe some of the solutions proposed. In summary, the paper will attempt to show how the socio-historic evolution reflected in the retranslations of Lorca s poetry was crucial in the changing reception of his work in the English-speaking world.