La traducción como acto creativo en la prosa de Jorge Luis Borges

• Main Author: Goundareva, Irina
• Language: Other
• Published: University of British Columbia 2011
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37201

In this thesis we examine the conception of translation in the work of Jorge Luis Borges. Our hypothesis maintains that Borges approaches translation as a creative act and as a paradox, which stands for translation as an impossible and at the same time inevitable act of transference from one culture and its language into another linguistic and cultural system. Some of the questions that guide this project are: according to Borges 1) What is the difference between author and translator? 2) Does translation require linguistic, cultural and philosophical competence, or one is more important than the other? 3) What is necessary to be a good translator? 4) Is it necessary to be a writer to become a literary translator? 5) What is the relationship between a translated text and a source text? 6) Is the “original” only a version? 7) Is there an implicit hierarchy between the translated text and the original? From here we suggest that Borges, without establishing his own theory of translation, problematizes the idea of the “original” and the requirement of linguistic and cultural competence for a translator. According to Borges, only through the freedom of creativity, translation can get closer to the values of a text that belongs to another language, culture or time. For him, translation is only possible if it becomes rewriting ad infinitum of a text that is not necessarily the “original”.