Interpreter between two civilizations

Abstract

This article presents a historiographical essay on the life and work of La Malinche or Doña Marina, translator of Hernán Cortés during the time of the conquest of Mexico. The following aspects that are significant for the history of translation are studied: the prerequisites for the formation of a representative of the Indian ethnic group as a translator for the Spanish conquerors, an expanded range of her intermediary functions during the colonial campaigns, her alleged participation in the massacre in Cholula as an informer of Cortés and, as a result, her condemnation by her compatriots and the formation in the future, the negative image of the translator among the indigenous people, from which she herself was. Thus, the genesis of the translator’s personality is traced, the value aspects of translation are revealed, and the axiological ambivalence of translation activity is demonstrated.

References

Alarcón N. (1989) Traddutora, Traditora: A Paradigmatic Figure of Chicana Feminism. Cultural Critique. No. 13: Th e Construction of Gender and Modes of Social Division. Pp. 57–87.

Alonso I., Baigorri J. (2004) Iconography of Interpreters in the Conquest of the Americas. Meta. Vol. 17 (1), pp. 129–153.

Arrojo R. (2020) Interpretative as Possessive Love. Hélène Cixous, Clarice Lispector and the Ambivalence of Fidelity. Post-colonial Translation. Th eory and Practice edited by Susan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi. London; New York: Routledge, pp. 141–161. 

Bassnett S., Trivedi H. (2002, 1999) Introduction: of colonies, cannibals and vernaculars Postcolonial Translation. Th eory and Practice edited by Bassnett S., Trivedi H. London: Routledge, pp. 1–18.

Bastin G. (2008) Latin American Tradition. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies edited by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha (eds.). London; New York: Routledge, pp. 505–512.

Chipman D.E. (2005) Moctezuma’s Children. Under Royalty under Spanish Rule, 1520–1700. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Cordonnier J.-L. (1995) Traduction et culture. Paris: Hatier/Didier.

Cortés H. (1519–1525, 1986) Letters from Mexico. Translated, edited, and with a new introduction by A. Pagden. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Cronin M. (2000) History, Translation, Postcolonialism. Simon Sh., St Pierre P. (eds.). Changing the Terms. Translating in the Postcolonial Era. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, pp. 33–52.

Delabastita D. (2009) Fictional Representations. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. Baker M. and. Saldanha G (eds.). London; New York: Routledge.

Delisle J., Woodsworth J. (1995) Les traducteurs dans l’histoire. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1995. 

Dias del’ Kastil’o B. (2000) Pravdivaya istoriya zavoevaniya Novoj Ispanii = A true history of the conquest of New Spain, per. D.N. Egorova, A.R. Zahar’yana. Moscow: Forum. (In Russian).

Diaz del Castillo B. (1998) Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España, Edición de Francisco Rico, Barcelona: Plaza & Janés.

Esquivel L. (2006) Malinche = Malinche, per. s isp. V. Pravosudova. Saint Petersburg: Amfora. (In Russian).

Flotow L. von. (1998) Le féminisme en traduction. Palimpsestes. Vol. 11, pp. 117–133.

Garbovskij N.K., Kostikova O.I. (2021) Istoriya perevoda: praktika, tekhnologii, teorii. Ocherki po istorii perevoda = History of translation: practice, technology, theory. Essays on the history of translation. N.K. Garbovskij, O.I. Kostikova. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, (In Russian).

Gentzler E. (2008) Translation and Identity in the Americas. London; New York: Routlege.

Helps A. (1856) Th e Spanish Conquest in America and Its Relations to the History of Slavery and the Government of Colonies. London: John W. Parker and Son West Strand.

Hroniki otkrytiya Ameriki (2000) Kniga I = Chronicles of the Discovery of America. Book I. Per. E.M. Lysenko. Moscow: Akademicheskij proekt. (In Russian).

Istoriki Dokolumbovoj Ameriki i Konkisty (2013) Kniga pervaya. Fernando de Al’va Ishtlil’shochitl’. Huan Bautista Pomar = Historians of Pre-Columbian America and the Conquest. Book one. Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. Juan Bautista Pomar, per. s isp. V.N. Talaha, pod red. V.A. Rubelya. Kiev: Lybid’. (In Russian).

Kartunnen F. (1994) Between Worlds. Interpreters, Guides and Survivors. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 

Kartunnen F. (1997) Rethinking Malinche. Indian Women of Early Mexico / Schroeder S., Wood S. and Haskett R. (eds.). Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 291–312.

León-Portilla L. (1962) Th e Broken Spears. Th e Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Boston: Beacon Press.

López de Gomara F. (1553) Primera et secunda parte de la Historia General de las Indias con todo el descubrimiento y cosas notables que han acaecido dende que se ganaron hasta el año de 1551. Con la conquista de México de la Nueva España. Medina del Campo: En casa de Guillermo de Millis.

Madariaga S., de. (1941) Hernán Cortés. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. 

Meyer M.C., Sherman W.L. (1987) Th e Course of Mexican History. New York: Oxford University Press. 102 p.

Paz O. (1998) El laberinto de la soledad. Madrid: Fondo de cultura económica de España.

Paz O. Zavoevanie i kolonial’naya epoha. Iz knigi “Labirint odinochestva” = Th e Conquest and Colonialism. Th e Labyrinth of Solitude, per. B. Dubina. URL: https://litresp.ru/chitat/ru/П/pas-oktavio/osvyaschenie-miga/4 (accessed 05.05.2019) (In Russian).

Pittaluga G. (1946) Grandeza y servidumbre de la mujer. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. 

Potapova A.M. (2021) Upominaniya perevodcheskoj deyatel’nosti u drevnegrecheskih avtorov = Mentions of translation activities by ancient Greek authors. Yazyki. Kul’tury. Perevod: VIII Mezhdunarodnyj nauchno-obrazovatel’nyj forum: materialy foruma. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo universiteta. (In Russian).

Prescott W. (1843–1873) Th e Conquest of Mexico. Vol. I–III. Boston: Dana Estes & Company. 

Roland R.A. (1999) Interpreters as Diplomats. A Diplomatic History of the Role of Interpreters in World Politics. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.Roland.

Rosenwald L. (2008) Multilingual America. Language and the Making of Multilingual America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies (1998/2008). M. Baker (ed.). London, New York: Taylor & Francis Group. 

Sahagún B., de. (1830) Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España. 1540–1585. Carlos María de Bustamante (ed.). Vol. I–III. Mexico: Impr. del ciudadano A. Valdés.

Serés G. (1991) Los textos de la “Historia verdadera” de Bernal Díaz. Boletín de la Real Academia Española, Tomo 71, Cuaderno 254, pp. 523–548.

Simon Sh. (1996) Gender in Translation: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Transmission. London; New York: Routledge. 

Taylor J. Pereosmyslivaya Malinche. = Reinterpreting Malinche URL: https://www.indiansworld.org/malinche2.html#.YGulxXomyUl (accessed 22.05.2019) (In Russian).

Valdeón R.A. (2013) Doña Marina. La Malinche: A Historiographical Approach to the Interpreter/Traitor. Target. Vol. 25 (2).

Verlinden CH. (1997) Pokoriteli Ameriki. Kolumb. Kortes = Th e Conquerors of America. Columbus. Cortes. Rostov-n/D: Feniks. (In Russian).