Rabassa and the "narrow act": Between possibility and an ethics of doubt

Abstract

In this article I examine the writings about translation by Gregory Rabassa, translator into English of such canonical novels as Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad and Julio Cortázar's Rayuela. I look at some of Rabassas articles about translation and at his recently published book If This Be Treason: Translation and Its Dyscontents, in light of contemporary approaches in translation studies that conceptualize the translator and translators' self-images and representations. I examine the conceptions of language and translation that underlie Rabassas statements in general, and look at them in light of Lawrence Venuti's idea of the translator's self-effacement. I -discuss the way in which translators' ideas about translation in general and about their own practice in particular can inform conceptualizations about the figure and status of the translator.