Translation (in/of/as) history: toward a model for historicising translation in Hispanic Filipino literature

Abstract

The task of researching the history of translation within the framework of a national literature overlaps with the task of interrogating the uses of translation in imagining a nation's history. Although translation may be represented in this context as a neutral and unproblematic search for equivalence between languages, translational acts have been employed, either wittingly or unwittingly, to privilege a past and inscribe it into the accepted national narrative. Such is the role of translation in the history of Hispanic Filipino literature. In this article I argue that the endeavour of writing a translation history using Hispanic Filipino texts is called upon to examine translation in history, of history and as history, that is, how translation operates as a material, method and mode of commemoration. Translation is considered here as a fundamental component in the production and mediation of a text. It fulfils a gatekeeping function through which historical information is repatriated into the national consciousness.

Alluring translations after the Spanish-American War

“…Much in the same way that translation had been used across the Spanish Empire for centuries prior to this transition, so too would translation be used to various ends in the new sociopolitical landscape. For instance, questions of nationhood arise from translation and its historicisation in the Philippines (e.g., Rafael 2005Rafael , 2016Sales 2019), while the use of translation as a means to support US expansionist agendas and Americanisation efforts are described in Puerto Rico (e.g., Mellinger 2019) and Cuba (e.g., Foner 1972). Given the range of uses of translation, it is perhaps unsurprising that the sites of translation are equally varied.…”