Translating the Past: A Comparative Study of Archived Narratives

Translating the Past presents a comprehensive overview of the theoretical aspects that have been interdisciplinary developed in translation and memory studies. The project aims to explore the ethical responsibility of translation practice that accounts for the accumulation and circulation of archived manuscripts containing personal memories of past political events and to interrogate ongoing debates surrounding historical memory in Spain. As confirmed by Brownlie (2016), interdisciplinary research concerned with translation and memory has not yet been fully conceptualized. Approaches to this newly emerged research area have focused on published literature, audiovisual and virtual media that are already known and reducible in a given culture (Brodzki 2007, Deane-Cox 2013, Elsadda 2016, Brownlie 2016, Pintado Gutiérrez & Castillo Villanueva 2018). This project seeks to develop and apply previous conceptions of the translator as a 'memorialist' (Brodzki 2007), 'mediator' (Elsadda 2007), and 'secondary witness' (Deane-Cox 2013). This approach echoes Agamben's (1999) concern with the cross-cultural transmission of testimonies in the context of archiving witness experience of the Holocaust. Furthermore, incorporating social narrative theory, archive theory and historiography, the project highlights translation's capacity to be used as a narrative-making tool that can influence how we understand contemporary memory debates that are riddled with competing narratives, contributing, in the process, as Agamben implies, to a better understanding of how we live with pasts that remain painfully present. The project incorporates a reflexive research practice that interrogates the textual construction and cross-cultural transmission of unknown memorial knowledge that has survived throughout Spanish history in the form of archived written media. This is achieved through exploring cases of the interlingual translations of different forms of written communication including archived letters and autobiographical accounts that have not previously been published. The case studies involve agency in telling others' stories that have survived through their written memory. This story telling as inevitably a narrative-making act that offers memories of the past an afterlife that may one day lead to a mediating role in politicized memory debates in contemporary Spain and the wider supranational debate surrounding legislation on historical memory in Europe. The research questions that are consistent to each of the case studies are: In general, how might considering the past as a site of translation help explain the archiving of personal narratives in textual form? In particular, how might applying translation's discourse of simultaneity and multiplicity to personal memories of Spanish history deepen our understanding of both personal and historical memory? Other questions that arise: What happens to archived memorial knowledge that is translated into a new cultural context? What is the role of paratextual framing in preserving or appropriating archived memories? What is the translator's role in the recovery and cross-cultural transmission of personal memories? What type of ethical responsibilities does the translator have when it comes to the accumulation and cross-cultural transfer of archived memorial knowledge of the past? What can the translation of archived narratives mean for intergenerational and intercultural dialogue on the past? The project asserts translation as a key method of public analysis by addressing interpretations and representations of archived memories of Spanish history. Drawing upon archived narratives, the project seeks to enhance dialogue between academics, policymakers, and those working in translation or memory studies. Accordingly, the project seeks to identify room for expansion in research on translation and memory on the basis that there remains a noticeable absence of dialogue between the two disciplines (Deane-Cox 2013).