ABSTRACT
If the borders between languages are in a constant flux, as the scholars of the fictional turn argue, what does that say about the nature of the border? Of distinct and separate nations? Of translation? If the story of the Americas’ collective cultural histories can only be told in translation, what does that mean for traditional definitions of translation in monolingual cultures? One of the more recent phenomena in artistic and critical thinking in the Americas derives not from a distinct nation-state—Canada, the United States, Brazil, or the many Spanish-speaking Latin American countries—but from regions on the borders between these nation-states. As those living in such areas record their movements and thoughts, a new body of literature known as border writing is emerging. Genres include visual and performance art, bilingual fiction and poetry, translation, and literary and cultural criticism. Perhaps because the translations often inhere within the texts and do not conform to traditional concepts of translations, new categories arise. Often nontranslation—that is, deliberately leaving a part of the text not translated in order to marginalize the monolingual reader—is emphasized by border writers, thereby undermining definitions of separate and homogeneous cultures. Indeed, the trope of translation and transculturalization has become one of the leading metaphors used to describe border writing, and merits further investigation. In this chapter, I suggest that translation is more than a trope; rather, it is a critical daily process engaging all forms of communication and thought by those whose lives depend upon crossing borders.
