ABSTRACT
This essay occupies itself with metaphors of transubstantiation - translation, transvestism, and transsexuality - rather than transubstantiation itself because, as Andy Mousley points out earlier in this volume, to play 'fast and loose' with this specifically theological term, which denotes the transformation of sacramental bread and wine into the (real or symbolic) body of Christ, is a refusal to essentialise the Eucharist and an act of irreverence. Such a move befits a discussion of the two novels under consideration here, Barbara Wilson's multi-prize-winning Gaudi Afternoon (1991)1 and Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body (1992),2 as both texts seek to problematise the concept of essence, particularly in relation to bodies, and question the patriarchal authority of the church. Wilson and Winterson are both concerned with secular forms of transubstantiation, specifically with transformations in gender and sexual identity, and seek to transform a conventional understanding of how gender is constructed, encoded and embodied in contemporary society. Their texts share a preoccupation with transgender, and in both novels the protagonist is a professional translator. Drawing on aspects of queer theory and ideas generated by the impact of post-structuralism on translation studies, this essay explores the relationship between translation and transgendered identity. It argues that the act of translation functions as a trope that works to question the 'fact' of sex and gender, and proposes that the figure of the translator is employed as a metaphor for the subversion of the binary sex-gender system that underpins the heteropatriarchal ideology endorsed by mainstream Christianity.
