The Untranslatable Victoria

• Delfina Cabrera ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Cologne

     University of Cologne

     Kreisfreie Stadt Köln, Alemania

     
• Localización: Feminist Translator Portraits / coord. por Eivor Jordà Mathiasen, Elena Castellano Ortolá, 2026, ISBN 978-84-1369-912-7, págs. 53-72
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article examines the translation practice of Victoria Ocampo (1890–1979), a pivotal figure in twentieth-century Argentine culture. Although Ocampo was a prolific translator, self-translator and editor of translations, this facet of her work has received comparatively little scholarly attention, making it a productive lens through which to reconsider her writing and intellectual legacy. The analysis seeks to address the historical marginalization of Latin American women writers engaged in translation and to underscore the need to broaden the conventional notion of the archive so as to encompass not only manuscripts but also editorial materials, press coverage, correspondence, and other documents that shed light on creative processes and on networks of cultural and textual circulation. Adopting this archival perspective, the article offers a critical reading of "Babel", Ocampo’s first published text, situating it as a reflection on language and sexual difference that anticipate central concerns of later feminist thought. It further investigates the linguistic and affective tension between her mother tongue, Spanish, and French, the language in which she first achieved literacy, demonstrating how this interplay shaped both her literary production and her approach to translation. Finally, the article highlights the feminist scope of Ocampo’s editorial work and its decisive role in the modernization of Latin American literature, while illuminating the transnational networks of cultural exchange that underpinned her editorial and translational practices.