Queer relationalities for translation: capitalizing on remainders of translators’ corporeal knowledge

Abstract

This study explores the concepts of corporeal and experiential knowledge among LGBTQ+ translators when translating texts with LGBTQ+ content. We apply queer relationalities to explain the interplay between potentially similar bodily experiences, queer moments, and real-life knowledges. The study employs semi-structured, in-depth interviews with fifteen translators. The findings show that most translators, to a different degree, incorporated emotional and textual considerations embedded in original queer experiences into their translations. This study offers a first-time observation that sexual identities are multifaceted and fluid, shifting across time, place, and sociocultural contexts, making it challenging for the translators to advocate for the community. The study also discusses the translators’ strategies for dealing with situations where experience fails them, how they identify queer moments, how they assert their authority in interpreting other bodies using their corporeal knowledge, and how they assume they have queer relationalities.