Approaching the materiality of poetry as intersemiotic, feminist translation strategy: Roser Matheu and Dolors Miquel

Beth Caygill

doi:10.14198/itaca.31052

Authors

Beth Caygill Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2507-6734

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/itaca.31052

Keywords:

Intersemiotic translation, intersemiotic reading, feminist translation, materiality, domestic sphere, (in)visibility, Dolors Miquel, Roser Matheu

Abstract

Marking a contrast to so-called inter- and intra-lingual processes, those based on the conventions of two languages (source and target) and the perceived potential for equivalence between them, in the mid-twentieth century, Roman Jakobson coined the term ‘intersemiotic translation’ (1959) as a third category of translation relying on non-linguistic systems of communication (Jakobson 1959). Even though the concept appears frequently in the field of Translation Studies, in volumes such as that edited by Madeleine Campbell and Ricarda Vidal, Translating Beyond Sensory and Linguistic Borders: Intersemiotic Journeys Between Media (2019) and, more recently, the monograph Art i posttraducció [Art and Post-translation] by Anna Dot i Verdaguer (2023), it has not yet enjoyed a discourse of the contributions it may bring to the feminist sphere. By carrying out intersemiotic readings of poems by Roser Matheu (Barcelona, 1892–1985) and Dolors Miquel (b. Lleida, 1960), I investigate what a material reading can bring to a text (in ceramics and embroidery respectively). Taking into account the established feminist strategies of text translation, such as those of Luise von Flotow (1991, 1997) and Massardier-Kenney (1997), and the visibilization of the translation process made possible by the intersemiotic turn, I recapture a translation process that encapsulates a longer history of women. This includes a return to the practices of British women translators of the Early Modern era, who relied on the materiality as well as the politics of authorship in translation, and the measure in which it may be revendicated as an adequate feminist translation practice today (Vitoretta 2025; Inglis 2023).

Funding

Aquest treball s’ha generat en el marc de l’ajuda de l’Institut Ramon Llull QMUL School/Institute - STA - Balearic Islands Doctoral Studentship in Catalan Studies (QMU_STA_BIDS).

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