A PORTRAIT OF THE TRANSLAUTHOR IN DON QUIXOTE

Abstract

This paper aims to explore how Cervantes’ masterpiece Don Quixote problematizes the notions of authorship, originality, translation, and textuality. Using a deconstructionist perspective, which propounds that all text production occurs on the hybrid ground of writing and translation, this paper demonstrates that Don Quixote is a novel that blurs the borders between an author and a translator. In this respect, the fictional text producer portrayed in the novel is a hybrid figure involved in both writing and translating simultaneously. The neologism translauthor, which is a combination of “translator” and “author,” seems to be an apt term to describe this hybrid text producer. The paper indicates that Don Quixote is a novel that provides us with a visible portrait of the translauthor. There is just one narrative voice in the novel, and this voice belongs to the translauthor, who is the father, stepfather, first author, second author, reteller, rewriter, and translator of Don Quixote at the same time.