Article published In:
TargetVol. 32:1 (2020) ► pp.143–161
‘We’ve called her Stephen’
Czech translations of The Well of Loneliness and their transgender readings
This article aims to contribute to the still largely unexplored intersection of translation and non-cisgender
identities through a comparison of three reeditions of Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness (1928) in Czech translation. While the novel is considered by many to be the most famous
lesbian story published in the 20th century, it can also be read as a narrative with a transgender protagonist. This is in part
supported by the fact that the hero of the story is born with a female body but is named Stephen, creating a sense of gendered
dissonance throughout the novel. This article asks what happens when this masculine name changes into a feminine one in
translation, and explores the sociopolitical circumstances and publishing norms that have motivated this change.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The well of non-normative identity
- 3.The Czechoslovak lesbian s(h)elf
- 4.Lesbian loneliness of state socialism
- 5.When Stephen becomes Štěpa
- 6.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
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