Compulsive Translators: Are Narrators in Javier Marías's Novels Beguiled by Language (original) (raw)

Javier Marías’s novels are renowned for revolving around his digressive narrators, who, amongst other subjects, persistently reflect upon language and translation. This article discusses the role of these constant reflections and examines the narrators’ engagement with different forms of translation by using Roman Jakobson’s categorisation (intralingual, interlingual and intersemiotic translation) in four novels that correspond to Marías’s mature novelistic period (Todas las almas (1989), Corazón tan blanco (1992), Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí (1994) and Tu rostro mañana (2002–2007)). It briefly discusses the effects of intralingual and intersemiotic translation on the narrators before moving on to analysing in detail the impact of interlingual translations. The latter is a prominent aspect in Marías’s fiction; its significance is examined through the use of foreign terms and their translations (or lack thereof ), as well as the narrators’ reflections upon them. The ultimate aim of this article is to establish the link between the all-pervasive uncertainty in Marías’s novels and the narrators’ fascination with translation, especially of the interlingual kind.