The experience of self-division. Interviewing Rexina Rodríguez Vega, writer, selftranslator and expert in literary self-translation

Abstract

In this interview, Galician writer and expert in literary self-translation, Rexina Rodríguez Vega engages in a conversation with Esther Gimeno Ugalde (University of Vienna) about the practice of self-translation and its role in the interaction between different literatures within the Spanish state. Drawing insights from her self-translational experience with three of her novels (Cardumen, Dark Butterfly, and Nadie duerme), Rodríguez Vega sheds light on the inherent “rewriting” involved in the transfer from one language to another, the complexity of the editorial process, and the ongoing negotiation of the author-translator with editors, style correctors, and others. She also reflects on the tensions and contradictions experienced by bilingual writers like herself in the process of self-division involved in translating their own texts.