Abstract
This paper examines how women and children are constructed, silenced, or reimagined in colonial narratives of the 1643 Dutch expedition to Southern Chile, and how these portrayals shift through translations into German, English, and Spanish. Focusing on translation as a form of cultural representation and ideological negotiation, the study contributes to broader discussions on communication, language, and social meaning in historical narratives. The analysis is based on a corpus including a 17th-century Dutch travel diary and its translated versions produced across linguistic and imperial contexts. Drawing on translation studies, gender theory, and postcolonial analysis, the paper identifies shifts in how gender and ethnicity are represented, particularly in the portrayal of indigenous women and children. These figures are often reframed or omitted in ways that reflect the target cultures’ political agendas and gender ideologies. The study introduces a gendered reading of “transimperial eyes,” showing how translation operates as a communicative and representational practice that influences cultural memory. Notably, late 19th- and early 20th-century Spanish translations produced in Chile show how nationalistic and religious frames reshape earlier colonial accounts. By tracing these interlingual and ideological shifts, this research reveals how translation mediates both textual meaning and broader historical understandings. It argues that translation is not merely linguistic, but a key site where narratives of race, gender, and empire are constructed, reframed, and transmitted across time and space. This work contributes to humanities scholarship by linking multilingualism, colonial representation, and gendered communication in the analysis of Latin American historical discourse.
Presenters
Aurora Sambolin SantiagoProfesora Asociada Adjunta, Centro de Idiomas, Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, Universidad Austral de Chile, Los Ríos, Chile
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Communications and Linguistic Studies
KEYWORDS
Translation, Gender Representation, Colonial Narratives, Cultural Memory
