Shortsighted translations: Censorship in the three Manolito Gafotas books translated into American English

Abstract

In this article, we explore the issue of the child narrator’s identity through the descriptive analysis of the translations from Spanish into American English of Manolito Gafotas. Particularly, this article illustrates how the three translations have censored Manolito’s identity from a sociopolitical point of view. We will discuss examples representative of the type of translation shifts that modify the identity of the narrator. We will also identify examples in the subtitles and dubbing scripts of the films available in English as a tertium comparationis to raise awareness of the importance of allowing a source character’s voice to resonate with target readers, and how translators and other editorial apparatuses ought to prioritize characterization strategies.