Sister Act: Reflection, Refraction, and Performance in the Translation of La dama boba

Hermeneutics is a key tool of translation in the sense of creating a text that promotes a conversation, at the very least at the level of language, between two different points in time and space. But the degree and quality of hermeneutic engagement that translators bring to the source text are, in turn, necessarily reflected in the various stances that they adopt a priori in relation to the works they are about to translate. By drawing on key theorists of the relationship between text and self, specifically Ricoeur and Gadamer, this article sketches out two key positions that explain the production of different types of translated text. Through analysis of how Finea and Nise are presented in two different translations, the article seeks to draw some conclusions about whether translation is a norm-governed activity or one that is contingent upon the translator’s perception of the potential for reconfigured relationships, or refractions, between the source text and its new audiences.