Translating gender ambiguity in literature: The case of Written on the Body

The present work analyzes the difficulties resulting from the absence of gender marks in English when translating towards Spanish. To do so, the novel Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson – a masterpiece in which the identity of the leading character will be kept in strict ambiguity – would be studied taking into consideration aspects connected to the feminist and queer theories. Several extracts from both the original text and the translation by Encarna Gómez Castejón in 1988 will be exhaustively compared to evaluate the correctness and naturality of the translation. Additionally, if considered necessary, an alternative translation will be proposed.