Have you read the iconic Taiwanese novel The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei? If so, in which language? Alberto has crafted the fabulous Spanish translation of this beautifully genderweird text and joins me to speak about the opportunities and challenges the highly gendered structures of Spanish offer for this. If you have ever wondered which pronoun or gendered inflection to use for a cyborg and what language might best describe a trans machine, this is the episode for you.

Learn more about Alberto’s work on Instagram @aiweip or on Twitter (@Albertop_p) and consider giving @queerlitpodcast a follow as well.  

References:
Queer and Trans Philologies
Diane Watt  
Chi Ta-Wei’s The Membranes
Ari Larissa Heinrichs
Queer Ecologies and Environmental Writing (module)
https://lenamattheis.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/module-handbook-queer-ecologies.pdf
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun
Jack Halberstam
Paul Preciado
Alana Portero’s Bad Habit (La Mala Costumbre, 2023)  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.      Have you ever read a queer text in different languages? Do you experience gender differently depending on language?
2.      Why do we gender some machines and not others?
3.      Alberto comments on how Anglophone readers tend to focus on the trans elements of The Membranes. Why do you think they stand out to Anglophone readers?
4.      Alberto comments of generic masculine, generic feminine and genderneutral forms in Spanish. How do you think translations into other languages have dealt with this dilemma and how would you translate this?
5.      If you could speak any language fluently, which one would you choose and why?