representing and translating acts of identity: with regard to the caribbean

This paper aims to discuss the linguistic configuration of the Caribbean region, focusing mainly on the islands of St. Lucia and Jamaica. Based on the ideas proposed by Robert Le Page and Andrée Tabouret-Keller (1985) about identity and language production, issues pertaining to the representation and translation of literary texts imbued with regional identities arising from these contexts are considered, citing, in particular, St. Lucian Derek Walcott (Nobel prize for literature in 1992) and his work. According to Le Page and Tabouret-Keller (1985), linguistic behavior is based on a series of Acts of Identity in which speakers reveal their personal identities in pursuit of social identities. To approach translation from this theoretical standpoint means that, when a text is translated, a lot more than words are transferred between different cultures. Also, the idea that individual discourse is the driving force of a language is highlighted and, consequently, translation theories that propose transfer and replacing a language with another are avoided. Thus, a less hermetic and fixed meaning of “language” follows, and it is possible then to approach Caribbean literature from a more informed position.