Translating Queerness: A Comparative Study of Two Thai Translations of Carson McCullers’ The Ballad of the Sad Café
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Abstract
This study explores how queerness is translated and reimagined in Thai literary contexts through a comparative analysis of two Thai versions of Carson McCullers’ The Ballad of the Sad Café. Drawing on queer theory and Marc Démont’s (2017) framework of translation strategies—misrecognizing, minoritizing, and queering-the research examines 209 queer—relevant instances in Nuankham Chanpa’s 1986 translation and Juthamat Anion’s 2017 version. The findings reveal a significant shift: Nuankham predominantly used minoritizing (73.52%) and misrecognizing (19.1%) strategies, while queering appeared in just 7.38% of cases. By contrast, Juthamat employed queering strategies in 95.08% of instances, with minimal use of the other two. The study also analyzes paratextual and institutional contexts to understand how broader cultural forces shaped each translation. These results highlight translation as a culturally situated act that influences the visibility of queer identities. This research contributes to queer translation studies by demonstrating how shifting ideologies and publishing norms impact the representation of queerness across time.
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