Ñ in English: translating the metalinguistic humor of David Soriano's satirical novella

In 2006 an obscure Catalan science fiction writer caught the attention of genre enthusiasts with his short novella Ñ. It was the introductory tale in an anthology of alternate Spanish histories – ucronias in Spanish – titled Franco: una historia alternativa. Readers responded to the story’s sharp political thriller plotting, biting satire and, most of all, its incisive critique of the politics of ethnolinguistic conflict in Spain. But in Soriano’s “Espanya”, it is the Castilians who are fighting in 1975 for the normalization of their language and demanding political autonomy after decades of sharp repression from a Catalanist dictatorship. This thesis attempts to create an English language version of the story for a general interest audience. A major challenge is how to handle a suite of humorous wordplay conceived for a readership intimately aware of the simmering conflict between speakers of Catalan, the native language of much of the eastern littoral and Mediterranean insular Spain, and Castilian Spanish, which is overwhelmingly dominant in the rest of the Spanish state as well as Latin America. The translation opts for a straightforward rendering of this humor, trusting that context and fast paced plotting will keep potential North Americans readers from being dissuaded.M.A.Includes bibliographical reference