Ways to (Dis)Appear: Dragomans Committing Suicide in Stories by Julio Cortázar and Rodolfo Walsh

Abstract

Recent depictions of translators in fiction illustrate individuals devoted to this task as flesh and blood humans that exhibit an array of emotions. Two Latin American short stories, “Carta a una señorita en París” (1951) by Julio Cortázar and “Nota al pie” (1967) by Rodolfo Walsh, introduce readers to translators who take their own lives. The characters’ suicides remove them from the world of the living as they are erased from view and eventually become imperceptible and invisible. Their deaths also make them more visible as their suicides raise unanswered questions and provide written texts that explain their violent action.