Crossing the border between postcolonial reality and the `outer world': Translation and representation of the third space into a fourth space

Abstract

Stemming from poststructuralist interpretations of space and following Bhabha’s third space enunciation, in this paper we have coined the term fourth space and used this concept as a heuristic tool to address the need to establish a coherent standpoint for the analysis of postcolonial literature reception within a society with no immediate relation to the specific decolonisation process of the author’s country. We explore this concept through the case of the Spanish reception of African postcolonial literature. In Spain, this perspective has remained under-theorised in an era when representation of hybridity is at a vital point, since such representation will provide the social scaffolding for each person’s identity construction. Under these circumstances, literature can be transformative and the role of translation as a decolonising tool can help to create unbiased knowledge through an intentionally objective and unprejudiced interpretation of the original texts. We will analyse how those differentiating elements affect the translational process.