Curious case of the sex changes
General translation
05/04/2008
By Fiona Govan
A row has broken out over the translation of a best-selling novel by the British author Mark Haddon after a "feminist" attempted to make some of the characters female.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time tells the story of a 15-year-old autistic boy from Swindon. It won the Whitbread Book of the Year in 2003 and has been translated into more than 40 languages.
But a Spanish translator has been sacked for allegedly refusing to stick to the genders chosen by the author. Maria Reimondez is taking the publishers to court over claims that her contract to translate the novel into Galician was cancelled because she refused to reinforce sexist stereotypes. "The translation strategies I use include not using the masculine form systematically," said Miss Reimondez in a statement.
"I haven't invented this; it's nothing new, and, linguistically, one cannot find fault with it."