Resumen de Between Language and Reality: Translation in Ramon Saizarbitoria’s Martutene

Jon Kortazar Uriarte

• The mistrust of the possibilities of language to represent reality is among the main features of the narrative work by the Basque author Ramon Saizarbitoria. This mistrust is brought out by the wavering narration and the employ of an unreliable narrator, as well as by the author’s reflections on translation. This article will review the theoretical positions that Saizarbitoria has maintained and expressed in books and interviews: starting from the idea of translating developed in his own work, he offers a rich speculation about the function of translation in the Basque literary system. In addition, the author’s ideas about translation that appear in his novel Martutene (2012) will be analysed, namely embodied in the character Julia.