Declaring Mysteries: Narration, Translation, and The Figure of The Interpreter in Don Quixote

Professor Kathryn Vomero Santos is a scholar of English literature who introduces and analyzes the question of what Don Quixote teaches us in the history and theory of interpretation from his novel. Despite the structure and theme of Don Quixote, it is known as a modern novel in all honors.

The lesson taught about Don Quixote is that there is value in all people despite political positions, worldview, weight, age, etc. In the novel, Don, who strives to be a heroic knight, reveals how ludicrous these old-fashioned notions can be to those who have overcome living in today's life. It is inaccurate to assume that “Don’t lose touch with reality”, is moralistic of the story, because Don’s tale is not glorified, but portrayed almost as a mockery and the outcome of a cultural formation which has run its sequence. With the idea of Don Quixote novel, it also portrays a rich term of old interpretations. It captures how translation works in the political and personal domain. It exampled the world "trujamán" in the meaning of an interpreter which was originated from Arabic. In the novel, Don also played the role of a bilingual who was started to be label as untrustable as he gained more knowledge in being able to speak not only Spanish but also Arabic fluently. He went over his guide in how much the people should trust the narrative interpreter by using the oral and writing of Arabic.

Since the novel was based on the language of Spanish, the people were only in use of trusting the ladino speaker which Don did bring his story back from Arabic. In conclusion, as we go back into Professor Vomero purpose of what this novel has taught us and indeed it has allowed us to understand the situation that occurred in early Spain in the art of storytelling. It demonstrates us that fictional is not just something that can be told mechanical but instead by an interpreter; storytelling on behalf of others or even themselves. On behalf of translating, do you think when interpreters have to explain an idiom to others, they tend to offend people since idioms can be comprehended has a different type of understanding to people?