Traducción y creación en El Vecino de Abajo, de Mercedes Abad

This article analyses the representation of the translator as a fictional character in El Vecino de Abajo (2008), by the Catalan writer Mercedes Abad, focusing on the tensions between translation and creative authorship. Drawing on research on translators in fiction and on the concept of transfiction, the study examines how the novel stages the translator’s loss of professional agency and her subsequent transition towards authorship. Using a qualitative textual analysis informed by Translation Studies and literary theory, the article explores the symbolic association between translation, constraint and survival, and between creative writing, empowerment and self-affirmation. The protagonist’s abandonment of translation coincides with a reconfiguration of power relations between translator, author and editor, ultimately reinforcing a hierarchical opposition between translation and original creation. El Vecino de Abajo contributes to contemporary fictional imaginaries of translation by foregrounding the translator’s desire for authorship and by dramatizing translation as a subordinate and transitory practice.