Against Cislingualism
Transgender, Translingualism, Translation
Abstract
The article examines the relationship between trans identities, language, and translation, beginning with an analysis of the drag performance of Princ Wōnglo and Skarbie, artists from the Śląsk Przegięty collective. The negotiation – “translation” – of non-binary, transgender identity is embedded in an interlingual play: from a Ukrainian folk song, through Polish and Silesian adaptations, to translations of Anglophone popular culture. The text invokes the concept of “cislingualism” as a normative compulsion toward monolingualism, contrasting it with queer, translingual, and communal practices of translation. The analysis indicates that such linguistic interventions can become a tool of resistance against the hegemony of technicized global English, and open up space for local forms of articulation of transgender identities.
Keywords:
transgender, translation, translingualism, performance, queer languageReferences
Adamczyk Mateusz. “Leksem płeć w dawnej i współczesnej polszczyźnie.” Poradnik Językowy, no. 4, 2017: 75–83.
Google Scholar
alQaws. “Więcej niż propaganda. Pinkwashing jako kolonialna przemoc. ” In: Queerowe głosy o Palestynie: alQaws oraz Leslie Feinberg. Translated by Nina Kuta. Tranzycja.pl 2003. Accessed September 14, 2025. https://tranzycja.pl/publikacje/queerowe-glosy-o-palestynie/.
Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. “Gender and gender trouble.” In: Dictionary of Untranslatables. A Philosophical Lexicon. Edited by Barbara Cassin. Translated by Steven Rendall, Christian Hubert, Jeffrey Mehlman, Nathanael Stein, Michael Syrotinski. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Google Scholar
Chojnicka, Joanna. “Globalny język LGBTQ+ w polskich narracjach o tranzycji.” InterAlia. A Journal of Queer Studies, no. 19, 2024: 50–71.
Google Scholar
Chojnicka, Joanna. „Transition Narratives on Polish Trans Blogs: A Discursive Colonization Approach.” In: Solidarity, Place and Power: Queer-Feminist Struggles and the East/West Divide. Edited by Masha Godovannaya, Masha Neufeld, Saltanat Shoshanova i Katharina Wiedlack. Bern: Peter Lang, 2020.
Google Scholar
Dębińska, Maria. Transpłciowość w Polsce. Wytwarzanie kategorii. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Archeologii i Etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2020.
Google Scholar
Fraisse, Geneviève. “Sex, gender, difference of the sexes, sexual difference.” In: Dictionary of Untranslatables. A Philosophical Lexicon. Edited by Barbara Cassin. Translated by Steven Rendall, Christian Hubert, Jeffrey Mehlman, Nathanael Stein, Michael Syrotinski. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Google Scholar
Gabriel, Kay. “Untranslating Gender in Trish Salah’s Lyric Sexology Vol. 1.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 3–4, 2016: 524–544.
Google Scholar
Gramling, David, Dutta, Aniruddha. “Introduction.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 3–4, 2016: 333–356.
Google Scholar
Huk, Bogdan. Ukraina. Polskie jądro ciemności. Przemyśl: Stowarzyszenie Ukraińskie Dziedzictwo, 2013.
Google Scholar
Janion, Ludmiła. “«To jest genetycznie zakodowane». Patologizacja i normalizacja transseksualizmu w polskich mediach w latach dziewięćdziesiątych.” In: Wykluczenia. Edited by Joanna Hańderek, Natalia Kućma. Kraków: Facta Ficta 2017.
Google Scholar
Kollesa, Aleksander (właśc. Олександр Колесса). Ukraińska rytmika ludowa w poezyach Bohdana Zaleskiego. Lwów: Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza, 1900.
Google Scholar
Leino, Unni. “Conceptualizing Sex, Gender, and Trans. An Anglo-Finnish Perspective.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 3–4, 2016: 448–461.
Google Scholar
Long Chu, Andrea. “Freedom of Sex. The moral case for letting trans kids change their bodies.” New York Magazine. 11 march, 2024. Accessed September 14, 2025. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trans-rights-biological-sex-gender-judith-butler.html.
Google Scholar
Poppy. “Am I a Girl?”. Track 12 on Poppy, Am I a Girl?, produced by I’m Poppy Records / Mad Decent, 2018, Spotify.
Google Scholar
Poppy. “Every day I wake up, I want to push myself to do something that I haven’t done the day before.” Interview by Emma Wilkes. Kerrang!. September 20, 2023. Accessed September 14, 2025. https://www.kerrang.com/poppy-zig-interview-dance-music-motorbike-pop-rock-alternative-love-relationships-cover-story.
Google Scholar
Princ Wōnglo, Skarbie. Dumã rodzicielsko. Recording of a performance from September 6, 2025, provided to the author by Valyen Songbird (i.e. Princ Wōnglo).
Google Scholar
Serena Bassi. “Displacing LGBT. Global Englishes, Activism and Translated Sexualities.” In: Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives. Edited by Olga Castro and Emek Ergun. New York: Routledge, 2017.
Google Scholar
Stoller, Robert. Sex and Gender. On the Development of Masculinity and Femininity. New York: Science House, 1968.
Google Scholar
Stryker, Susan. Co powiedziałabym Wiktorowi Frankensteinowi nad wioską Chamounix. Performowanie transpłciowego gniewu. Translated by Julia Zając. Tranzycja.pl 2003. Accessed September 14, 2025. https://tranzycja.pl/publikacje/susan-stryker-co-powiedzialabym-wiktorowi-frankensteinowi/.
Google Scholar
Śląsk Przegięty. “Manifest Śląska Przegiętego.” 2003. Accessed September 14, 2025. https://slaskprzegiety.pl/#manifest.
Google Scholar
Tambor, Jolanta et al. Gōrnoślōnski ślabikǒrz. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Biblioteki Śląskiej, 2010.
Google Scholar
z Oleska, Wacław. Pieśni polskie i ruskie ludu Galicyjskiego z muzyką instrumentowaną przez Karola Lipińskiego. Lwów: Franciszek Piller, 1833.
Google Scholar
Zaleski, Józef Bohdan. “Śliczny chłopiec.” In: Zbigniew Adrjański, Złota księga pieśni polskich. Pieśni, gawędy, opowieści. Warszawa: Bellona, 1994.
Google Scholar
Authors
Julia Zającjulia.jzw@gmail.com
Poland
Julia Zając – polonistka ze Śląska, doktorka literaturoznawstwa, redaktorka, tłumaczka. Członkini Stowarzyszenia Tranzycja.pl.
Statistics
Abstract views: 2PDF downloads: 1
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Julia Zając
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
