ISSN 1355-6509 © St Jerome Publishing, Manchester The Translator. Volume 12, Number 2 (2006), 279-299 ISBN 1-900650-90-8 ‘Writing in the Foreign’ Migrant Sexuality and Translation of the Self in Manuel Puig’s Later Work CHRISTOPHER LARKOSH Department of Modern and Classical Languages, University of Connecticut, USA Abstract. Is it possible to speak of a literary style of transnational migration, especially by way of the linguistic transformations it so frequently calls forth? And how might this migratory style be translated? This essay explores the concepts of self-translation and translingualism in the writings of the Argentine author Manuel Puig (1932-1990). Although Puig is best known for his 1976 novel The Kiss of the Spider Woman and the subsequent cinematic and theatrical adaptation of it, less critical attention has been given to his other works written in exile in New York, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City in the 1970’s and 80’s, most likely because of the multi- lingual techniques employed in their creation. An examination of these works through a translingual optic not only allows for a renewed discussion of multilingual identity in ongoing discip- linary developments in translation studies, but also of a broad range of identities – whether national, cultural, ethnic, gender or sexual – often inseparable from the act of literary production. Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same: leave it to our bureaucrats and our police to see that our papers are in order. At least spare us their morality when we write. (Michel Foucault 1972:17) No sé qué son los géneros. Yo escribo. 1 (Manuel Puig, in Almada Roche 1992:163) Is there such a thing as a migratory style? How might one go about discuss- ing it? Even before I set off on this exploration, however, there is something 1 I don’t know what genres/genders are. I just write. (my translation)