On self-translation : meditations on language / Ilan Stavans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stavans, Ilan, author.

Series:

SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian thought and culture.

Suny series in Latin America and Iberian thought and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Self-translation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (286 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

State University of New York Press 2018

Albany, NY : State University of New York, [2018]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Finalist for the 2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Essay category From award-winning, internationally known scholar and translator Ilan Stavans comes On Self-Translation, a collection of essays and conversations on language in its multifaceted forms. Stavans discusses the way syntax is being restructured by texting and other technologies. He examines how the alphabet itself is being forgotten by the young, how finger snapping has taken on a new meaning, how the use of ellipses has lapsed, and how autocorrect is shaping the way we communicate. In an incisive meditation, he shows how translating one's own work reinvents oneself in another tongue. The volume includes tête-à-têtes with Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Wilbur and short-fiction master Lydia Davis, as well as dialogues on silence, multilingualism, poetry, and the durability of the classics. Stavans's explorations cover Spanish, English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and the hybrid lexicon of Spanglish. He muses on the meaning of foreignness and on living and dying in different languages. Among his primary concerns are the role and history of dictionaries and the extent to which the authority of language academies is less a reality than a delusion. He concludes with renditions into Spanglish of portions of Hamlet, Don Quixote, and The Little Prince. The wide range of themes and engaging yet informed style confirm Stavans's status, in the words of the Washington Post, as "Latin America's liveliest and boldest critic and most innovative cultural enthusiast."

Contents:

Part I: Meeting The "I"

On Self-Translation

Part II: Meditations

Alphabetizing

As It Were

Parable of Don Quixote

Finger Snapping

The Tenure Code

Transadaptation

Ellipses and I

On Clarity

Auto-corrected

Part III: Beyond Words

On Being Misunderstood

Part I: The Lecture

Part II: The Response

Against Representation

The Monkey Grammarian

Midrash on Truth

Don Quixote in Schlemieland

Dying in Hebrew

The Reading Life of Ricardo Piglia

Adioś, Chespirito

Part IV: On Futb́ol

"Sudden Death"

Van Persie's Goal

Box of Resonance

Part V: Language And Politics

Trump and the Wall

Why Doesn't English Have an Academy?

Shakespeare in Prison

The Spanish Language in Latin America Since Independence

Against "Diversity"

Rolling One's R's

Part VI: Conversations

The Poet's Alchemy (with Richard Wilbur)

On Silence (with Charles Hatfield)

Translating Cervantes (with Diana de Armas Wilson)

The Color of Existence (with Ryan Mihaly)

The Downpour of Inspiration (with Asymptote)

The Translingual Sensibility (with Steven G. Kellman)

Rescuing the Classics (with Lydia Davis)

Part VII: Onto Spanglish

Un Walker En Nuyol

Hamlet, Acto 2, Scene Dos [fragment] and Acto 3, Scene Uno

El Little Prińcipe, Chapters I-IV

Don Quixote, Parte II Chapter 72

Spanglish and The Royal Academy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438471501

1438471505

OCLC:

1051770659

Publisher Number:

https://doi.org/10.1353/book.100027

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access