Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook by Claudio Iván Remeseira, Andrew Delbanco
2011; University of Oklahoma; Volume: 85; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wlt.2011.0118
ISSN1945-8134
Autores Tópico(s)Literature, Culture, and Aesthetics
Resumo^^^^^HpHBBWBBBBBBBIBBBBBW^BMBBWBHBWpi^BjMIM^M^^^^^fe^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B^^ What about translationin a bilingual country? How does translation relatetotheory? That all these questions are raised cogently and in briefformin thisbook reveals to the reader the multilayered complexitythatevery translation involves.Especiallyinterestingforthistranslator is theessay "Literary Translation intotheIndigenous Languages of theAmericas," by Enrique ServínHerrera,investigatingproblemsraisedbytherecent "renaissanceofaboriginallanguages as literarymedia of expression," whichcreatesa "realcultural chasm" when a moderncultureis translated intothe conceptsof an archaicculture ,leading the translator to "performactsofsocialintervention , thus transcendingthe mere functionof whatwe call translation." "We must remember," theauthorwrites,"that languages are not parallel systems ofsignsthat'reflect' theworld,[but] rather independent - oratleastlargelyindependent - systems ofinterpretationoftheworld ." Edith Grossmanwritesthat in translating Cervantes's DonQuixote, "I believethatmyprimary obligation as a literary translator is to re-create for thereaderin Englishthe experience of thereaderin Spanish.. . . When Cervantes wroteDon Quixote, hislanguage was notarchaicor quaint.He wroteina crackling, up-to-date Spanish thatwas an intrinsic partof his time, ... a modernlanguagethat both reflected andhelpedtoshapetheway peopleexperienced theworld." For those who believe translationis simple,FrançoiseRoy offers a not atypical conundrum: "If a verse reads sus hermanos in Spanish ,thetranslator intoFrenchmust know the gender of the hermanos and whetherthereis morethanone of each gender in order to decide "j EditedbySusanOuriou "j bey bySusanOuriou m -w ■ I Translating X^| JL JL theWorld ÛWO ras whetherto use sesfrères, leurs frères, sesfrères etsa sœur, sonfrère etsa sœur, sesfrères et ses sœurs,sonfrère etses sœurs,leursfrères et leursœur,leurs frères et leurssœurs,leurfrère et leur sœurorleur frère etleurssœurs." Burton Pike Graduate Center, CUNY Hispanic New York: A Sourcebook. Claudio Iván Remeseira, ed. & intro. AndrewDelbanco, foreword.NewYork. Columbia University Press.2010. xxiv+ 547 pages. $89.50 ($29.95 paper), isbn 978-0-231-14818-4(14819-1 paper) The publication of Hispanic New York:A Sourcebook by Claudio Ivan Remeseira, founder and director of the Hispanic New York Project in the American Studies Program at Columbia University, marks a significantmilestone in Nueva York studies as an interdisciplinary ,multinationalfieldwithhemispheric and transatlantic scope. The twenty-five textsanthologized infoursections(HistoricalPerspectives ;Race, Ethnicity, and Religion; Language and Literature; Music and Art) represent numerousintersectingsocialscienceand humanities disciplines:demographics, literature, journalism,women's studies, sociology , religion,dialectology,musicology , and art history.Although thisselectionof readingscould not possibly cover, uniformly,every nationalgroup or scholarlyissue of HispanicNew York,thebreadthand depth of the classifiedbibliography helps compensateforany perceived omissionofcoverage.Extensivesubject and name indexes also provide access to thevast rangeoftopicsin thereadings,and thecoverillustration - a demographicmap by Alejandro Largo- cleverlydepicts the extent ofHispanicNew York. Several selections are especially noteworthy for New York literarystudies. The inclusion of Whitman("The Spanish Elementin Our Nationality,"1883) and Marti (an 1889 letterand "Our America," 1891) shows that New York writing is firmlyrooted in the United States and Latin American literary traditions.Selections by Bernardo Vega and JackAgüeros recognize the place of first-person accounts oftheimmigrant experiencein this literary corpus. Antonio Muñoz Molina,in "Spanish inNew York:A Moving Landscape" (originallyin El País in 2007 as "Paisajes del idioma "), reflects eloquentlyon Spanish in New York. And Remeseira's own previously unpublished "A Splendid Outsider: Archer Milton Huntington and the Hispanic Heritage in the United States," an importantcontributionto the history of Hispanism in the United States and in New York, exemplifiesthe genre of the literaryessay. The centerpieceofthesourcebook's literature selections, "New York City: Center and TransitPoint for 761WorldLiterature Today 11^ HispanicCultural Nomadism/' is a sweeping survey ofcultural institutions , media,literature, andtheater (as wellas music,graffiti, and art) bytheleadingexpert on Hispanic New Yorkliterature, Spanishpoet DionisioCañas.Theoriginal publication ofthispieceinthecollection Literary Cultures of LatinAmerica (2004)is a testament to theplace ofNew Yorkas a center of Latin American culture. The publicationof Remeseira 'ssourcebook (whichwillbe followed by HispanicNew York:A Cultural Guide, a collection ofscholarlyessays )hascoincided withtwo otherlandmark events:theNueva York (1613-1945) exhibition, a historyof thecitythrough Hispanic lenses,at El Museo del Barrioin collaboration with the New-York HistoricalSociety(17 September 2010-9January 2011),and an art exhibitionlast year, Nexus New York:Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis, alsoatElMuseo. Certainly the occurrence of these threemomentousevents signals a turning pointforthestudyand appreciation ofHispanicand LatinoNewYorkcultures . Catharine E. Wall Claremont McKenna College Minutes to Midnight: Twelve Essays on Watchmen. Richard Bensam, ed. Edwardsville, Illinois. Sequart. 2010. 184 pages, ill...
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