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Gregory Rabassa's Latin American Literature

A Translator's Visible Legacy

María Constanza Guzmán

This book is a critical study of the work of Gregory Rabassa, translator of such canonical novels as Gabriel Garcìa Márquez's Cien años de soledad, José Lezama Lima's Paradiso, and Julio Cortàzar's Rayuela. During the past five decades, Rabassa has translated over fifty Latin American novels and to this day he is one of the most prominent English translators of literature from Spanish and Portuguese. Rabassa's role was pivotal in the internationalization of several Latin American writers; it led to the formation of a canon and, significantly, to the most prevalent image of Latin American literature in the world. Even though Rabassa's legacy has been widely recognized, the extent of his work's influence and the complexity of the sociocultural circumstances surrounding his practice have remained largely unexamined.

In Gregory Rabassa's Latin American Literature: A Translator's Visible Legacy, María Constanza Guzmán examines the translator's conceptions about language, contextualizes his work in terms of the structures and conditions that have surrounded his practice, and investigates the role his translations have played in constructing collective narratives of Latin American literature in the global imaginary. By revisiting and historicizing the translator's practice, this book reveals the scale of Rabassa's legacy. The translator emerges as an active subject in the inter-American literary exchange, an agent bound to history and to the forces involved in the production of culture.

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 192 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½

978-1-61148-008-5 • Hardback • March 2011 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-61148-510-3 • Paperback • April 2013 • $54.99 • (£42.00)

978-1-61148-009-2 • eBook • March 2011 • $52.00 • (£40.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Caribbean & Latin American

Gregory Rabassa's Latin American Literature

A Translator's Visible Legacy

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This book is a critical study of the work of Gregory Rabassa, translator of such canonical novels as Gabriel Garcìa Márquez's Cien años de soledad, José Lezama Lima's Paradiso, and Julio Cortàzar's Rayuela. During the past five decades, Rabassa has translated over fifty Latin American novels and to this day he is one of the most prominent English translators of literature from Spanish and Portuguese. Rabassa's role was pivotal in the internationalization of several Latin American writers; it led to the formation of a canon and, significantly, to the most prevalent image of Latin American literature in the world. Even though Rabassa's legacy has been widely recognized, the extent of his work's influence and the complexity of the sociocultural circumstances surrounding his practice have remained largely unexamined.

In Gregory Rabassa's Latin American Literature: A Translator's Visible Legacy, María Constanza Guzmán examines the translator's conceptions about language, contextualizes his work in terms of the structures and conditions that have surrounded his practice, and investigates the role his translations have played in constructing collective narratives of Latin American literature in the global imaginary. By revisiting and historicizing the translator's practice, this book reveals the scale of Rabassa's legacy. The translator emerges as an active subject in the inter-American literary exchange, an agent bound to history and to the forces involved in the production of culture.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 192 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½

978-1-61148-008-5 • Hardback • March 2011 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-61148-510-3 • Paperback • April 2013 • $54.99 • (£42.00)

978-1-61148-009-2 • eBook • March 2011 • $52.00 • (£40.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Caribbean & Latin American

Author

María Constanza Guzmán is associate professor at York University in Toronto, Canada, where she is appointed to the School of Translation, the Department of Hispanic Studies, and the Graduate Program in Humanities.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Chapter 1: Why Rabassa?: Theorizing the Translator's Legacy
Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Rabassa's Conceptions of Translation and Language
Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Del lado de allá y Del lado de acá / From this Side and from the Other: Rabassa's Dialogue with His Authors
Chapter 5 Chapter 4: Ayer y hoy / Past and Present: Rabassa's Canon and the Reception of His Translations
Chapter 6 Chapter 5: Rabassa's Translations and an Imagined Latin America
Chapter 7 Afterword
Chapter 8 Appendix I: Personal interview with Gregory Rabassa
Chapter 9 Appendix II: List of translations by Gregory Rabassa
Chapter 10 Appendix III: Copies of annotated drafts and manuscripts

Reviews

Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude achieved the status of a classic in the English-reading world because of Rabassa's translation of it from the Spanish. As one of the preeminent translators of contemporary Spanish- and Portuguese-language literatures, Rabassa has introduced Anglophone readers to the works of numerous Latin American and Luso-Brazilian novelists, so this examination of his ideas and views merits serious attention...One is rewarded with fascinating perspectives on Rabassa's relationships with his authors, especially Julio Cortázar, author of Hopscotch; the overwhelmingly positive reception of his translations; and his responsibility for knowledge of the Latin American "boom" in the English-speaking world. Also included are an insightful interview with Rabassa and a welcome complete list of Rabassa's translations, which leaves one in awe of the breadth of his accomplishments. Summing Up: Highly recommended.
— Choice Reviews

Gregory Rabassa's Latin American Literature

A Translator's Visible Legacy

María Constanza Guzmán

Gregory Rabassa's Latin American Literature

A Translator's Visible Legacy

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