{Un} Translation and Nationalism: The Money is Not Where the Mouth Is

• In Event: Scene in the Art of Translation

Abstract

In the world of US poetry, work in translation is largely absent from both critical and commercial discourse. Yet there is a tokenistic insistence in academic and literary circles that academic and cultural institutions value translation and the transnational as part of an ethical commitment to a supposed borderless multiculturalism. Translators in the US are often invited to speak and write about their work, yet there are scarcely any venues willing to publish and materially support work in translation, a trend that represents our larger political environment where immigrants and foreigners are nominally acknowledged but nationalistically excluded. This talk will look at critical reception, and lack thereof, of translation of recent major works of Latin American poetry, including books by Raúl Zurita, Alejandra Pizarnik and Cecilia Vicuña, among others. This reception and non-reception will be contextualized as it fits into the current and vital discussions of race and anglo-supremacy in US poetry communities.

Author

• Daniel Borzutzky