Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/11/2018
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
3108 JKB
Category(ies)
Associate Research Professor James Krause, Spanish and Portuguese, and Faith Blackhurst, Spanish Instructor and graduate student in Spanish & Portuguese will present for the Humanities Center’s weekly colloquium on Thursday, October 11th. The presentation will be held at 3:00 PM in room 4010 JFSB. They will be discussing their current research on Portuguese translation.
Title: “Moving Beyond Foreignization: Ángel Crespo’s Spanish Translation of Grande: sertão Veredas, by João Guimarães Rosa.”
As scholars have noted, João Guimarães Rosa (1908–1967) leveraged his skills as a diplomat and polyglot when working closely with his translators of his magnum opus, Grande sertão: Veredas (1956), especially when confronting the insurmountable challenges of rendering the author’s idiosyncratic Portuguese into English, German, Italian, French, and Spanish. Few critics have explored his relationship with Spanish-language translator, Ángel Crespo, due in part to the fact that researchers can only access the unpublished correspondence at the Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of São Paulo. In this mentored research project with Faith Blackhurst, a second-year graduate student in Spanish, we have transcribed and examined the lengthy correspondence exchanged between the author, translator, and editors as the publishing house Seix Barrall. In analyzing these letters, one thing is clear: Crespo adopted what we now call a foreignizing approach. He attempted to draw the Spanish-language reader closer to the text by reproducing much of the linguistic and lexical virtuosity found in the original. Initial reception, however, was mixed. In a 1967 interview, Peruvian writer Mário Vargas Llosa, who would win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010, detested Crespo’s translation, calling it “something hybrid, artificial, fabricated, and parodic.” Regardless, the author provided glowing praise: “Surprisingly, you exceeded everything I could have hoped for. In the end, I’m at a loss of words of praise, applause, and gratitude.” Ultimately, Ángel Crespo’s translation was pivotal in introducing Spanish readers to the work of João Guimarães Rosa and understanding this relationship helps us gain a better appreciation of the overall reception of JGR throughout Europe and the Americas.
Refreshments will be served.
