Infante - After translation: the transfer and circulation of modern poetics across the Atlantic

After Translation

The Transfer and Circulation of Modern Poetics across the Atlantic

Ignacio Infante

Fordham University Press

New York 2013

Copyright 2013 Fordham University Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Infante, Ignacio.

After translation : the transfer and circulation of modern poetics across the Atlantic / Ignacio Infante.

page cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8232-5178-0 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. PoetryTranslating. 2. PoeticsHistory20th century. 3. European poetry20th centuryHistory and criticism. 4. American poetry20th centuryHistory and criticism. 5. Spanish American poetry20th centuryHistory and criticism. 6. Modernism (Literature). 7. Transnationalism in literature. I. Title.

PN1059.T7I54 2013

418'.041dc23

2012041913

First edition

A book in the American Literatures Initiative (ALI), a collaborative publishing project of NYU Press, Fordham University Press, Rutgers University Press, Temple University Press, and the University of Virginia Press. The Initiative is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.americanliteratures.org.

To Jamie, Isabela, and Nicolas

Contents

This book is the result of a long engagement with modern poetry, the practice and theory of literary translation, and the scholarly field of comparative literature. It is also a work that is intrinsically connected to my own personal transatlantic journey that has taken me from my native Granada, Spain, to Dublin, Ireland, and Irvine, Los Angeles, New Brunswick, New York, and now St. Louis, in the United States. Many wonderful places in one impressive journey. Therefore, there is a very long list of people I need to acknowledge.

I first started seriously reading poetry at Trinity College Dublin in 1997. I was able to work there with arguably the best three Americanists working in the Republic of Ireland today: Philip Coleman, Michael Hinds, and Stephen Matterson. Philip has been my tutor, mentor, and friend since I first met him in 1997. He has been an Irish blessing in more ways than he can imagine. Michael introduced me to the work of John Ashberyan event that proved to be crucial later in my lifeand generously supported my attempts to publish and translate American poetry into Spanish, including an invitation to spend a few days in the South of France. Dublin is also the home of two people who took care of me innumerable times: Adrian Carr and Jean Hoey. Without Adrian and Jean I wouldnt have finished my degree at Trinity, and without Adrian I simply wouldnt know a hundredth of the music I love, and two of my dearest friends.

Thanks in part to Tom and Anne-Louise Fisher (family and friends), I was able to work as a literary translator for the publisher Random House Mondadori, in Barcelona. I will always be grateful to Andreu Jaume for trusting in my abilities as a literary translator at a relatively young age and for hiring me on the spot to translate the work of Will Self, as well as for believing in my suggestion to translate Ashberys A Wave into Spanish. I wouldnt know much about the practice of literary translation if Andreu hadnt given me such a wonderful opportunity in 2001.

During the last ten years I have been extremely fortunate to be able to work in the United States with a group of extraordinary scholars, teachers, mentors, and students, who have not only shaped the way I think about literary and cultural studies but who have ultimately helped me develop as a person. None of this would have been possible without the institutional and financial support of the Fulbright Commission in Spain, the Ministerio of Educacin y Ciencia of the Government of Spain, and the State Departments Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Government, which generously granted me a Fulbright Scholarship to complete my doctoral program in comparative literature at Rutgers University. There is no doubt that my life has been marked by my experience as a foreign Fulbright Scholar in the United States.

From the first graduate seminar I took at Rutgers, Billy Galperin has carefully monitored my development as a scholar not only with his characteristic brilliance and enthusiastic energy, but also with the utmost generosity. I am also extremely grateful to Richard Sieburth, who has always welcomed me at his Washington Square quarters throughout the years, and who has been kind enough to share his incredible knowledge and inspiring expertise on modern poetics and translation every time I knocked at his door. Ben Sifuentes-Juregui and Nicholas Rennie have helped me enormously along the way too. I also thank Jacques Lezra for generously agreeing to read a previous version of this book. Brent Edwardss work has been a key source of inspiration, and he is a model for the kind of scholar I wanted to become since I took his Serial Poetics seminar at Rutgers. I am extremely grateful to him too.

The Comparative Literature Program at Rutgers provided the perfect intellectual environment to pursue all my interests and, thankfully, great curricular and funding opportunities to be able to do so, the Transliteratures Fellowship in particular. Most important, however, was the support that I always received from everyone in the program. I particularly thank the different graduate directors during my time at Rutgers for all their time and caring encouragement: Janet Walker, Richard Serrano, Alessandro Vettori, and Elin Diamond. I also acknowledge Susan Martin-Mrquez for being the astounding Peninsularist that she is and a superb mentor. Before going to Rutgers I spent a crucial year of my life at the University of California, Irvine. In addition to meeting my wife there, I was also lucky enough to be able to work with four exceptional scholars who have greatly influenced the way I think about my work: John Carlos Rowe, Gabriele Schwab, Martin Schwab, and Jeff Barrett.

Since July 2009, I have had the pleasure to work at Washington University in St. Louis as an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish. The level of institutional support, professional encouragement, and spirit of collegiality I have enjoyed at Washington University has been simply outstanding. In fact, I would not have been able to complete this book in this country without it. I would particularly like to express my gratitude in this regard to Nancy Berg, Jonathan Cohen, Elzbieta Sklodowska, Kathy Steiner-Lang, Harriet Stone, Dean Gary Wihl, as well as Melanie Keeney and her staff, for helping me beyond expectations at a particularly tough period in my life. Without them things wouldnt have worked out as well as they have, which is a remarkable thing in itself. Also, when I needed help, the most amazing group of people responded: I will be forever grateful to John Ashbery (he should be first, plus his last name starts with A), Carolina Daz, Representative Maurice Hinchey, Sacra Jaimez, David Kermani, Nicols Latorre, Michael Leong, Suzanne Jill Levine, Mike McGrath, Antonio Muoz Molina, Ray Nargizian, Isabel Prez, Catherine Porter, James Ramey, Fernando de Villena, and Pauline Yu (Philip Coleman, Billy Galperin, Nicholas Rennie, and Richard Sieburth also helped here too).