Category Archives: Translation

Cristina Garcia’s Cuba

April 11, 2012 We had to move the book up from the initial lineup — several people wanted to write about it in their final papers.  How did they hear about it? But I should have guessed something like this … Continue reading

Posted in Caribbean literature, Contemporary novel, Creole, Ethnicity, Gender, Global South, Latin America, macro politics, Mayan mythology, mixed races, peripheral networks, Spanglish, Translation, Twentieth century literature, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Iraq in Poetry: Brian Turner

April 4, 2012 Teaching his poetry was easy. There was never any doubt in my mind that it belonged in the course – along with Whitman on the Civil War; John Hersey on Hiroshima; Ha Jin on Korea; Michael Herr … Continue reading

Posted in Arabic, Classics, collaboration, Contemporary novel, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Educational institutions, epic, Handwritten script, Islam, lyric, Media, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Near Eastern poetry, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Edwidge Danticat: French, English, Creole

March 14, 2012 Her first languages were Creole and French. At 12, she spoke almost no English. At 26, her collection of short stories, Krik? Krak!, was nominated for the National Book Award. It’s mind-boggling to think of that trajectory … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Caribbean literature, collaboration, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Creole, Gender, Global South, Igbo, Latin America, Media, mixed races, peripheral networks, print medium, Radio, Remediation, Translation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 82 Comments

The Global South: Miami 2012

March 7, 2012 From where we were sitting, we could see the different kinds of palm trees.   Brian Breed, David Borman, Carolina Villalba, Izabella Zieba — fourth year, third year, and second year students in the English Department.  There … Continue reading

Posted in collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Global South, Islam, Israeli literature, Latin America, Middle East, Near Eastern poetry, Palestinian film, Palestinian literature, peripheral networks, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 42 Comments

Yusef Komunyakaa and Chad Gracia, Gilgamesh

February 22, 2012 I’ve never given a talk at UCLA.  Caltech, yes, in nearby Pasadena; also the Huntington Library.   But never at the famed Royce Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue. So I’m a bit anxious about tomorrow: a graduate student … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Classics, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Dance, epic, Handwritten script, Mesopotamia, Near Eastern poetry, Remediation, Theater, Translation, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 67 Comments

Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence

February 8, 2012 Langston Hughes never went to Black Mountain College, but maybe he didn’t need to. 1948-49 was emblematic.  A no doubt incomplete list of what happened during those months: in June 1948, Langston Hughes moved into 20 East … Continue reading

Posted in abstract expressionism, collaboration, Cuban poetry, Media, Modernist poetry, print medium, Remediation, Translation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Two-Way Street

January 18, 2012 Alex Steele never took a class from me.    I don’t think I’d ever seen her around the department.  But my colleague, Richard Deming, who was going to direct her senior essay, is away on a Fellowship … Continue reading

Posted in Contemporary Art, Egypt, Nineteenth-century literature, print medium, Remediation, Translation | Tagged , , , , , , | 162 Comments

Agha Shahid Ali’s “Call me Ishmael Tonight”

January 4, 2012 This was his last book of poems, published posthumously.   Agha Shahid Agha had died of brain cancer on December 8, 2001. How important was Moby-Dick to the Kashmiri poet?  Probably less than what Melvilleans would like to … Continue reading

Posted in Islam, lyric, Near Eastern poetry, Nineteenth-century literature, Remediation, Translation, Twentieth century literature, world literature, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 62 Comments

Melville in the Dominican Republic

December 14, 2011 As far I know, he never set foot there.   But then a physical journey is not always necessary. Junot Diaz is not shy about naming names — The Brief Wondrous Life of  Oscar Wao is almost … Continue reading

Posted in epic, Global South, Nineteenth-century literature, Spanglish, Translation, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Margaret Fuller, H.D., Joanne Kyger

December 7, 2011 Why is it that all of them reach back to ancient Greece, and not always out of any reverence for the classics?   Of the three, Margaret Fuller is the most law-abiding: in Woman in the Nineteenth Century, … Continue reading

Posted in ancient Greece, Classics, Egypt, epic, Gender, Global South, Translation, Uncategorized, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments