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Translation and the Reception and Influence of Latin American Literature in the United States

This study examines the role of translation in the reception and influence of three canonical authors of Latin American literature in the United States: Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), Pablo Neruda (Chile), and Machado de Assis (Brazil). I establish a sliding scale of translation quality that considers both literary and extraliterary factors in their US receptions. I also explore the concept of translation failure, arguing that a translation truly fails when it consistently misinterprets and misrepresents the source text. A failed translation hinders the reception of Latin American literature in the United States because it offers a distorted, and therefore unreliable, version of the original text to the American reader. In the case of Brazil, these failed translations have seriously compromised the reputation of Brazilian letters in the United States and in the developing field of inter-American literature.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-12012010-145738
Date06 December 2010
CreatorsKrause, James Remington
ContributorsEarl E. Fitz, William Luis, Emanuelle Oliveira, Marshall C. Eakin
PublisherVANDERBILT
Source SetsVanderbilt University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-12012010-145738/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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