Voice-overs: Translation and Latin American Literature (review)

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 301 Voice-overs: Transiten and Latin American Literature SUNY Press, 2002 Edited by Daniel Balderston and Marcy E. Schwartz Voice-overs is divided into three sections, which correspond to a tripartite division of labor: writing, translation, and criticism. Part I, "Writers on Translation," includes essays by, or transcribed conversations with, fourteen Latin American and U.S. Latino authors; Part II, "Translating Latin America," contains essays by six translators; and Part III is comprised of eleven critical essays. Although somewhat artificial (many of the contributors are active in all three fields), this format allows for the discussion of key questions from several distinct perspectives. The authors included in Part I are, in order of appearance, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Gabriel GarcÃ-a Márquez, Diana Bellessi, Luisa Futoransky, Rosario Ferré, Junot DÃ-az, Cristina GarcÃ-a, Rolando Hinojosa-Smidi, Nélida Piñón, Ariel Dorfman, Cristina Peri Rossi, Tomás Eloy MartÃ-nez, and Ricardo Piglia. The selections range from formal essays that attend to theoretical concerns to informal, idiosyncratic monologues. On the whole, these authors express profound appreciation for the translator's craft. Some highlights include the pairing of Borges's essay "The Homeric Versions," in which rhe author affirms the value of reading translations through a sophisticated critique of the notion of the "definitive text," with Cortázar s characteristically ludic musings on accidents of translation. Also of interest are the discussions with contemporary authors. Bicultural writers Junot Diaz, Cristina GarcÃ-a, Ariel Dorfman, Rosario Ferré and Rolando Hinojosa-Smith address the difficulties inherent in translating the hybrid language of their texts into "standard" Spanish. In Part III, Israel Reyes's case study of the Spanish translation of Garcia's novel The Agüero Sisters examines these issues in detail, as Reyes explores the gaps in the translation of this interlingual text. Several contributors discuss the implications of gender difference for translation. Citing the historical exclusion of women from cultural life, Diana Bellessi advocates a woman-centered ttanslation practice. Others, such as Cristina Peri Rossi and Nélida Piñón, imagine a hybrid gender sensibility constructed through language. Francine Masiello's suggestive critical essay (in Part III) on women writers' use of translation as a metaphor for alterity serves as a complement and counterpoinr to these authors' views. One shortcoming of this section is that the editors do not explain the selection criteria by which the authors were chosen, which raises inevitable questions about inclusion/exclusion. Nor do the editors discuss their own participation in the translation of interviews, which seems a curious omission. The contributors to Part II include Margaret Sayers Peden, Gregory Rabassa, Suzanne Jill Levine, James Hoggard, Eliot Weinberger, and John Felstiner. The selections are uniformly wellwritten and make fascinating reading. Levine's essay on translating G. Cabrera Infante conveys a sense of the creative dynamic at work in the best literary partnerships, as do James Hoggard's reflections on the intersections between translation, creative wriring, and literary scholarship. The essays by Sayers Peden and Weinberger are particularly fine; both are marked by a balance of insight, erudition , and humor and a refreshing lack of pretense . John Felstiner's discussion of conflicting approaches to the translation of verse draws on various English renderings of Neruda's poetry. The essays in Part III cover a wide range of topics. Several contributors consider the complex interplay of political, economic, and literary factors that have conditioned the translation of Latin American literature. Maarten Steenmeijer's comparative analysis of publishing trends suggests that Latin American literature was embraced earlier in Europe than in the U.S. Maria Eugenia Mudrovcic examines the role of the Center for InterAmerican Relations in the formation of the Latin American literary canon in the Cold War era. Steven F. White proposes that more attention be paid to the politics of translation when teaching Latin American literarure to U.S. students. Gerald Martin problematizes the translation of culture through an analysis of the English versions of tides of Garcia Márquez's work. 302 Arizona fournal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Orher studies focus on Latin American writers ' textual engagements with cultural translation. Edmundo Paz-Soldán explores the...