[New publication] Galasso, Regina. 2018. Translating New York. The City’s Languages in Iberian Literatures. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Translating New York. The City’s Languages in Iberian Literatures

By Regina Galasso

About this book:

The cultural production of Spanish-speaking New York is closely linked to the Caribbean and to Latin America at large, but the city also plays a pivotal role in the work of a host of authors from the Iberian Peninsula, writing in Spanish, Catalan, and English. In many cases, their New York City texts have marked their careers and the history of their national literatures. Drawing from a variety of genres, Translating New York recovers cultural narratives occluded by single linguistic or national literary histories, and proposes that reading these texts through the lens of translation unveils new pathways of cultural circulation and influence. Looking beyond representations of the city’s physical space, Translating New York suggests that travel to the city and contact with New York’s multilingual setting ignited a heightened sensitivity towards both the verbal and non-verbal languages of the city, garnering literary achievement and aesthetic innovation. Analyzing the novels, poetry, and travel narratives of Felipe Alfau, José Moreno Villa, Julio Camba, and Josep Pla, this book uncovers an international perspective of Iberian literatures. Translating New York aims to rethink Iberian literatures through the transatlantic travels of influential writers.

Table of contents:

Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Introduction: New York as an Iberian City
-A New York Moment
-Expanding Iberian Literatures
-Traveling, Translating
-Outline of the Book

I.
Translational Language: Felipe Alfau’s Iberian English and Its Afterlife
-Finding Felipe Alfau
-Alfau’s Language
-Translation Happens
-Español Is Not Spanish
-Alfau in Literature
-Conclusions

II.
The Source of an Avant-garde Voice: Music and Photography in José Moreno Villa
-Useful New York-A Portrait of José Moreno Villa
-Photography in Writing
-Marking Up the Text
-Beyond Spanish and English
-Poetry Notes
-New York in a Few Words
-Anticipating Lorca
-Final Shot

III.
Travel in Translation: Julio Camba and Josep Pla Write for a Home Audience
-Reading from a Distance
-From the Iberian Periphery
-On Julio Camba
-Camba and New York
–Un año en el otro mundo
–La ciudad automática
-Final Note on Camba
-Josep Pla
-Pla as a Translator
-More than a Weekend, More than New York
-The Language of Week-end (d’estiu) a New York
-The Writing Continues
-Conclusions

Coda: Re-Creating a Classic
Bibliography
Index

About the author: