Hemispheric dialogues: translation and politics in the Americas

Abstract

What are the relations between the Cold War, the so-called boom of the Latin-American literature, and the work of Machado de Assis? This research aims to investigate not only processes of literary production, circulation, and emancipation, but also the dynamics of the global market and the strategies of geopolitical domination in the American hemisphere, so that we may understand how the disputes generated in such a sociohistorical context helped to shape Machado's physiognomy in the United States. As theoretical guidance, we turn to the ideas of breakdown and friction, of conflict, misunderstanding and error, behind the concept of untranslatability championed by Emily Apter and Barbara Cassin. We take a special interest in Helen Caldwell's version of the novel Esau Jacob, which, when it's published, had to dispute the lights with the great success of Jorge Amado's boom precursor Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon. The research hopes thus to enlighten some aspects of Machado's works, which, in their false simplicity, lay traps for a conformist reception and resists patterns of (mis)understanding about the place of Brazilian literature in the World market. In a slighter note we also wish to articulate our findings with the example of Henry James, Machado's contemporary; we hope to achieve such a correlation with the help of Michael Anesko's musings about the American novelist ties with the publishing industry and about the posthumous politics aiming to control his legacy. (AU)