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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Reciprocity in Literary Translation: Gift Exchange Theory and Translation Praxis in Brazil and Mexico (1968-2015) Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2wn8v8p6 Author Gomez, Isabel Cherise Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Reciprocity in Literary Translation: Gift Exchange Theory and Translation Praxis in Brazil and Mexico (1968-2015) A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures by Isabel Cherise Gomez 2016 © Copyright by Isabel Cherise Gomez 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Reciprocity in Literary Translation: Gift Exchange Theory and Translation Praxis in Brazil and Mexico (1968-2015) by Isabel Cherise Gomez Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Efraín Kristal, Co-Chair Professor José Luiz Passos, Co-Chair What becomes visible when we read literary translations as gifts exchanged in a reciprocal symbolic economy? Figuring translations as gifts positions both source and target cultures as givers and recipients and supplements over-used translation metaphors of betrayal, plundering, submission, or fidelity. As Marcel Mauss articulates, the gift itself desires to be returned and reciprocated. My project maps out the Hemispheric Americas as an independent translation zone and highlights non-European translation norms. Portuguese and Spanish have been sidelined even from European translation studies: only in Mexico and Brazil do we see autochthonous translation theories in Spanish and Portuguese. Focusing on translation strategies that value ii taboo-breaking, I identify poet-translators in Mexico and Brazil who develop their own translation manuals. Working through and moving beyond the ideas of Mexican and Brazilian avant-garde theorists, I analyze writers for whom questions of translatability are oriented towards reciprocal two-way exchange, rather than either assimilation or transculturation. I demonstrate that—while in theory Octavio Paz defines translation as an act of resistance to a poet’s own voice—in his practice as a translator Paz imports his own poetic concerns into the works he translates. His contemporary Rosario Castellanos adopts and opposing theoretical stance while employing a similar practice, where her translated poems become an autobiographical performance of her intersectional vocation. I then trace the development of José Emilio Pacheco’s “approximations,” translations he describes as both cultured and barbaric. Haroldo de Campos and his concept of the “cannibal translator” who “transcreates” from all traditions opened the field for many Brazilian translators. Augusto de Campos, Paulo Henriques Britto, and Clarice Lispector each translate with their own manual, while they benefit from Haroldo’s expansive translation norms. Translation theories from Mexico and Brazil come into contact in translations of Brazilian modernismo into Spanish for a Latin American canon published by the Biblioteca Ayacucho. In each chapter, close reading of essays about translation, translation paratexts, and selected translations reveal the function of literary translations as gifts from one writer to another, from one culture to another, or amongst translators. iii The dissertation of Isabel Cherise Gomez is approved. Barbara Fuchs Suzanne Levine Efraín Kristal, Co-Chair José Luiz Passos, Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2016 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Vita x Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Octavio Paz and Rosario Castellanos Give and Receive as Literary 36 Translators: Versiones as Diversion, Versiones as Oficio Analogous Versions in Theory and in Practice 40 The Generous Translationship Between Paz and Bishop 50 Versiones of Nerval: French Alexandrines Through Two Spanish Filters 62 Paz Takes Back “Literary Interest” Given to Nerval 75 Versiones of Castellanos: Literary Translation and Self-Fashioning 82 Versions and Options: The Oficio of a Woman Who Writes 89 The Dialectic of Dominion and Liberation in Spanish 97 Poetic Avatars and Cautionary Tales: Castellanos on Dickinson 102 Translating Dickinson: Unapologetic Autobiographical Translation 107 Chapter 1 Conclusions: Mexican History and the “Objective” Translator 121 Chapter 2 José Emilio Pacheco and Literary Translation as Writing Without 123 Authorship: Gifting Between Different Americas Heteronyms and Pseudotranslations: Approximating Other Americas 131 T.S. Eliot in Spanish: La Tierra Baldía, El páramo, and Cuatro cuartetos 138 Re-Translations and Shifting Conditions: Prose to Poetry to Criticism 143 The Mexican Past of the American Midwest in Pacheco’s “Eliotic” Notes 147 Transplanted Landscapes and Grafted Histories in “East Coker” 157 Approximating Indigenous Poetries of North America 167 Reframing Bierhorst’s Frame: From “Ritual Orations” to Poems 171 Pseudo-Translation: Original Work Presented as an “Apache Song” 178 Approximations of Brazil: Fame and Anonymity, Memory and Amnesia 184 Azevedo Oliveira, Mouthpiece for the Coloniality of Racism 191 Chapter 2 Conclusions: Ayotzinapa and the Politics of Translation 196 Chapter 3 Reciprocal Translation Praxis in Brazil After Haroldo de Campos: 200 From Cannibal Translation to Transcreation and (Un)Translation The Brothers de Campos: From Concrete Poetry to Cannibal Translation 203 Haroldo on Oswald: Antropofagia as Writing and Translating Strategy 206 Literary Translation Theory in Brazil: Where Does the Cannibal Belong? 210 From Self-Translation to Social Justice Translation in cartonera 214 The Anticrítico and (In)Tradução: Translation Theories by Augusto 223 Augusto in Spanish America: Huidobro and Parra over Neruda 231 Intralingual (Un)Translations and Os sertões dos Campos 239 The Professional Cannibal Translator: Paulo Henriques Britto 246 Translation as a Gift of Formal Experiment: Symmetrical Sonnets 250 v Clarice Lispector as a Translator and Adapter: Gifts and Product 258 Poe in Brazil: Lispector’s Translation Manual 264 Chapter 3 Conclusions: Literary Gifts and Political Alliances 280 Chapter 4 Brazilian Modernismo Journeys from São Paulo to Caracas: 283 Gift Exchanges Between Translation Theorists Reading Ayacucho’s Archives: A Publisher’s “Translation Manual” 286 Framing Brazilian modernismo for Spanish-American Readers 292 Macunaíma as World Literature: Transcreation and Thick Translation 306 Héctor Olea’s Spanish-American Macunaíma: Tactics of Transcreation 313 The Value of Incompatibility: Untranslatables as Inflection Points 317 Conflicting Translation Manuals as Cognitive Highlighter: Reading for 320 Geographic Dislocation and Interpolated Traditions Chapter 4 Conclusions: World Literature as Mobile Untranslatables 331 Conclusions Reciprocity and Literary Translation in the Digital Age 332 Bibliography 337 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Scholarly writing, like literary translation, can never be a solo act. So many mentors, friends, and family have given to me generously of their time and support as I have pursued my degree and developed this project. I am incredibly grateful and I extend my sincere thanks: To my advisers, the co-chairs of my dissertation committee: Professor Efraín Kristal and Professor José Luiz Passos; and to my other committee members: Professor Barbara Fuchs and Professor Suzanne Jill Levine; my work has grown more than I knew possible with the benefit of their insights and valuable feedback throughout the process, their mentorship and conversation over the years, and I am honored to have worked with such phenomenal scholars; To my other faculty mentors at UCLA and elsewhere: to Anna More for all her support and for bringing me into the realm of sorjuanista scholarship which has given me new research and translation directions; to Sandra Bermann, Michelle Clayton, Jorge Marturano, Benjamin Moser, Christopher Mott, and Maarten van Delden for helping me find opportunities to present my research and for reading early drafts of my work; and to the late, great Michael Heim, who taught me what translation could mean within a scholarly life; To those who have helped me with the research, editing, and publication of my work: to the editors Hélio de Seixas Guimarães at Machado de Assis em Linha and Kristin Dykstra who found a place for my transcreation at Jacket2; to the editors of my forthcoming article about English translations of Sor Juana, Emilie Bergmann and Stacey Schlau; to the editors at the Journal of World Literature, Susan Bassnett, David Damrosch, and Esmaeil Haddadian Moghaddam: Chapter Four is a version of my article “Brazilian Transcreation and World Literature: Macunaíma Journeys from São Paulo to Caracas.” Journal of World Literature 1.3 (2016): 316-314., and I reprint it here with permission from the publisher; to Jessica Gordon- vii Burroughs who introduced me to the archival materials at the Biblioteca Ayacucho publishing house; and to those who welcomed me there during my visit: Executive Director Luis Edgar Páez and Editors Elizabeth Coronado, Shirley Fernández, and Daniel Pérez Astros; citations from letters held in the archive at the Biblioteca Ayacucho are included with permission; To the Revolutionary Women, my writing group comprised of women of color pursuing doctorates in the humanities: Juliann Anesi, Carolina Beltrán, Renee Hudson, Andretta Lyle, Kimberly Mack, Marilu Medrado,