Oberlin Digital Commons at Oberlin Honors Papers Student Work 2013 A Poetics of Complicity: Translating Luis García Montero Alice McAdams Oberlin College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/honors Part of the Comparative Literature Commons Repository Citation McAdams, Alice, "A Poetics of Complicity: Translating Luis García Montero" (2013). Honors Papers. 332. https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/honors/332 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Digital Commons at Oberlin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at Oberlin. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. A Poetics of Complicity: Translating Luis García Montero By Alice McAdams An Honors project in the department of Comparative Literature at Oberlin College April 2013 1 With immense gratitude for the mentorship of Professors Sebastiaan Faber and Bernard Matambo. 2 CONTENTS I. Diario cómplice a. “Nada es Neutro”: The Personified World of Diario cómplice ……… 4 i. García Montero ………………………………………………… 4 ii. Diary of an Accomplice ……………………………………… 13 iii. Translating …………………………………………………… 25 b. Translations …………………………………………………………… 40 II. Quedarse sin ciudad a. The City as Phoenix: Cultural Evolution in Quedarse sin ciudad …… 111 b. Translations …………………………………………………………… 126 III. Appendix A: Original texts, Diario cómplice …………………………… 137 IV. Appendix B: Original texts, Quedarse sin ciudad ……………………… 207 3 “Nada es Neutro”: The Personified World of Diario cómplice I. García Montero Luis García Montero is strongly aware of his place in the vast timeline of Spanish literature. In fact, it is one of the most immediately visible motivations in his writing. Beyond the many epigraphs and dedications exalting his predecessors and contemporaries, his poetry belies the heavy influence of centuries of distinct poetic movements — in the form of celebration as much as aversion.