Transatlantic Translations: Dialogues in Latin American Literature - Tapa dura

"In an interesting introduction and eight discrete but interlinked chapters, Ortega underscores a beneficial mixture of the two bloods and cultures. . . . The key words of each chapter title ('speaking, ' 'reading, ' 'writing, ' 'translating, ' 'drawing, ' representing, ' 'judging, ' 'interpreting') demonstrate that language is a double-edged sword that empowers the Latin Americans to narrate their own story. . . . Satisfactory translation, in general. Recommended."--J. Walker"CHOICE" (06/01/2007)

Conceived of as the 'New World', Latin America represented a new beginning for its discoverers, yet, in fact, the colonials were only continuing their search for what they knew all along they wanted to find: fertile land with an abundance of spices, precious metals and labour. This idea of Latin America's invention has long been a preoccupation of intellectuals and historians, leading to the dominant postcolonial interpretation of the native as a marginalized figure often unusually wise or heroic according to his circumstances. "Transatlantic Translations" examines the ways in which the unknown has always been imagined according to what is already known, the new according to the old. Tracing Latin American representations from the early modern to contemporary periods, in Shakespeare, Cervantes, Juan Rulfo, Ricardo Palma, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Juan Maria Gutierrez and many others, Ortega uncovers the rich fabric of literature that has emerged from that culture, arguing that the learning of language, far from being a means for the colonial to indoctrinate and civilize the native, has given the native the means to describe and communicate with the natural world around them, and eventually to re-tell their own history. By travelling beyond the contradictions that make up any comparison between colonizer and native, Ortega negotiates a space for the Latin American narrative beyond ideas of victimization and resistance. "Transatlantic Translations" bridges the divide between abundance and scarcity, enabling the Old World and the New to meet and speak together in a shared language.