Translation and transmigration

Abstract

reflection to poetry to scholarly article, the objects of study of the chapters include cultural topics such as dance andmonuments, as well as texts of a variety of genres including theatrical plays, poetry, fictional narrative, biography and journalism. In addition, the focus of the contributions shifts between the city as the guiding perspective on authorship and translation, and literary texts and writers as leading a textual analysis on the city and translation. The volume’s understanding of Iberian and Latin American content is similarly elusive: the authors might be Hispanics who live in North America, as is the case of the pieces that discuss New York City and Montreal; or the artists, figures or artistic expression might be analyzed within their country of origin as offered by the chapters on Pancho Villa and Benet i Jornet and the reflection by Borinsky. While it provesdifficult topindownthese overarchingconcepts in the volume, this eclecticism allows the collection to underscore one central notion related to cities, authors, the Iberian and Latin American cultures and translation: that of “crossing” or the term “trans-”.What better way to privilege the lens of translation than by emphasizing linguistic movement on a larger scale? Generic transfer guides the analyses of many of these contributions. In Barcelona, Rodoreda’s novel becomes a play; in Mexico City, Pancho Villa transforms from political figure to protagonist of a biography to monumental statue; in New York City, Martí’s writing strategies translate into templates for contemporary media hubs; in Buenos Aires, linguistic interactions cross into the stylized tango dance. That the volume’s editors choose to include a plethora of writing forms speaks also to this idea of “trans-” in which genre-crossing allows readers to approach these concepts of translationand the city througha spectrumof lenses.A creativeapproach to the academic anthology, this volume is refreshing in both its scope and form.