THE FAILURE OF A LATIN AMERICAN BESTSELLER: Researching the Reception of João Guimarães Rosa in the United States

Authors

Andrew Kelly Nelson, Brigham Young University
James Krause, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Latin American authors, João Guimarães Rosa, translation process

College

Humanities

Department

Spanish and Portuguese

Abstract

Of all Latin American authors, the works of João Guimarães Rosa present some of the greatest difficulties for translators. He experienced laudable critical success throughout Latin American and Europe, but–for reasons that are under investigation–received a tepid reception in the United States. This project was developed to examine the extent to which the translation and editorial processes played in this poor reception by the US readership by examining the extensive communication that the author maintained with the translator of his work. Such correspondence is unique in that it documents the collaborative translation process between the author and his English-language translator, a relationship that is not commonly found in the world of literature and not so extensively documented. The transcriptions will be used to understand the literary and extraliterary factors in the translation process that resulted in the poor reception of his work in the English-speaking world while it succeeded in the other languages into which it was translated (French, Spanish, Italian, and German).

Recommended Citation

Nelson, Andrew Kelly and Krause, James (2015) "THE FAILURE OF A LATIN AMERICAN BESTSELLER: Researching the Reception of João Guimarães Rosa in the United States," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2015: Iss. 1, Article 110.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2015/iss1/110