COMPLEX NEGOTIATIONS of cultural difference and interpersonal engagement propel the correspondenc... more COMPLEX NEGOTIATIONS of cultural difference and interpersonal engagement propel the correspondence that Wallace Stevens and the Cuban literary critic José Rodríguez Feo sustain from 1944 to 1955. Collected and edited by Alan Filreis and Beverly Coyle under the title Secretaries of the Moon: The Letters of Wallace Stevens and José Rodríguez Feo (henceforth abbreviated as SM), the two men’s epistolary exchanges are marked by gestures of intimacy that take the form of expressions of allegiance across differences of age and cleverly coded acts of intellectual refutation. The depth of their interaction runs counter to the widely held critical image of Stevens as wary of intimacy. Randall Jarrell has identified a longing in Stevens’s work for “the freedom of removedness” (63); Helen Vendler has observed his “chilling reticence” (11). Yet the poet’s interactions with Rodríguez Feo also display an interest in establishing and maintaining epistolary connections that transcend differences of personal identity. These letters support Roger Gilbert’s assertion that Stevens’s “central preoccupation with the self” is “balanced and qualified by a recurrent orientation toward the other” (335). Eric Keenaghan similarly argues that, despite his tendency toward “narcissism” (55), Stevens believes that “North and South” could be “an intrinsic couple,” and that the poet’s work “evinces his attempts to read self and nation more completely and dynamically through difference” (37). These ideas play out in a variety of ways in the correspondence.
Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, v52 n2 (2018): 597-615, 2018
En su ensayo “Lo exterior en la poesía,” la escritora cubana Fina García Marruz (1923-) arguye q... more En su ensayo “Lo exterior en la poesía,” la escritora cubana Fina García Marruz (1923-) arguye que los poemas se deben analizar según el margen de espacio virtual que separa al poeta de lo que observa, analiza y describe: “No hay diferencia personal o poética que no pueda explicarse por la distancia a que está visto el objeto” (18). Es productivo usar este mismo criterio para examinar el diálogo que García Marruz sostiene con el poeta romántico inglés en su poema “Homenaje a Keats,” publicado en 1970 en la colección Visitaciones. El caso del poema a Keats es de particular interés porque suscita preguntas importantes sobre la cuestión del estatus de la escritora latinoamericana frente al europeo, quien representa dos formas de supuesta superioridad--una de género y la otra de cultura. García Marruz se dirige a Keats sin ansiedad, apropiándose del discurso del otro y afirmando un poder cultural que se encuentra imbricado en el proceso mismo de elaboración de un texto literario. La poeta cubana establece diferentes distancias desde las cuales su propia voz poética se enfrenta con la del poeta inglés y en ninguna de estas colocaciones corre el riesgo de perderse o suprimirse frente a la figura cultural que la ideología dominante del mundo anglosajón considera superior. En vez de ello, García Marruz controla los grados de intimidad que su voz poética establece con el otro, y las múltiples formas de acercamiento que surgen de esta técnica terminan usando a Keats como vehículo para la expresión de ideas propias, particularmente conceptos teológicos.
In his many essays on literary and cultural topics, the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima (1910–1976)... more In his many essays on literary and cultural topics, the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima (1910–1976) develops a complex system of ideas about history and time. Lezama objects to simplistic ways of conceptualising temporality and favours a flexible notion of time. His way of thinking on the subject is bound up with his preference for literary or generally artistic expression as opposed to what he sees as the problematic ontological claims of historiography. He privileges the artistic image as a force that can transcend linearities and determinisms. Lezama sees the image as essentially future-oriented, as a force that makes possible an arc of Cuban cultural progress that stretches forward in time.
Reconstruction: Studies In Contemporary Culture, 2008
Cuban editor, translator and literary critic José Rodríguez Feo (1920-93) has received insufficie... more Cuban editor, translator and literary critic José Rodríguez Feo (1920-93) has received insufficient attention from scholars of Cuban cultural history. Though he was wealthy, fluent in English, and educated at Harvard, he decided to stay in Cuba and commit to Castro's revolutionary cultural agenda. Though this fact is surprising, the seeds of Rodríguez Feo's Marxist commitments can be seen in the early stages of his career, when he was co-editor of the literary magazine Orígenes (1944-56). Rodríguez Feo's knowledge of U.S. history instilled in him a distaste for the injustices of imperialism. His education and fluency in English did not shape him into a reflexively pro-American member of the Cuban elite. Instead, they instigated a commitment to anti-imperialism that developed into a strict allegiance with Castro's political and cultural agendas.
This essay examines the cultural and religious precursors claimed by the Cuban exile
literary ma... more This essay examines the cultural and religious precursors claimed by the Cuban exile
literary magazine Exilio. Published in New York from 1965 to 1973 and edited by Víctor Batista
Falla and Raimundo Fernández Bonilla, Exilio drew on two traditions: the nineteenth
century priest and advocate for Cuban independence Félix Varela and the mid-twentieth
century literary magazine Orígenes. By claiming descent from these forefathers, the magazine
claimed allegiance to two contrasting modes in which religious thought might be used
to express an agenda for the Cuban nation. Where Varela exemplified the use of theological
ideas to publicly espouse political change, Orígenes, and by association, the author José
Lezama Lima, provided the example of a religiosity that turns inward and eschews direct
participation in public debate. In the end, the Exilio group saw both models as valid means
for constructing a religiously inflected cultural project for redeeming Cuba from the parallel
space of exile.
Estudios Irlandeses - Journal of Irish Studies, no 2, 2007
Paul Muldoon's poems "Meeting the British" and "My Father and I and Billy Two Rivers" represent h... more Paul Muldoon's poems "Meeting the British" and "My Father and I and Billy Two Rivers" represent history as a space of reversed allegiances. In these poems, doubling is a constant activity that deceives the viewer or interlocutor. This deception occurs both in the history of British imperialism and in a technological present in which an Irish father and son must make sense of the shifting and uncertain ground of their own cultural identity. Behind the veil of the allegiance lurk obscured differences of both identity and power; Muldoon's poems highlight the importance of being skeptical of all assertions of identity that purport to equate different, opposed and unequal cultural groups. In the end, a knowledge of history is the most important tool for piercing the veil of deception and seeing clearly the working of difference and resisting the deception that is the weapon of those in power.
Los poemas "Meeting the British" y "My Father and I and Billy Two Rivers," de Paul Muldoon, presentan la historia como un espacio de alianzas cambiantes. En estos poemas, el duplicar es una actividad constante que engana al espectador o interlocutor. Este engano ocurre tanto en la historia del imperialismo britanico como en un presente tecnologico en el cual un padre irlandes y su hijo tienen que comprender su propia identidad cultural, que es siempre cambiante e incierta. Detras del velo de la alianza se esconden diferencias de identidad y poder; los poemas de Muldoon subrayan la importancia de ser esceptico en cuanto a todas las afirmaciones de identidad que pretenden equiparar grupos culturales que son desiguales y que estan en oposicion. A fin de cuentas, un conocimiento de la historia es la herramienta mas util para penetrar el velo de la decepcion, ver claramente como funciona el fenomeno de la diferencia, y resistir el engano que sirve de arma para los que poseen el poder.
Cuban culture has long been available to English speakers via translation. This study examines th... more Cuban culture has long been available to English speakers via translation. This study examines the complex ways in which English renderings of Cuban texts from various domains—poetry, science fiction, political and military writing, music, film—have represented, reshaped, or amended original texts. Taking in a broad corpus, it becomes clear that the mental image an Anglophone audience has formed of Cuban culture since 1959 depends heavily on the decisions of translators. At times, a clear ideological agenda drives moves like strengthening the denunciatory tone of a song or excising passages from a political text. At other moments, translators’ indifference to the importance of certain facets of a work, such as a film’s onscreen text or the lyrics sung on a musical performance, impoverishes the English speaker’s experience of the rich weave of self-expression in the original Spanish. In addition to the dynamics at work in the choices translators make at the level of the text itself, this study attends to how paratexts like prefaces, footnotes, liner notes, and promotional copy shape the audience’s experience of the text.
COMPLEX NEGOTIATIONS of cultural difference and interpersonal engagement propel the correspondenc... more COMPLEX NEGOTIATIONS of cultural difference and interpersonal engagement propel the correspondence that Wallace Stevens and the Cuban literary critic José Rodríguez Feo sustain from 1944 to 1955. Collected and edited by Alan Filreis and Beverly Coyle under the title Secretaries of the Moon: The Letters of Wallace Stevens and José Rodríguez Feo (henceforth abbreviated as SM), the two men’s epistolary exchanges are marked by gestures of intimacy that take the form of expressions of allegiance across differences of age and cleverly coded acts of intellectual refutation. The depth of their interaction runs counter to the widely held critical image of Stevens as wary of intimacy. Randall Jarrell has identified a longing in Stevens’s work for “the freedom of removedness” (63); Helen Vendler has observed his “chilling reticence” (11). Yet the poet’s interactions with Rodríguez Feo also display an interest in establishing and maintaining epistolary connections that transcend differences of personal identity. These letters support Roger Gilbert’s assertion that Stevens’s “central preoccupation with the self” is “balanced and qualified by a recurrent orientation toward the other” (335). Eric Keenaghan similarly argues that, despite his tendency toward “narcissism” (55), Stevens believes that “North and South” could be “an intrinsic couple,” and that the poet’s work “evinces his attempts to read self and nation more completely and dynamically through difference” (37). These ideas play out in a variety of ways in the correspondence.
Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, v52 n2 (2018): 597-615, 2018
En su ensayo “Lo exterior en la poesía,” la escritora cubana Fina García Marruz (1923-) arguye q... more En su ensayo “Lo exterior en la poesía,” la escritora cubana Fina García Marruz (1923-) arguye que los poemas se deben analizar según el margen de espacio virtual que separa al poeta de lo que observa, analiza y describe: “No hay diferencia personal o poética que no pueda explicarse por la distancia a que está visto el objeto” (18). Es productivo usar este mismo criterio para examinar el diálogo que García Marruz sostiene con el poeta romántico inglés en su poema “Homenaje a Keats,” publicado en 1970 en la colección Visitaciones. El caso del poema a Keats es de particular interés porque suscita preguntas importantes sobre la cuestión del estatus de la escritora latinoamericana frente al europeo, quien representa dos formas de supuesta superioridad--una de género y la otra de cultura. García Marruz se dirige a Keats sin ansiedad, apropiándose del discurso del otro y afirmando un poder cultural que se encuentra imbricado en el proceso mismo de elaboración de un texto literario. La poeta cubana establece diferentes distancias desde las cuales su propia voz poética se enfrenta con la del poeta inglés y en ninguna de estas colocaciones corre el riesgo de perderse o suprimirse frente a la figura cultural que la ideología dominante del mundo anglosajón considera superior. En vez de ello, García Marruz controla los grados de intimidad que su voz poética establece con el otro, y las múltiples formas de acercamiento que surgen de esta técnica terminan usando a Keats como vehículo para la expresión de ideas propias, particularmente conceptos teológicos.
In his many essays on literary and cultural topics, the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima (1910–1976)... more In his many essays on literary and cultural topics, the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima (1910–1976) develops a complex system of ideas about history and time. Lezama objects to simplistic ways of conceptualising temporality and favours a flexible notion of time. His way of thinking on the subject is bound up with his preference for literary or generally artistic expression as opposed to what he sees as the problematic ontological claims of historiography. He privileges the artistic image as a force that can transcend linearities and determinisms. Lezama sees the image as essentially future-oriented, as a force that makes possible an arc of Cuban cultural progress that stretches forward in time.
Reconstruction: Studies In Contemporary Culture, 2008
Cuban editor, translator and literary critic José Rodríguez Feo (1920-93) has received insufficie... more Cuban editor, translator and literary critic José Rodríguez Feo (1920-93) has received insufficient attention from scholars of Cuban cultural history. Though he was wealthy, fluent in English, and educated at Harvard, he decided to stay in Cuba and commit to Castro's revolutionary cultural agenda. Though this fact is surprising, the seeds of Rodríguez Feo's Marxist commitments can be seen in the early stages of his career, when he was co-editor of the literary magazine Orígenes (1944-56). Rodríguez Feo's knowledge of U.S. history instilled in him a distaste for the injustices of imperialism. His education and fluency in English did not shape him into a reflexively pro-American member of the Cuban elite. Instead, they instigated a commitment to anti-imperialism that developed into a strict allegiance with Castro's political and cultural agendas.
This essay examines the cultural and religious precursors claimed by the Cuban exile
literary ma... more This essay examines the cultural and religious precursors claimed by the Cuban exile
literary magazine Exilio. Published in New York from 1965 to 1973 and edited by Víctor Batista
Falla and Raimundo Fernández Bonilla, Exilio drew on two traditions: the nineteenth
century priest and advocate for Cuban independence Félix Varela and the mid-twentieth
century literary magazine Orígenes. By claiming descent from these forefathers, the magazine
claimed allegiance to two contrasting modes in which religious thought might be used
to express an agenda for the Cuban nation. Where Varela exemplified the use of theological
ideas to publicly espouse political change, Orígenes, and by association, the author José
Lezama Lima, provided the example of a religiosity that turns inward and eschews direct
participation in public debate. In the end, the Exilio group saw both models as valid means
for constructing a religiously inflected cultural project for redeeming Cuba from the parallel
space of exile.
Estudios Irlandeses - Journal of Irish Studies, no 2, 2007
Paul Muldoon's poems "Meeting the British" and "My Father and I and Billy Two Rivers" represent h... more Paul Muldoon's poems "Meeting the British" and "My Father and I and Billy Two Rivers" represent history as a space of reversed allegiances. In these poems, doubling is a constant activity that deceives the viewer or interlocutor. This deception occurs both in the history of British imperialism and in a technological present in which an Irish father and son must make sense of the shifting and uncertain ground of their own cultural identity. Behind the veil of the allegiance lurk obscured differences of both identity and power; Muldoon's poems highlight the importance of being skeptical of all assertions of identity that purport to equate different, opposed and unequal cultural groups. In the end, a knowledge of history is the most important tool for piercing the veil of deception and seeing clearly the working of difference and resisting the deception that is the weapon of those in power.
Los poemas "Meeting the British" y "My Father and I and Billy Two Rivers," de Paul Muldoon, presentan la historia como un espacio de alianzas cambiantes. En estos poemas, el duplicar es una actividad constante que engana al espectador o interlocutor. Este engano ocurre tanto en la historia del imperialismo britanico como en un presente tecnologico en el cual un padre irlandes y su hijo tienen que comprender su propia identidad cultural, que es siempre cambiante e incierta. Detras del velo de la alianza se esconden diferencias de identidad y poder; los poemas de Muldoon subrayan la importancia de ser esceptico en cuanto a todas las afirmaciones de identidad que pretenden equiparar grupos culturales que son desiguales y que estan en oposicion. A fin de cuentas, un conocimiento de la historia es la herramienta mas util para penetrar el velo de la decepcion, ver claramente como funciona el fenomeno de la diferencia, y resistir el engano que sirve de arma para los que poseen el poder.
Cuban culture has long been available to English speakers via translation. This study examines th... more Cuban culture has long been available to English speakers via translation. This study examines the complex ways in which English renderings of Cuban texts from various domains—poetry, science fiction, political and military writing, music, film—have represented, reshaped, or amended original texts. Taking in a broad corpus, it becomes clear that the mental image an Anglophone audience has formed of Cuban culture since 1959 depends heavily on the decisions of translators. At times, a clear ideological agenda drives moves like strengthening the denunciatory tone of a song or excising passages from a political text. At other moments, translators’ indifference to the importance of certain facets of a work, such as a film’s onscreen text or the lyrics sung on a musical performance, impoverishes the English speaker’s experience of the rich weave of self-expression in the original Spanish. In addition to the dynamics at work in the choices translators make at the level of the text itself, this study attends to how paratexts like prefaces, footnotes, liner notes, and promotional copy shape the audience’s experience of the text.
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literary magazine Exilio. Published in New York from 1965 to 1973 and edited by Víctor Batista
Falla and Raimundo Fernández Bonilla, Exilio drew on two traditions: the nineteenth
century priest and advocate for Cuban independence Félix Varela and the mid-twentieth
century literary magazine Orígenes. By claiming descent from these forefathers, the magazine
claimed allegiance to two contrasting modes in which religious thought might be used
to express an agenda for the Cuban nation. Where Varela exemplified the use of theological
ideas to publicly espouse political change, Orígenes, and by association, the author José
Lezama Lima, provided the example of a religiosity that turns inward and eschews direct
participation in public debate. In the end, the Exilio group saw both models as valid means
for constructing a religiously inflected cultural project for redeeming Cuba from the parallel
space of exile.
Los poemas "Meeting the British" y "My Father and I and Billy Two Rivers," de Paul Muldoon, presentan la historia como un espacio de alianzas cambiantes. En estos poemas, el duplicar es una actividad constante que engana al espectador o interlocutor. Este engano ocurre tanto en la historia del imperialismo britanico como en un presente tecnologico en el cual un padre irlandes y su hijo tienen que comprender su propia identidad cultural, que es siempre cambiante e incierta. Detras del velo de la alianza se esconden diferencias de identidad y poder; los poemas de Muldoon subrayan la importancia de ser esceptico en cuanto a todas las afirmaciones de identidad que pretenden equiparar grupos culturales que son desiguales y que estan en oposicion. A fin de cuentas, un conocimiento de la historia es la herramienta mas util para penetrar el velo de la decepcion, ver claramente como funciona el fenomeno de la diferencia, y resistir el engano que sirve de arma para los que poseen el poder.
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literary magazine Exilio. Published in New York from 1965 to 1973 and edited by Víctor Batista
Falla and Raimundo Fernández Bonilla, Exilio drew on two traditions: the nineteenth
century priest and advocate for Cuban independence Félix Varela and the mid-twentieth
century literary magazine Orígenes. By claiming descent from these forefathers, the magazine
claimed allegiance to two contrasting modes in which religious thought might be used
to express an agenda for the Cuban nation. Where Varela exemplified the use of theological
ideas to publicly espouse political change, Orígenes, and by association, the author José
Lezama Lima, provided the example of a religiosity that turns inward and eschews direct
participation in public debate. In the end, the Exilio group saw both models as valid means
for constructing a religiously inflected cultural project for redeeming Cuba from the parallel
space of exile.
Los poemas "Meeting the British" y "My Father and I and Billy Two Rivers," de Paul Muldoon, presentan la historia como un espacio de alianzas cambiantes. En estos poemas, el duplicar es una actividad constante que engana al espectador o interlocutor. Este engano ocurre tanto en la historia del imperialismo britanico como en un presente tecnologico en el cual un padre irlandes y su hijo tienen que comprender su propia identidad cultural, que es siempre cambiante e incierta. Detras del velo de la alianza se esconden diferencias de identidad y poder; los poemas de Muldoon subrayan la importancia de ser esceptico en cuanto a todas las afirmaciones de identidad que pretenden equiparar grupos culturales que son desiguales y que estan en oposicion. A fin de cuentas, un conocimiento de la historia es la herramienta mas util para penetrar el velo de la decepcion, ver claramente como funciona el fenomeno de la diferencia, y resistir el engano que sirve de arma para los que poseen el poder.