#World Literature

[obsessioncollector]

Hi friends! Inspired by @librarycards I wanted to make a post celebrating Women in Translation Month! Anglophone readers generally pay embarrassingly little attention to works in other languages, and that's even more true when it comes to literature by women, so I will jump at any chance to promote my faves 🥰 Here are some recs from 9 different languages! Also, I wrote this on my phone, so apologies for any typos or errors!

1. Trieste by Daša Drndić, trans. Ellen Elias-Bursać (Croatian): An all-time favorite. Much of Drndić's work interrogates the legacy of atrocities in Europe, particularly eastern Europe. Trieste is a haunting contemplative novel centered on an elderly Italian Jewish woman whose family converted to Catholicism during the Mussolini era and were complicit in the fascist violence surrounding them in order to protect themselves.

2. Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, trans. Anton Hur (Korean): A collection of short stories that are difficult to classify by genre–speculative fiction in the broadest sense. The first story is about a monster in a woman's toilet, which sounds impossible to pull off in a serious, thought-provoking manner, but Chung does so easily—these are the kind of stories that are hard to explain the brilliance of secondhand.

3. Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy, trans. Tim Parks (Italian; Jaeggy is Swiss): Another all time favorite! The cold, sterile homoerotic girls' boarding school novella of your dreams.

4. Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono, trans. Lucy North (Japanese): I think I read this in one sitting. Incredibly unsettling—these stories will stay with you. They often focus on the unspoken psychosexual fantasies underscoring mundane daily life.

5. The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector, trans. Katrina Dodson (Brazilian Portuguese): I think Lispector is the best known writer here, so she might not need much of an introduction. But what a legend! And this collection is so diverse—it's fascinating to see the evolution of Lispector's work.

6. Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, trans. Melanie L. Mauthner (French; Mukasonga is Rwandan): Give her the Nobel! Mukasonga's books, at least the ones available in English, are generally quite short but so impactful. Our Lady of the Nile is a collection of interrelated short stories set at a Catholic girls' boarding school in Rwanda in the years before the Rwandan genocide. These stories are fascinating on many levels, but perhaps the most haunting element is seeing how ethnic hatred intensifies over time—none of these girls would consider themselves particularly hateful or prejudiced, but they easily justify atrocities in the end.

7. Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962-1972 by Alejandra Pizarnik, trans. Yvette Siegert (Spanish; Pizarnik was Argentinian): Does anyone remember when my url was @/pizarnikpdf... probably not but worth mentioning to emphasize how much I love her <3 Reading Pizarnik is so revelatory for me; she articulates things I didn't even realize I felt until I read her words.

8. Flight and Metamorphosis: Poems by Nelly Sachs, trans. Joshua Weiner (German): Sachs actually won the Nobel in the 1960s, so it's surprising that she's not better known in the Anglosphere. Her poems are cryptic and surreal, yet deeply evocative. Worth mentioning that this volume is bilingual, so you can read the original German too if you're interested.

9. Frontier by Can Xue, trans. Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping (Chinese): Can Xue is another difficult-to-classify writer in terms of genre. Her short stories are often very abstract and can be puzzling at first. I think Frontier is a great place to start with her because these stories are interconnected, which makes them a bit more accessible.

[angadgautama]

I'm a bridge, and you are a river,

I'm same, still stand there,

but you have changed.

at least come back for once at the old way....

even though come for quarrel..

[theadagium]

As a Thanatos devotee, I normally tend to hate the story of Sisyphus. I however usually see the Greek tales as metaphors for how the Greeks saw elements of the world interact with any other. Finally I decided to put some thought into the tale of Sisyphus, and finally I understood. Sisyphus hid death from the world, and his punishment was the torture of repetition. It’s a metaphor for how valuable death, Thanatos, is for us. Ares freeing Thanatos was a metaphor for how without Death there is no glory or passion in life. Without Death, or change, we are all suffering in stagnant repetition.

[garlandedspirits]

love it when I read 18th century chinese collections about the supernatural and the author just slaps some of the most timeless and profound sentences ever written in my face

[useless-catalanfacts]

I'm going to university now (in Germany) and the uni i'm at offers catalan as a side course. Tomorrow i'll finally be at an event where they introduce the subject among others. I'M SO EXCITED!!!!! ^^ Finally! >< Sadly, there won't be a class for catalan literature (omg actually - if you have recommendations of important works from the recent centuries, i'd love to hear, but i'm just rambling, no pressure xD). There will be linguistics and speech praxis. I can't wait! :D

That's great!! I hope you enjoy it very much ☺️

Some of the modern classics (from the late 19th century to the present):

L'Atlàntida (Atlantis, 1877) by Jacint Verdaguer. Epic poem that re-interprets history and legends. Jacint Verdaguer is the most representative poet of the Renaixença/Romanticism movement in Catalan literature.

Other poems by Jacint Verdaguer (1845-1902) and Joan Maragall (1860-1911) are the most important poetry of the Renaixença.

The theatre plays Terra Baixa (usually published in English with the title Martha of the Lowlands, 1896) by Àngel Guimerà. Also Mar i cel ("Sea And Sky", 1888) by him.

La febre d'or ("The gold fever", 1892) by Narcís Oller, the most representative of the realist movement.

The monologue La infanticida ("The Child Murderer", 1898) by Víctor Català (pseudonym of Caterina Albert). And her novel Solitud ("Loneliness", 1905), which is considered the most representative book of the modernist and naturalism movement in Catalan literature.

The satirical theatre plays by Santiago Rusiñol like L'auca del senyor Esteve (1917) —personally I really like his play El bon policia ("The Good Policeman", 1905).

The theatre play El cafè de la Marina ("The Marina Café, 1933) by Josep Maria de Segarra.

Poetry by Pere Quart (1899-1986)

La Plaça del Diamant (it has been translated to English with the titles In Diamond Square and The Time of the Doves, 1962) by Mercè Rodoreda. Her novels Mirall trencat ("Broken Mirror", 1974), La mort i la primavera (Death in Spring, 1986) and Aloma (1938) are also iconic.

The short stories books by Pere Calders, most famously Cròniques de la veritat oculta ("Chronicles of the Hidden Truth", 1955).

The short stories book El cafè de la Granota (1985) by Jesús Montcada,

Poetry: Josep Carner (1884-1970), J.V. Foix (1893-1987).

The novel Bearn, o la sala de les nines ("Bearn, Or The Doll Room", 1961) by Llorenç Villalonga.

Poetry: Vicent Andrés Estellés (1924-1993), Salvador Espriu (1913-1985), Maria Mercè Marçal (1952-1998), Miquel Martí i Pol (1929-2003).

The essays by Joan Fuster, most importantly Nosaltres, els valencians ("We, the Valencians", 1962).

Mecanoscrit del Segon Origen (Typescript of the Second Origin, 1974) and Totes les bèsties de càrrega ("All The Load Beasts"?, 1967) by Manuel de Pedrolo, also personally by him I really liked the sci-fi short stories collection Trajecte Final ("Final Journey", 1975), and I will add my dad would be upset if I didn't mention his theatre play Homes i no ("Men and no", 1957).

Incerta glòria (Uncertain Glory, 1971) by Joan Sales.

Les veus del Pamano (Voices of the Pamano, 2004) and Jo confesso (I Confess, 2011) by Jaume Cabré.

I know some of them, at least Jaume Cabré's novels, Àngel Guimerà's plays, Uncertain Glory, and some Mercè Rodoreda novels have been published in German and/or English. In fact, Voices of the Pamano was a huge success in Germany.

I hope you enjoy the class very much!

[lesewut]

‘Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.‘

‘Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.’

//

‘We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe- some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others- some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of men. But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal- there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court.’

‘I think I'll be a clown when I get grown,' said Dill. Jem and I stopped in our tracks. Yes sir, a clown,' he said. 'There ain't one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus and laugh my head off.' You got it backwards, Dill,' said Jem. 'Clowns are sad, it's folks that laugh at them.' Well I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.’

‘Life has not yet clouded his instincts. When he is a little older, he will no longer cry in disgust. Maybe he'll realise that things… well, let's say things aren't quite as they should be, but he won't cry about it, not when he's got a few more years under his belt.’ “Cry about what, Mr Raymond?” asked Dill, gradually returning to his manhood. ‘About the hell people give other people without even thinking.’

[literaturewoman]

"I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person."

- Franz Kafka

[beljar]

I was living in a villa in the suburbs, alone with a dog, a couple of cats and their kittens, all black. The mother cat could not feed them. One by one, all the kittens died. They filled the room with their filth. Every evening, when I arrived home, I would find one lying stiff, its gums laid bare. One evening, I found the last one, half eaten by the mother. It stank already. The stench of death mingled with the stench of urine. Then, with my hands in the filth and the stench of rotting flesh reeking in my nostrils, I sat down in the midst of all this misery and gazed for hour after hour at the demented glow in the cat’s green eyes as it crouched motionless in the corner. Yes. And it is just like that this evening. When we are stripped down to a certain point, nothing leads anywhere any more, hope and despair are equally groundless, and the whole of life can be summed up in an image.

Albert Camus, "Between Yes and No" from Lyrical and critical essays, 1968

[bumblebee-cottage]

[falsekingfrancis]

I’m reading the Epic of Gilgamesh for World Lit and there is no straight explanation for any of this

“You will fall in love with him and caress him like a woman”

I’m sorry?????? If anyone looks at me and tries to convince me this is straight I’m going to laugh in their face.

[angadgautama]

At the end when you break your silence. those who become hurt the most are frogs of well. They no nothing, but noises the most.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

English literature is literally what my degree is in, so that's my literary affinity! Where do you fall in national lit affinities?

At some point I've gotta make a version of this that is a little less white, western, and male...Comment if your literary affinity doesn't fall into this very limited meme and tell us your favorite!

[useless-catalanfacts]

I’ve been a translator from Catalan for almost fourteen years, and something that never fails to astonish me is the vibrancy of the Catalan literary tradition. Whether a re-discovered classic or a startling young author from the near-constant flurry of innovative writing, there are always new voices to be unearthed, and the time-worn phrase “embarrassment of riches” comes to mind.

[...]

It’s this commitment in Wilder Winds to unflinching honesty and genuine emotion that is shared by the books on this list. Whether it be the realities or war, anarchism or autism, these voices offer the reader an intimate glimpse into other lives that never feel distant from our own. I’ve chosen eight books that demonstrate the richness of Catalan literature over the last century or so, but there are literally dozens more I could have chosen. Think of what follows, then, as less of a reading list and more of an amuse-bouche to whet your reading appetite for Catalan literature in English.

Are you interested in reading Catalan books that have been translated to English? Read this article to find 8 books that the translator Laura McGloughlin recommends (mostly novels, some short story books, and one poetry book).

[asfearlessasamango]

david damrosch, "world literature in a postcanonical, hypercanonical age"

if you're interested in how colonialism / post-colonialism has affected literature and the english classroom, i highly recommend this essay. Damrosch covers how in the straightforwardly colonial era, white / anglophone literature was pretty much it, and you had top tier stuff (ex. shakespeare) forming the canon, and then more niche stuff (still white guys, tho) making up the 2nd tier.

NOW, tho, we're cramming a lot more lit / culture / langauges into curriculums but not spending any more time studying literature. what that means is that old top tier is still at the top-- now called the hyper-canon bc it has only gained importance. and we've created a counter-canon-- ex. toni morrison and "things fall apart"-- that is comparatively smaller. and more minor, smaller authors of all cultures have shrunk even more into a "shadow canon".

what this creates is a situation where english majors graduate having taken many "race and shakespeare" and "post colonial joyce" classes, and having read "their eyes were watching god" 2.5x, but having no knowledge of minor authors, ESPECIALLY those from minoritized cultures. so now toni morrison + salmon rushdie + chinua achebe are treated as The End-all Be-all Representatives of their respective cultures and canons, bc that's all the classes have time for. and through rubbing elbows with liberal + diverse lits, the Old Whites gain even more canonical power.

i'm condensing and boiling it down and not fully wording it all right, just read it!! it's academic writing but never fear, it is also pretty accessibly and well-written. dm me if you have any issues accessing the pdf and i'll send it to you. brilliant stuff

[lesewut]

All beautiful poetry is an act of resistance. [Darwish: The Essence of the Poem]