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Jorge Luis Borges had the soapbox and the authority to complain about this myopic understanding of the duty of Latin American writers

Adam Morris

One that actually relates to all Latin American literature: that is, not every author is interested in being a representative of his or her national culture on the global stage.
ADAM MORRIS

Actually Author Country Culture Every Interested Literature Relate Represent
I don’t think there’s anything that I would call essentially Brazilian in João Gilberto Noll work. In that regard, it translates very well to a cosmopolitan audience.
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Anything Audience Cosmopolitan Essentially Noll Regard Think Translate Work
The Argentine literary tradition was believed by many, including many Argentines, to be concerned with a national imaginary in which the gauchos and the pampas and the tango were fundamental tropes.
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Concerned Country Fundamental Literary National Tango Tradition Trope
Noll is highly respected in Brazil, and at the same time divisive, somewhat like Hilda Hilst. Neither of them enjoys the universal acclaim you might associate with Clarice Lispector, whom everyone adores, myself included.
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Adore Claim Country Divisive Enjoy Injustice Somewhat Time Tremendous Universal
Jorge Luis Borges had the soapbox and the authority to complain about this myopic understanding of the duty of Latin American writers
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Authority Complain Football Latin Myopic People Soapbox Understanding Unique Writer
I translated the novel and still it remains a mystery as to how exactly how this works. Noll thinks more like an experimental filmmaker than a novelist.
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So likewise in João Gilberto Noll, readers shouldn’t expect samba and Carnival and football. The Brazilian national identity is not one of his primary concerns.
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Carnival Concern Football Identify Likewise National Noll Primary Reader Samba
I realized I had some cultural capital to spend, and I wanted to use it to introduce another author who might be considered a risk by conventional publishers. Michael Noll was at the top of my list.
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Author Capital Considered Cultural Introduce List Outset Realized Spend Top
The main reason I decided to study Latin American literature was because I’d gotten somewhat bored by the American fiction I was reading. I am not drawn to a specific style or aesthetic.
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Bored Country Decided Latin Literature Main Reading Reason Thinking
Reading across three languages is a way for me to diversify my intake as a reader, not to tunnel into certain categories or demographics.
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Across Category Demographic Diversity Intake Language Reader Reading Tunnel
An easy example would be the Portuguese escuridão:
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This neglect of a very important Brazilian writer is, in my view, the result of Brazil’s relative isolation from what metropolitan tastemakers.
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Borges, in part to legitimize his own Europhilia, correctly pointed out that expecting writers to engage with these romantic nationalist tropes was arbitrary and limiting, a genre that was demonstrative of its own artificiality.
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Artificially Borge Correctly Country Demonstrative Engage Expecting Legitimize Past
Dreamlike sequencing is perhaps one of João Gilberto Noll’s most remarkable triumphs in Quiet Creature on the Corner.
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Creature Dreamlike Most Mystery Quiet Quite Remarkable Sequencing Thinking
The Brazilian national identity is not one of João Gilberto Noll primary concerns. This does not mean social critique is absent: race, gender, and class relations are considered in Quiet Creature.
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Concern Country Identity Mean National Primary Reading
I am not one of those translators who think that working closely with the writer will yield the best translation.
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Best Closely Think Thinking Translation Translator Working Writer Yield

Jorge Luis Borges had the soapbox and the authority to complain about this myopic understanding of the duty of Latin American writers

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Jorge Luis Borges had the soapbox and the authority to complain about this myopic understanding of the duty of Latin American writers

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