Ghostspeaking : heteronyms and the translation of poetry

Abstract

This thesis is composed of two parts: an exegesis, which examines the relationships between heteronymous poetry and the translation of poetry, and a creative component consisting of a book of heteronymous poetry Ghostspeaking and the translation of two books by Cuban poet José Kozer "" Índole and Carece de causa. The exegesis opens by noting how heteronymous poetry has appealed especially to translators and has often taken the form of pseudo-translation. It is argued that heteronymous poetry and the translation of poetry largely spring from their creator's desire to introduce styles and aesthetic approaches from outside a given language and poetic community. Both practices rely on a poet's ability to write in different voices, placing themselves at the service of other poets real or imagined. The argument is developed first by examining the work of Fernando Pessoa, instigator of the modern heteronym tradition, and later through analysis of Edmond Jabès' Le livre des questions and Juan Gelman's Los poemas de Sidney West. In all three cases "" Pessoa, Jabès and Gelman "" heteronyms or quasi-heteronyms take the form of fusion poets, fictional writers in whom literary traditions from outside their creator's own language and poetic community are recombined in novel ways. Thus, for Pessoa, Jabès and Gelman respectively, 19th-century English and American poetry, Talmud and Kabbalah, 20th-century North American and German models combine with Portuguese, French and Argentine poetic traditions. The turn to heteronyms performs two main functions: it offers a way to introduce models and aesthetic attitudes from outside one's poetic community, operating at times as a form of "translation by other means", and it uses fiction to generate new poetry. The exegesis concludes by asking to what extent it is possible to write in another's voice, particularly when translating poetry. This question is examined through close analysis of five poems by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, César Vallejo, Charles Baudelaire and Marosa di Giorgio alongside translations by Henry Wadsworh Longfellow, Clayton Eshleman, Michael Smith, John Ashbery and Adam Giannelli. The analysis suggests that often poet-translators can find analogues for a poem's sound-shape and, to a significant extent, write poetry in a voice other than their own. The heteronymous collection Ghostspeaking contains eleven imaginary poets from Latin America, France and Québec "translated" into English and accompanied by biographies and interviews developing their fictive identities. While some of the heteronyms, such as Ricardo Xavier Bousoño, Lazlo Thalassa and Ernesto Ray, have an affinity with neo-baroque poets like José Kozer, Gerardo Deniz and Néstor Perlongher, others like Antonio Almeida employ a more traditional poetics, demonstrating how the creator of heteronyms like the translator of poetry may seek to create different, even opposing, voices. Other heteronyms, like Antonieta Villanueva, open ways to explore parts of my own life through fiction, as poetry as memory and poetry as invention interact. José Kozer (1940 - ) is a major figure within Spanish-language poetry of the last forty years. His books, Índole (2013) and Carece de causa (2004), reveal two different sides to his writing "" a humorous ironic poetry of everyday life that delights in unexpected connections (Índole) and a sustained meditation on his Jewish heritage, particularly the life and death of his father and grandfather (Carece de causa). Both books are grounded in an aesthetics that prefers disruption, highly specific detail and abrupt shifts in subject matter and register, presenting a formidable range of difficulties for a translator.

Date of Award	2017
Original language	English