The Lifeline of Chromos: Translation and Felipe Alfau

Authors

  • Regina Galasso The City University of New York

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21992/T97H0M

Abstract

When Felipe Alfau’s novel Chromos was published in 1990, approximately fifty years after its creation, it was nominated for the National Book Award in the US and critics repeatedly commented on the novel’s unique language. For most critics, Alfau’s language was special because of the New York-based, Spanish-born author’s decision to write in English. Alfau’s profession as a bank translator has often been dismissed as having any relation with his literature save its disconnection from his creative writing. In this article, I argue that translation techniques are responsible for the extraordinary language of Chromos, and further, that the novel’s existence relies on the narrator’s role as a translator. Translation in Chromos is an integral and essential part of literary creation-- especially for an author working in a multilingual and multinational setting--to the extent that the novel, in its original version, impersonates a translation.

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Author Biography

Regina Galasso, The City University of New York

Regina Galasso is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of The City University of New York. She holds a PhD from The Johns Hopkins University. Prior to attending Hopkins, she went to Middlebury College in Spain, Rutgers College, and the University of Valencia. Her research interests focus on the Spanish-language literature of New York City with particular emphasis on writers from Spain. She is also a literary translator. Her recent publications include an English translation of Miguel Barnet’s novel, La vida real (A True Story: A Cuban in New York), with a prologue by José Manuel Prieto (Jorge Pinto Books, 2010).

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Published

2011-03-18

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 3 (2010): TRANSLATION AND IMPERSONATION

Section

ARTICLES

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