The uneven world of letters: textual migration, translation, and world literature

Abstract

A defining characteristic of peripheral literatures is their dependence on translation to enter world literature. However, in order for translated texts to circulate beyond the cultures in which they are produced, they must survive the act of being rendered into other languages. This is something that does not always occur in creative translations, which usually aim to re-imagine the source text rather than to reproduce it. Thus if the translation differs significantly from the source text, such as Erin Mouré's Sheep's Vigil by a Fervent Person: A Transelation of Alberto Caeiro/Fernando Pessoa's O Guardador de Rebanhos, it is not self-evident that the original will be able to enter the world literary system.