The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis

I’m afraid to crack the cover and see what I’ve done, to see this other version of myself in print because there’s always a temporality of the publication-you leave that version of yourself behind.” Thomson-DeVeaux-a Princeton alumna and translator of Machado de Assis’s The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas- found joy in the oddities and discomforts of The Apprentice Tourist, its “peculiar interplay of expectations and disappointment, discovery and obtuseness.” The book, sometimes placed in the “travel” section (recently published by Penguin), dances on the line between fiction and non-fiction, often leaning toward documentary realism. Thomson-DeVeaux followed by invoking the title of the series, “After Translation.” After translation is “where we find ourselves now,” she stated, and “it’s the part I like the least. Dodson’s reading of an excerpt from Chapter 4 revealed the deliberate musicality of her words and the importance of rhythm in approximating the myriad languages of Mário de Andrade’s landmark work. Macunaíma does just that, holding up a mirror to Brazilian society while embracing linguistic wordplay reflective of a distinctly multilingual nation.

To see its manner of composition.” Dodson shared her attraction to works that “do something thrilling with language,” that push the boundaries of English. “ to be able to trace the sources,” she said, noting the abundance of indigenous myths and Afro-Brazilian traditions, and “ to read the book against itself, or on a second level. Not wanting to interrupt the “frenetic tempo” of Mário de Andrade’s delirium-but still hoping to promote access for students and teachers-Dodson decided to move her copious notes to the end of the book (recently published by New Directions), cataloguing them under a series of playful titles.

Dodson spent around six years translating Macunaíma, including a journey through the Amazon and extensive archival research. This encounter also celebrated the publication of two new books in translation: Macunaíma: The Hero with No Character (Dodson) and The Apprentice Tourist (Thomson-DeVeaux), both by acclaimed Brazilian modernist Mário de Andrade.ĭodson, in recognizing her past and present academic affiliations, began by acknowledging the significance of the Amazonian Poetics conference hosted by the Brazil Lab in 2019, where she engaged in dialogue with indigenous artists such as Jaider Esbell and Denilson Baniwa. The series, organized by graduate researchers Daniel Persia and Julia Kornberg, has aimed to explore Latin American, Iberian and Luso-African literatures while inquiring about the role of the university in contemporary translation.

On Tuesday, April 11, 2023, the Brazil LAB co-sponsored the third event of the Spring 2023 “After Translation” series, with renowned literary translators Katrina Dodson and Flora Thomson-DeVeaux.

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis