Translating Cuba : Literature, Music, Film, Politics

"Cuban culture has long been available to English speakers via translation. This study examines the complex ways in which English renderings of Cuban texts from various domains-poetry, science fiction, political and military writing, music, film-have represented, reshaped, or amended original texts. Taking in a broad corpus, it becomes clear that the mental image an Anglophone audience has formed of Cuban culture since 1959 depends heavily on the decisions of translators. At times, a clear ideological agenda drives moves like strengthening the denunciatory tone of a song or excising passages from a political text. At other moments, translators' indifference to the importance of certain facets of a work, such as a film's onscreen text or the lyrics sung on a musical performance, impoverishes the English speaker's experience of the rich weave of self-expression in the original Spanish. In addition to the dynamics at work in the choices translators make at the level of the text itself, this study attends to how paratexts like prefaces, footnotes, liner notes, and promotional copy shape the audience's experience of the text"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction Translation as Rewriting Translation Paratexts Shifting Historical Contexts Chapter Summaries Notes Works Cited Chapter 2: The Politics and Poetics of the Anthology: Cuban Poetry in English Anthologies as Revolutionary Advocacy Women in the Revolution Ambivalent Advocacy Anthologizing Exile Academic, Popular and Poetic Readerships Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 3: Marx Goes to Mars?: Cuban Science Fiction in Translation A Brief History of Cuban Futures Sci-Fi Typologies Imagined Readerships Cosmos Latinos : Directed and Divergent Readings Restless Books for Curious Readers Mind-melds and Socialist Self-Sacrifice: A Legend of the Future The Special Period in Outer Space: A Planet for Rent Big Fun in Super Extra Grande Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 4: Warrior, Thinker, Human Presence: Translating Che Guevara Guerrilla Warfare: Bible and Text-in-Process La guerra de guerrillas Decoded by the Enemy Socialist “Man” from Left and Right Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 5: Listening and Reading: Cuban Music on Folkways and Paredon Records Translation and the Listener–Reader Cuban Music Documented: Folkways Records Cuban Music Mobilized: Paredon Records Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 6: Watching and Reading: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Films Subtitled Subtitling Multimodality Subtitling the Social, Cultural, and Political The Dual Protagonist in Memories of Underdevelopment Silent Signs in Death of a Bureaucrat Journeys toward Intimacy in Guantanamera Songs and Slights in Strawberry and Chocolate Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 7: Conclusion Index