Elizabethtown College Emeritus Professor of English and German Mark Harman recently published an essay, “Borges Translates Joyce Who Translates Himself” in the spring 2022 issue of the New England Review (NER).
Harman’s essay focuses on analyzing Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges’ translation of influential 20th-century novelist James Joyce’s work. The essay has also been re-published in four other languages, including Spanish, German, Norwegian, and Polish.
In a recent interview with NER, Harman offered some insight into the thought process behind writing this work.
“I became particularly interested in his (Borges’) affinity with Irish writers, and especially that “love-hate” relationship of his with Joyce,” Harman said. “As I read more of and about Borges, I sensed paradoxical parallels between the ways in which he and Joyce practiced the craft of translation.”
Harman’s essay about translating German author, Franz Kafka’s novel, “The Castle,” has also recently been re-published in Vietnamese.