MLA Texts and Translations
There are 82 products in MLA Texts and Translations
Selected Poetry and Prose of Évariste Parny: In English Translation, with French Text
Praised by Voltaire and admired by Pushkin, Évariste Parny (1753–1814) was born on the island of Reunion, which is east of Madagascar, and educated in France. His life as a soldier and government administrator allowed him to travel to Brazil, Africa, and India. Though from the periphery of France’s colonial empire, he ultimately became a member of the Académie Française. Despite his reaching that pinnacle of respectability, some of his poetry was banned after his death.
This edition includes poems from the Poésies érotiques and Élégies, which established Parny’s reputation; the Chansons madécasses (“Madagascar Songs”), which were influential in the development of the prose poem; five of his published letters, written in a mixture of prose and verse; the narrative poem Le voyage de Céline; and selections from his sardonic, anticlerical later poetry. A substantial introduction discusses Parny’s poetry in connection with its literary context and the themes of gender, race, and postcoloniality.
“The Signorina” and Other Stories
Greatly influenced by writers ranging from Dickens and Proust to Woolf and Colette, Anna Banti was a prominent figure on the Italian literary scene from the 1940s until her death in 1985. The five tales in “The Signorina” and Other Stories display her talent across many genres—fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery.
Banti’s stories portray the ageless conflict between the expectations of society and the aspirations of the individual. In “Uncertain Vocations,” the young Ofelia becomes a pianist after her marriage prospects fail, but self-doubt turns her success into miserable mediocrity. In the futuristic “The Women Are Dying,” men acquire a new evolutionary ability; women, lacking that ability, are consigned to the status of an inferior race. “Joveta of Betania,” set in the time of the Crusades, follows the daughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem as she escapes to a life of seclusion as an abbess—a life that becomes for her a source of proud freedom and deep bitterness. In “Sailing Ships,” a young boy creates an imaginary world from an uncertain childhood memory. “The Signorina” tells of a young woman who eventually finds herself, as a writer.
“La signorina” e altri racconti
Greatly influenced by writers ranging from Dickens and Proust to Woolf and Colette, Anna Banti was a prominent figure on the Italian literary scene from the 1940s until her death in 1985. The five tales in “La signorina” e altri racconti display her talent across many genres—fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, mystery.
Banti’s stories portray the ageless conflict between the expectations of society and the aspirations of the individual. In “Vocazioni indistinte,” the young Ofelia becomes a pianist after her marriage prospects fail, but self-doubt turns her success into miserable mediocrity. In the futuristic “Le donne muoiono,” men acquire a new evolutionary ability; women, lacking that ability, are consigned to the status of an inferior race. “Joveta di Betania,” set in the time of the Crusades, follows the daughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem as she escapes to a life of seclusion as an abbess—a life that becomes for her a source of proud freedom and deep bitterness. In “I velieri,” a young boy creates an imaginary world from an uncertain childhood memory. “La signorina” tells of a young woman who eventually finds herself, as a writer.
“Silent Souls” and Other Stories
Two additional texts by Caterina Albert, with translations by Kathleen McNerney, are available online for free.
Caterina Albert i Paradís (1869–1966) began her career with a scandal. Her dramatic monologue “The Infanticide” won prizes and garnered the attention of the Catalan literary world, but its harsh theme drew outrage when the anonymous author was revealed to be a woman. She continued to write unflinching narratives, mostly in Catalan, of the people and life around her, producing a body of work still enlisted today to help the Catalan language resist the dominance of Peninsular Spanish.
Albert shares with her contemporaries Anton Chekhov and Emilia Pardo Bazán an intense interest in the psychological development of characters and in narrative strategies, and the short stories collected here highlight her range of style and grasp of human nature. Kathleen McNerney’s introduction contextualizes Albert’s themes, feminism, and formal techniques as well as recent Catalan political and literary history.
“Ànimes mudes” i altres contes
Two additional texts by Caterina Albert, with translations by Kathleen McNerney, are available online for free.
Caterina Albert i Paradís (1869–1966) began her career with a scandal. Her dramatic monologue “The Infanticide” won prizes and garnered the attention of the Catalan literary world, but its harsh theme drew outrage when the anonymous author was revealed to be a woman. She continued to write unflinching narratives, mostly in Catalan, of the people and life around her, producing a body of work still enlisted today to help the Catalan language resist the dominance of Peninsular Spanish.
Albert shares with her contemporaries Anton Chekhov and Emilia Pardo Bazán an intense interest in the psychological development of characters and in narrative strategies, and the short stories collected here highlight her range of style and grasp of human nature. Kathleen McNerney’s introduction contextualizes Albert’s themes, feminism, and formal techniques as well as recent Catalan political and literary history.
Sina: A Novel by the Author of Heidi
Johanna Spyri, best known for her iconic Heidi, sends another young heroine into the world, this time to face the challenges of adulthood and professional life. Sina Normann leaves her close-knit Alpine community to become one of the first women to attend medical school at the University of Zürich. Along her chosen path she must confront her family’s fears, her instructors’ prejudices, and the demands of her own heart. Published not long after women were first admitted to the University of Zürich, the novel is one of the first works in German to present female students seriously rather than as objects of humor. In her introduction, Anna Lisa Ohm argues that Sina may have been intended as a sequel to Heidi.
Sina: Ein Roman vom Heidi-Autor
Johanna Spyri, best known for her iconic Heidi, sends another young heroine into the world, this time to face the challenges of adulthood and professional life. Sina Normann leaves her close-knit Alpine community to become one of the first women to attend medical school at the University of Zürich. Along her chosen path she must confront her family’s fears, her instructors’ prejudices, and the demands of her own heart. Published not long after women were first admitted to the University of Zürich, the novel is one of the first works in German to present female students seriously rather than as objects of humor. In her introduction, Anna Lisa Ohm argues that Sina may have been intended as a sequel to Heidi.
An Anthology of Spanish American Modernismo
The poetic movement that was Spanish American modernismo ran from the early 1880s to 1916: it expressed the desire both to join universal literature—aesthetic modernity—and to break colonial ties with Spanish belles lettres. The new translations in this bilingual anthology, many of them first translations, present eighteen modernista poets from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay. This volume in the MLA series Texts and Translations is designed to provide the student of Spanish American literature with work not easily accessible in Spanish and English and to introduce modernismo, an often misunderstood movement, to a wider audience.
Kelly Washbourne teaches translation at Kent State University and translates from Spanish and Portuguese. He recently published José Asunción Silva’s After-Dinner Conversation. Sergio Waisman, associate professor of Spanish at George Washington University, translates Latin American literature and is the author of Borges and Translation: The Irreverence of the Periphery.
Sphinx
At his boardinghouse in Rio de Janeiro, the Englishman James Marian is seen as handsome but eccentric. Then another boarder learns Marian's secret: a fusion of a female head and a male body, Marian is the creation of a surgeon with occult powers. Despite his wealth and mysterious abilities, Marian is unable to live fully as either a man or a woman, traveling the world in order to repress his sexual desire and withdraw from society.
Sphinx explores the binaries of science and magic, body and spirit, male and female, attraction and horror, presenting its sexually ambiguous protagonist with sympathy. Ornately descriptive, this 1908 neo-gothic novel exemplifies the era's taste for the sensual and the fantastic. With echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it stands as a classic of Brazilian science fiction.
Esfinge
At his boardinghouse in Rio de Janeiro, the Englishman James Marian is seen as handsome but eccentric. Then another boarder learns Marian's secret: a fusion of a female head and a male body, Marian is the creation of a surgeon with occult powers. Despite his wealth and mysterious abilities, Marian is unable to live fully as either a man or a woman, traveling the world in order to repress his sexual desire and withdraw from society.
Esfinge explores the binaries of science and magic, body and spirit, male and female, attraction and horror, presenting its sexually ambiguous protagonist with sympathy. Ornately descriptive, this 1908 neo-gothic novel exemplifies the era's taste for the sensual and the fantastic. With echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it stands as a classic of Brazilian science fiction.