Tim Blanning cites Gutenberg's printing press as a key technological innovation in the rise of the composer. The modern West elevates its musicians above all other artists, and the availability of printed material just increased the worship of Beethoven and Lizst, even more than Dante and Shakespeare. For John Warne Monroe, urbanization and the innate predilections of the mind also help to make music so celebrated...
If you believe the name of their website, then Three Percent of literature read in America is translated. Even for a country with a gigantic literary heritage, and a penchant for processing other cultures through its own machinery, this is a lamentably small portion. Peruse their reviews, and examine their collection of links, and marvel at all the great literature you'll never get around to reading...
That list of links neglects to include the Dalkey Archive Press, from the University of Illinois. Check out that Ezra Pound quote about translation. The English language is the biggest bastard of them all, and there's no reason to end the miscegenation now...
Apparently there are neither definite nor indefinite articles in the Polish language. In spite of this fact, 20th century Polish literature has enjoyed tremendous stateside acclaim, and a new collection of essays shows no sign of the trend's abatement. Poland and America are strange cultural bedfellows, but immigration has made them conjoined twins, with Chicago the shared hip. The literati have been oppressed in both countries for opposite reasons, although this is no longer true now that Poland is a member of NATO and the EU...
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Glimpses of our cousins, the Europeans
