In this presentation, Dr. Buchanan will explain how years of analyzing the narrative fiction of contemporary Latin American authors, teaching their works in her classes and publishing critical essays about them, eventually led her to embrace an unexpected passion in the latter part of her career at the University of Louisville: the art of literary translation. After considering the role of translation as a legitimate academic pursuit, Dr. Buchanan will discuss the unique challenges involved in translating works by three Latin American authors: two Jewish Argentine writers Ana María Shua and Perla Suez, and the Mexican writer Alberto Ruy Sánchez. She  firmly believe that the years spent analyzing narrative fiction with a critical eye have helped her to become a better translator, and in turn, translating literary texts has added a new dimension to her critical investigations. Her hopes are that this presentation will reveal that indeed translation is the most intimate form of critical literary analysis.

 This event is free to the public.  Refreshments will be served.

Biographical Note

Rhonda Dahl Buchanan is a Professor of Spanish and Director of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Louisville. In 2000 she received the UofL Distinguished Teaching Professor Award and in 2004 the UofL Trustees Award. She is the author of numerous articles on contemporary Latin American writers, and the editor of a book of critical essays, El río de los sueZos: Aproximaciones críticas a la obra de Ana María (Washington, D.C.: Interamer Collection of the Organization of American States; No. 70, 2001). After years of publishing critical studies on the works of Latin American writers, she began translating narrative fiction and publishing short stories and excerpts from novels in journals. In 2004 she received an award to participate in a residency program at the International Banff Centre for Literary Translation in Banff, Canada, and in 2006 she was awarded an NEA Literature Fellowship for the translation of Los jardines secretos de Mogador. Some of her translations include Limulus: Visiones del fósil viviente (México: Artes de México, 2004), a book by Brian Nissen and Alberto Ruy Sánchez; The Entre Ríos Trilogy: Three Novels by Perla Suez (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 2006), Quick Fix: Sudden Fiction, a bilingual anthology of short short stories by Ana María Shua (New York: White Pine Press, 2008); and The Secret Gardens of Mogador: Voices of the Earth, a novel by Alberto Ruy Sánchez (New York: White Pine Press, 2009).

Faculty Research Forums

Faculty Research Forum is a forum for talks by our faculty and the occasional guest on humanities and social science topics of interest to interdisciplinary audiences.  These forums are sponsored by the Commonwealth Center with assistance from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Faculty Research Forums are held in the Bingham Humanities Building, Room 300 and begin at 3:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.