This week, our writers bring you the latest news from Argentina, Sri Lanka, and Sweden. In Argentina, Betina González’s first novel to be translated into English, American Delirium, has been released; in Sri Lanka, renowned dramatist Asoka Handagama will premiere his new play in March; and in Sweden, the Swedish Arts Council has responded to the need for increased funding in the literary and culture sector. Read on to find out more!
Allison Braden, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Argentina
On Tuesday, Argentine novelist Betina González made her English-language debut with the publication of American Delirium (Henry Holt and Co.). The book chronicles the chaos that ensues after a strange hallucinogen invades a fictional U.S. town, and the stories of three central characters—Beryl, Berenice, and Vik—diverge and collide in a narrative that plays with notions of utopia and dystopia. To kick off publicity events for the novel, bookstore Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., hosted a virtual conversation between González and her translator, Heather Cleary.
Moderator Idra Novey, who is herself a novelist and award-winning translator, focused in part on issues of translation. González began writing the book, which is set in the U.S., while living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. González described how English served as a “ghost structure” behind her writing in Spanish. That “special Spanish,” as she called it, was also shaped in part by the various Spanish dialects and tones she encountered while living in the U.S.; incorporating those regional differences into the fabric of the narrative contributed to its hallucinogenic, dreamlike atmosphere. “The language,” she said, “needed to collaborate” with the plot.
The translation process began, Cleary explained, with close reading and a conversation with González about the three characters’ voices. Berenice and Vik’s sections are both written in the third-person, but the narration evinces subtle differences that reflect their respective personalities. Vik hails from an invented island in the Caribbean, which experienced first Spanish, then British colonization. (González conducted extensive research to shape his origins. In total, the book took about seven years to write.) To help capture González’s careful nuance, Cleary infused Vik’s sections with Briticisms, which hint at his home’s colonial history. (Vik, Cleary pointed out, was difficult to translate in part because he’s “kind of an asshole,” who is “as resistant on the page as he is in real life.”)
González read a passage in Spanish that reflected the dreamlike texture of the novel, and Cleary followed with a reading of the same passage in English. (A different excerpt is available online.) The segment illustrated how González’s narrative swerves as the characters’ stories meet and depart from each other and hinted at the story’s surreal nature. Although the book was published in Argentina in 2016, the translation’s release coincides with a moment in U.S. history that Novey referred to as its own kind of delirium. “Sometimes,” González said, as the event wrapped up, “to understand reality, you need to leave realism to the side.”
Chamini Kulathunga, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Sri Lanka
Since the pandemic started, the cultural life of Sri Lanka has become one of the hardest-hit areas on the island. The Sri Lankan theatre was perhaps the most affected industry, since the very nature of this practice relies on in-person presence of actors and an audience. However, the award-winning Sri Lankan filmmaker and dramatist Asoka Handagama has taken the bold step of safely reviving the Sri Lankan theatre industry, complying with COVID-19 safety and hygiene measures, with his latest play Antique කඩයක මරණයක් (A Death at an Antique Shop), which is scheduled to be premiered on March 19 at Lionel Wendt theatre in Colombo. Following the premier, there will be two more shows on March 20 and 21. The show features some of the most distinguished actors in Sri Lanka, including the award-winning actor and professor of Visual and Performing Arts Saumya Liyanage, as well as the multi-talented Sri Lankan actress and lecturer of Visual and Performing Arts Nipuni Sharada. They will be joined by Krishantha Jayabhahu, Stephan Thirimanne, and Pasan Ranaweera, while Chinthaka Jayakodi will be directing the music.
Written, directed, and produced by Handagama himself, this highly anticipated production is an extension of his film Aksharaya (A Letter of Fire), which was released in 2005 and was banned by the Sri Lankan government at the time. The film explores the complicated nature of human relationships through a family of three, and ends with a scene in which a son accidentally murders his mother, after her rape by a security guard at the National Museum. In A Death at an Antique Shop, the son returns, having completed a term at a rehabilitation center. The story continues from there . . .
Handagama, who has been an active figure in the Sri Lankan film industry, is venturing into A Death at an Antique Shop after about a three decades of silence in theatre production since his last plays Hena (1987) and Maghata (1989) were shown. “Going back to the theatre industry feels like going back to my ancestral home,” says Handagama, commenting on his long pause in the theatre. “I watched a lot of plays at Warwick Art Centre and that inspired me not to do a play until you have plenty of time to dedicate to that,” he added during the ongoing social media conversation about his theatrical career and his time at Warwick University.
ඉතිහාසේ අඳුර ඉරන් ටෝච් ගහන් ඔබ යනකොට අඳුර මැදින් හැංගි හොරා තව දහසක් මුහුණු අතර ඔබට ඔබව හමු වනු ඇති . . .” (අශෝක හඳගම Antique කඩයක මරණයක් වේදිකා නාට්යයෙන්)
“When you tiptoe through the darkness of History with a flashlight, amidst a thousand other faces, you will find yourself . . .”
—Handagama, from A Death at an Antique Shop
Eva Wissting, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Sweden
The Swedish Arts Council increased its budget for financial support this year, both for literature and for publications in the culture sector. In Sweden, like elsewhere, the pandemic has accentuated an already strong digitalization of the literary sector. The Swedish Publishers’ Association has long demanded significant increases of financial support for literature, especially with regards to digitalization in recent years. They fear that digitalization poses a particular threat to marginalized literature, which may not be suitable to digital formats. As many literary events have been forced to cancel in the last year, and the government’s crisis funding only partly covers losses in the cultural sector caused by these changes, the Swedish Arts Council has identified a need for financial support to literature and cultural publications to ensure continued quality and diversity in the publishing sector.
The interest abroad for Swedish literature is higher than ever: last year the applications for literary translation grants increased by 30%. Therefore, the Council has also decided to increase the budget for literary and drama translation grants. In 2020 the Council received over 500 applications of which 351 were accepted. The accepted grants include literary translations to forty-seven different languages, of which the most common were Italian, Danish, Spanish, Russian, and French. Just over half the grants (57%) concerned translations of books for adults. The most common genres were contemporary novels followed by chapter books for children. Among the most popular Swedish writers to be translated were Niklas Natt och Dag (The Wolf and the Watchman), Liv Strömquist (Fruit of Knowledge), and Nina Wähä (Testament).
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