Born Translated

A work of resounding insight and unremitting freshness, Born Translated matter-of-factly deconstructs the assumption that national belonging is natural to literature, showing how this assumption structures the sense we make of contemporary world fiction and how much more sense that fiction makes without it. Bruce Robbins, Columbia University

Erudite and meticulous, with a comfort zone extending from Cervantes to Roberto Bolaño, Orhan Pamuk, and Haruki Murakami, Rebecca L. Walkowitz gives us a theory of world literature based on works that are 'born translated,' incorporating cross-lingual circulation as part of their compositional processes. Eye-opening and field-defining. Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University

Walkowitz transforms our understanding of the contemporary novel by demonstrating how far translation has become its engine rather than its afterthought. We cannot think of the history of the novel any more without considering its intimate and dynamic relation to translation. A remarkable tour de force. Robert J. C. Young, Julius Silver Professor of English and Comparative Literature, New York University

An excellent proposition for literary history. Will H. Corral, World Literature Today

An ambitious work that strives to redefine not just one field but two: world literature and contemporary fiction. Sarah Chihaya, Contemporary Literature

One explosive conclusion [from Born Translated] is that a novel's surface is no more important than other larger, more overlooked stylistic units. Adam Thirlwell, Times Literary Supplement

Born Translated is about a kind of multilingualism internal to contemporary English-language novels, and like the works it studies, the book seeks to deprovincialize anglophone literature from within. Dora Zhang, Public Books

Walkowitz's engaging book gives enlightening close-readings-at-a-distance of many novels.... Walkowitz's readings move both writers and translators into a collective of writing, publishing, and reading that de-emphasizes sources and celebrates their interaction. Geoffrey C. Howes, Translation Review

Walkowitz's book is well informed by theories of world literature and translation, and her prose is never less than readable and accessible. She shows us in Born Translated how important the role of translation is in contemporary Anglophone literature and, at the same time, how it complicates that very notion. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

Born Translated offers a fresh approach to contemporary fiction. Among the first to offer a convincing explanation of how national traditions morph into the world novel, Walkowitz succeeds in showing—brilliantly, to my mind—how novels by J. M. Coetzee, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Mitchell, Kiran Desai, Peter Ho Davies, Caryl Phillips, and W. G. Sebald force us to confront a world where languages, territories, and nations no longer line up. Nancy Armstrong, Duke University

Born Translated is a landmark work in the field of contemporary Anglophone literature and should be read by anyone interested in recent theorizations of world literature. Jan Steyn, Comparative Literature Studies

By placing translation at the center of an alternative approach to the study of world literature, Born Translated challenges the distinction between original and translation, native and foreign reader, and production and circulation. Modern Fiction Studies

An invigorating account of global anglophone literature that will surely stimulate discussion on methods of reading, theories of translation, and forms of classifying contemporary novels in English. Journal of Postcolonial Writing

Born Translated is a brilliant study of how multilingualism surprisingly shapes that most suspiciously monolingual object: the novel in English. Madigan Haley, Translation and Literature

Walkowitz’s study of the contemporary Anglophone novel brings the issue of translation front and center. . . . Walkowitz advances discussions in the field by identifying and analyzing this phenomenon [of 'Born Translated']. She also rewards her readers with discussions of a rich and impressive array of material. Allen Hibbard, Comparative Literature Studies

Thoroughly researched, superbly argued, and beautifully written, Born Translated is a bold and original step in this direction. A milestone across a number of fields, it will remain highly influential for years to come. Christian Moraru, The Comparatist

We all need to read works not published in English, to develop linguistic and cultural competencies that allow us to engage difference, and to practice new forms of collectivity and collaboration. Walkowitz begins that process with verve and erudition, inviting literary scholars to expand their horizons toward the truly global. Yogita Goyal, Novel: A Forum on Fiction

• Read Rebecca Walkowitz's essay The Persistence of Books
• Read a review of Born Translated in World Literature Today
• Read about the book in World Literature Today
• Read about the book in the Afrikaans magazine Netwerk
• Read about the book in the Portuguese newspaper Publico
• Read a review in the Sydney Review of Books

Commended, 2016 Matei Calinescu Prize, Modern Language Association