Coda: Re-Creating a Classic

The Coda identifies other translational phenomena related to writing New York that cover the latter part of the twentieth century to the present. More specifically, it highlights the presence of Edward Hopper’s work and potential influence on Iberian literatures. It reflects on the possibility of New York as a motif in Iberian literatures open to multiple re-creations.

The Source of an Avant-Garde Voice: Music and Photography in José Moreno Villa

This part studies the New York prose and poetry of José Moreno Villa, one of the most overlooked cultural figures of twentieth-century Iberian Studies. As a gateway to the context surrounding Moreno Villa's New York, this part begins with a prefatory discussion of Federico García Lorca and his epistolary writing in which he assesses travel to New York as one of the most useful experiences of his life while also repeatedly noting the continuous linguistic negotiations surrounding him while in the city. Then, this part introduces Moreno Villa and the fruits of his transatlantic travel: Pruebas de Nueva York (1927) and Jacinta la pelirroja (1929). Overall, it argues that Moreno Villa's past experiences coupled with his vulnerable linguistic position, as a result of travel, tuned him in the languages of photography, jazz, and the careful use of Spanish, English, and other languages. In doing so, this part proposes that Moreno Villa's literary New York brought his readers more than a superficial experience but one that introduced new discourses and considerations of language and its relationship to other media.

Translational Language: Felipe Alfau’s Iberian English and Its Afterlife

Part I focuses on the novel Chromos by the New York-based, Barcelona-born writer Felipe Alfau. Alfau’s decision to write in English rather than Spanish, surprised critics not only as an odd choice but also as a unique English, a form of the language with a deep imprint of Spanish. This part postulates that the practice of translation is responsible not only for the extraordinary language of Chromos but also for its main themes, as the novel repeatedly questions the relationship between original and translation in literature and other artistic works, particularly in situations of relocation. This part argues that Chromos suspends the process of translation, rather than defining itself as an original or a translation. This part then discusses Eduardo Lago's novel Llámame Brooklyn which pays homage to Alfau by including him as a character as well as forming other structural and thematic threads with the late author's writing. Both Llámame Brooklyn and Chromos propose a treatment of New York that questions the cultural boundaries of Spain and problematizes the coexistence of the Spanish and English languages thereby setting up some of the critical themes of the parts to follow.

Travel in Translation: Julio Camba and Josep Pla Write for a Home Audience

This part focuses on the travel texts of Julio Camba and Josep Pla, writers from opposite sides of the Iberian Peninsula, who wrote the city for professional reasons. The works of Camba and Pla present curious cases regarding translation and the city given the fact that they both are from regions in which Spanish is not the sole language, they both traveled extensively, and both have at least one entire book dedicated to New York City. In drawing associations between the two writers, as well as between the travel writer and the translator, this part outlines what they were they able to give their readers beyond another description of the cityscape. As Camba's and Pla's New York experience and their resulting texts strikingly marked the timeline of their work, this part argues for travel as an event that sharpens and broadens the creative imagination of writers as well as for a more robust reading of travel narratives as complex texts that carry within them aspects of the city that exceed the visual.

Introduction New York as an Iberian City

The introduction offers an overview of the critical tendencies surrounding Iberian literatures and their relationship with New York City, and situates this book within Iberian literary studies as well as within Translation Studies. Additionally, the introduction presents the theoretical influences and conceptual framework of the book which emphasize the role of translation in travel and the city not only as a physical site but also as an audible one.