Faulkner, Borges, And the Translation of the Wild Palms: The Evolution of Borges's Theory Concerning the Role of the Reader in the Game of Literature‪.‬

Introduction Borges's keen interest in translation is well known, as is his theory of the crucial role that the reader plays in the production of literary meaning. A leading translation theorist, Lawrence Venuti, has praised Borges for his hitherto ignored insights into the art of translation (Translation Studies Reader 13-14), while the noted scholar and critic Efrain Kristal, with his Invisible Work: Borges and Translation, has provided us with an excellent in-depth study of the many connections between Borges's work as a translator and writer. And the late Emir Rodriguez Monegal has succinctly summed up the critical opinion regarding Borges's landmark view of the reader, which first captured the attention of critics in France during the early 1960s. (1) Also widely acknowledged is the excellence of Borges's 1940 Spanish translation of Faulkner's The Wild Palms (1939), a novel that, under Borges's inspired hand, would prove to be quite influential for an entire generation of young Spanish American writers, many of whom would gain renown in the 1960s and 1970s when Latin American literature first began to gain a beachhead in the United States (Monegal 373). Indeed, it might well be argued that, thanks to Borges's faithful if occasionally finessed translation of The Wild Palms, Faulkner could rightly be regarded as not only an influence on but an authentic progenitor of the "nueva novela hispanoamericana" ("new Spanish American novel") and of the "Boom" era itself. (2) This assertion, if accepted, would, by virtue of being based on a detailed and entirely verifiable case of influence and reception, lend additional credence to the rapidly emerging field of inter-American literature, which itself depends to a large extent on translation, both linguistic and cultural (Lowe and Fitz 1-24, 163-66; Balderston and Schwartz 1-12; McClennen 119-23). (3)