Nelson Mandela’s passing highlighted his indelible legacy across the globe, and his inheritance is remarkably literary. At n+1: on what Mandela and Tolstoy have in common (which is more than you might think!), while the Los Angeles Times reflects on Mandela’s undeniable effect on the theater inside and outside of South Africa. In case you’re interested, Mandela’s inauguration speech has resurfaced, and it’s worth a checking out—as is his only feature-film appearance. At Asymptote, we’re inclined to remember Mandela the best way we know: through his books.
Fellow Nobel-laureate (this time, for literature) Alice Munro celebrated her Nobel Prize ceremony this week—from afar. Due to health reasons, the Canadian author was unable to attend the ceremony, but you can watch Munro responding to the prize in her own words here (or read the interview transcript here). Munro’s Nobel has underscored a growing appreciation for short literature—an appreciation seconded by Munro’s own Nobel-bumped sales stats.
Speaking of prizes, this week’s winners: Syrian writer Khaled Khalifa has won the Naguib Mahfouz Prize for his No Knives in the Kitchens of the City. Thanks to visa complications, Khalifa was unable to attend the ceremony, so he wrote a letter instead. British author Kazuo Ishiguro has nabbed the Peggy V. Helmerich award, joining the likes of Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, and Toni Morrison. The prize comes with a gift of $40,000 and a crystal-studded book (seriously). In France, literary prizes become eye candy: an infographic about publishing houses and prize statistics. And finally, though you might be prone to envy a professional reader, don’t be too jealous of the judges announced for the 2014 Man Booker Prize—literary prize judging is all work and little play.
Google Translate has added nine languages to its functioning capacity, including Punjabi, Maori, and Zulu. Confused by technology? Here’s a handy guide on how Google translate works in the first place (hint: we humans have still got it!). Google’s ubiquity and its acknowledgement of less popular languages is heartening, but raises the question: in the twenty-first century, will languages without Internet presence diminish to irrelevance? Google’s high-tech literary approach has certainly got some human faults: here, the endearingly, vaguely artistic human errors of Google Books. For all their practicality, electronic reading methods certainly can’t make wearable fashion à la Isabelle Bourgrave’s lit-inspired paper gowns. Thoughts on the e-reader versus paper reader debate? Choose your words carefully: logical languages may permit logical thinking.
Politically engaged authors: over 500 writers, including Don DeLillo, Margaret Atwood, and Günter Grass, have signed an open letter opposing unchecked government surveillance. In Egypt, a conference at the American University in Cairo endorses two new books encouraging public engagement and activism. Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, heartbroken adolescents abound as the government bans the country’s romantic equivalent to the Twilight series. Indeed, literature and politics share an ancient history: at the New Yorker, Daniel Mendelssohn reflects on Ancient Greece and American politics.
We can all agree that translation is super, super important, can’t we? Chinese Nobel Prize laureate Mo Yan emphasizes the importance of full-immersion sinology in translations. In France, Korean writer Lee Seung-U enjoys success as his translations capture a receptive audience, but French works appear to have more problems catching on outside la Francophonie. In upcoming translation releases: Anglophone readers will be happy to hear that a new Murakami translation is slated for August 2014 publication in the United States. Meanwhile, translators catch up with trends: Murakami’s 1982 novel A Wild Sheep Chase has been translated into Persian for the Iranian market, and Harry Potter learns to speak Kazakhsha. We know you’re up to your ears in year-end lists, but this one is (really!) worth a look: World Literature Today’s 75 notable translations of 2013.
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