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Ana Maria Machado interview
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From: Julie Kline <cla>
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 14:49:22 -0500
Here are some final excerpts from a recent email interview with Andersen Award winner, Ana Maria Machado:
Q: How accessible do you think your writing would be to children within the U.S. where so little of your work has appeared in translation to date?
A: I think it would be perfectly accessible to children in the U.S., if it were translated. I have read aloud some of my stories to school children in the States (in California, in West Virginia, in Wisconsin) , even in rough translations, and they have been perfectly accesible to them. I don't think American children are in any way inferior to children from all those countries where my writing has been accessible, and I am sure they would understand my books. Of course, some circumstances may be different from one culture to another -- but this is one of the main reasons for reading a good translation, for it gives us the chance of getting in touch with something that is different from us. A child in the U.S. may find it strange to read a Christmas story that takes place in full summer, or in a different environment, among different cultural situations... But when I was nine, I read Mark Twain and although I had no idea what the Mississipi was like, I just loved Tom, Huck and Becky... And one year later, when I read Little Women, it was perfectly accessible to me. Why can't contemporary U.S children be treated like intelligent readers, fully capable of getting in touch with other cultures and literatures?
Q: Do you have any comments about the international exchange through translation of children?s literature? Why has your work been recognized in some countries, but little known elsewhere (such as in the U.S.).
A: I think that the international exchange though the translation of children's books should be one of the most effective ways of promoting international understanding . When a child reads a books from a different country, she gets to know how different people can be so much alike, and what it means to be human, universal, and not only national. But unfortunately, I really don't think there's real exchange. Some markets are powerful and behave as if they could be self-sufficient -- but cultural self-sufficiency may be another name for cultural impoverishment. This is specially true in the English-speaking world, because of the huge economical and political weight of the U.S. and the U.K. Everywhere in the world, everybody learns English, tries to read English, translates books written in English. But seldom things happen the other way.
Personally, I've had some surprising experiences . A publisher in England once told me that he just loved my books, but they could never be published in the U.K. because I have a funny name, and no bookstore would ever carry a children's book by someone called something like Machado.
In the U.S., among a few other answers, I had two very enthusiastic letters from two different editors, both from major publishing houses. One of them said that O Menino Pedro e seu Boi Voador was one of the best children's books he had ever read--well-written, funny, original, full of faith in the child's imagination, and would certainly appeal to children. But... it couldn't be published because it had "an awkward size", whatever that may mean.
The other had read several books of mine in Spanish (also to her daughter, who loved them) and said she really enjoyed then and that : a) she would had loved to have read those books when she was a child b) she was sure every child in the U.S. deserves to have the chance to read that kind of book BUT unfortunately, she regretted to admit that it was impossible to publish any of them because they didn't fit in any series or existing market categories.
Please feel free to share your comments, both with respect to the work of Ana Maria Machado or perhaps in response to some of her opinions regarding translated children's literature and the international exchange of books.
-Julie K. Kline Outreach and Academic Program Coordinator Center for Latin America University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee PO Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201
(414) 229Y86 phone
(414) 229(79 fax cla at uwm.edu www.uwm.edu/Dept/CLA
Received on Fri 30 Jun 2000 02:49:22 PM CDT
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 14:49:22 -0500
Here are some final excerpts from a recent email interview with Andersen Award winner, Ana Maria Machado:
Q: How accessible do you think your writing would be to children within the U.S. where so little of your work has appeared in translation to date?
A: I think it would be perfectly accessible to children in the U.S., if it were translated. I have read aloud some of my stories to school children in the States (in California, in West Virginia, in Wisconsin) , even in rough translations, and they have been perfectly accesible to them. I don't think American children are in any way inferior to children from all those countries where my writing has been accessible, and I am sure they would understand my books. Of course, some circumstances may be different from one culture to another -- but this is one of the main reasons for reading a good translation, for it gives us the chance of getting in touch with something that is different from us. A child in the U.S. may find it strange to read a Christmas story that takes place in full summer, or in a different environment, among different cultural situations... But when I was nine, I read Mark Twain and although I had no idea what the Mississipi was like, I just loved Tom, Huck and Becky... And one year later, when I read Little Women, it was perfectly accessible to me. Why can't contemporary U.S children be treated like intelligent readers, fully capable of getting in touch with other cultures and literatures?
Q: Do you have any comments about the international exchange through translation of children?s literature? Why has your work been recognized in some countries, but little known elsewhere (such as in the U.S.).
A: I think that the international exchange though the translation of children's books should be one of the most effective ways of promoting international understanding . When a child reads a books from a different country, she gets to know how different people can be so much alike, and what it means to be human, universal, and not only national. But unfortunately, I really don't think there's real exchange. Some markets are powerful and behave as if they could be self-sufficient -- but cultural self-sufficiency may be another name for cultural impoverishment. This is specially true in the English-speaking world, because of the huge economical and political weight of the U.S. and the U.K. Everywhere in the world, everybody learns English, tries to read English, translates books written in English. But seldom things happen the other way.
Personally, I've had some surprising experiences . A publisher in England once told me that he just loved my books, but they could never be published in the U.K. because I have a funny name, and no bookstore would ever carry a children's book by someone called something like Machado.
In the U.S., among a few other answers, I had two very enthusiastic letters from two different editors, both from major publishing houses. One of them said that O Menino Pedro e seu Boi Voador was one of the best children's books he had ever read--well-written, funny, original, full of faith in the child's imagination, and would certainly appeal to children. But... it couldn't be published because it had "an awkward size", whatever that may mean.
The other had read several books of mine in Spanish (also to her daughter, who loved them) and said she really enjoyed then and that : a) she would had loved to have read those books when she was a child b) she was sure every child in the U.S. deserves to have the chance to read that kind of book BUT unfortunately, she regretted to admit that it was impossible to publish any of them because they didn't fit in any series or existing market categories.
Please feel free to share your comments, both with respect to the work of Ana Maria Machado or perhaps in response to some of her opinions regarding translated children's literature and the international exchange of books.
-Julie K. Kline Outreach and Academic Program Coordinator Center for Latin America University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee PO Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201
(414) 229Y86 phone
(414) 229(79 fax cla at uwm.edu www.uwm.edu/Dept/CLA
Received on Fri 30 Jun 2000 02:49:22 PM CDT
