Tag Archives: Angela Rodel
A Postmodern Historical Novel Reimagines 15th-century East-West Politics: Vera Mutafchieva’s “The Case of Cem,” Translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
Long before postmodern historical novels such as Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” (1972), Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose” (1980), Christa Wolf’s “Cassandra” (1983), and Salman Rushdie’s “The Enchantress of Florence” (2008) captivated readers with their imaginative, thoroughly researched, and carefully plotted recreation of the past, there was Vera Mutafchieva’s “The Case of Cem” (1967).
Neither Here And There: The Misery and Splendor of (Reverse) Translation*
In Bulgarian, which I translate from, translating into a language that’s not your native tongue is colloquially known as obraten prevod, which literally means “reverse translation.” As an adjective, obraten carries the negative connotation of something abnormal or backward, something that goes against the grain, or something that simply isn’t right.
“The Dangerous Charm of Leaving”: Bogdan Rusev’s “Come To Me,” Translated from Bulgarian by Ekaterina Petrova
By Philip Graham The discovery of contemporary Bulgarian literature has been one of the great gifts of my recent reading life. Though the books I’ve read can be quite varied, they seem connected by a combination of humor and soulful melancholy, a literary territory where trouble can perhaps best be endured by sad or […]
In Defense of the Minotaur: Georgi Gospodinov’s “The Physics of Sorrow,” Translated by Angela Rodel
Reviewed by Stiliana Milkova “I imagine a book containing every kind and genre,” declares the first-person narrator of Georgi Gospodinov’s novel The Physics of Sorrow. And then he elaborates, “From monologue through Socratic dialogue to epos in hexameter, from fairy tales through treatises to lists. From high antiquity to slaughter house instructions. Everything can be […]