Adapting the Unfamiliar… Through Translation.
Adapting the Unfamiliar… through Translation.
Marjorie Agosín (born June 15, 1955).Source: Wikipedia.
07/12/2012 Komal Shah Eng. 101C- 24 R. C. Muniz 333
Adapting the Unfamiliar… through Translation.
By Komal Shah. Change… is a very powerful and emotionally supercharged word. It is inevitable and the process of becoming different. The inspiring narrative, Always living in Spanish, by Dr. Marjorie Agosín, originally written in Spanish, tells of Dr. Agosín’s Chilean childhood and her continuing struggle to embrace the change that came with moving to America. “Destiny and the always ambiguous nature of history continued my family’s enforced migration… (Agosín, 22)” she states. Her story uses personal details to bring her childhood in Chile to life. It is her clear love for her people and the constant battle to not let go of her identity that inspires her poetry all of which is written in Spanish. For her, like many others, writing and thinking in Spanish is a “gesture of survival” through her journey from Chile to Georgia, as from her Chilean childhood to American adulthood. Philosophers often say that it is important to find yourself, to identify who you are. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates through the process of change. The Encarta Dictionary: English (North America) defines identity as “the name or essential character that identifies somebody or something” (def.1). We all have sets of characteristics that we recognize as
Marjorie Agosín (born June 15, 1955).Source: Wikipedia.
07/12/2012 Komal Shah Eng. 101C- 24 R. C. Muniz 333
Adapting the Unfamiliar… through Translation.
By Komal Shah. Change… is a very powerful and emotionally supercharged word. It is inevitable and the process of becoming different. The inspiring narrative, Always living in Spanish, by Dr. Marjorie Agosín, originally written in Spanish, tells of Dr. Agosín’s Chilean childhood and her continuing struggle to embrace the change that came with moving to America. “Destiny and the always ambiguous nature of history continued my family’s enforced migration… (Agosín, 22)” she states. Her story uses personal details to bring her childhood in Chile to life. It is her clear love for her people and the constant battle to not let go of her identity that inspires her poetry all of which is written in Spanish. For her, like many others, writing and thinking in Spanish is a “gesture of survival” through her journey from Chile to Georgia, as from her Chilean childhood to American adulthood. Philosophers often say that it is important to find yourself, to identify who you are. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates through the process of change. The Encarta Dictionary: English (North America) defines identity as “the name or essential character that identifies somebody or something” (def.1). We all have sets of characteristics that we recognize as
Citations: Agosín, Marjorie. "Always Living in Spanish: Recovering the Familiar through Language." The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings and Handbook 2nd Edition. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2009. 21-24. Print. Lee, Chang-Rae. "Mute in an Enlgish-Only World." Everything 's an Arguement. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2007. 800-02. Print. "Encarta Dictionary(Online College Dictionary)Review." Encarta Dictionary (Online College Dictionary). N.p., n.d. Web. 11 July 2012. <http://www.really-learn-english.com/encarta-dictionary-online-college-dictionary.html>.