Gregary J. Racz
Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literature
B.A., Rutgers UniversityM.A., Ph.D., Princeton University
gregary.racz@liu.edu
Description
My abiding interest in literary translation is a natural outgrowth of my training as a comparatist. The study of literatures across linguistic and cultural boundaries, along with a firm grounding in literary theory, has enabled me to think critically about the act of translation and to apply the theoretical insights I have gleaned directly to practice. While I have translated a 19th-century Spanish novel and a contemporary play in my two decades as a working translator, my focus always has been on poetic texts. I try to keep my hand in both the peninsular and Latin American camps, and have translated both canonical and contemporary works. My specialization, the analogical rendering of meter and rhyme (where it appears), challenges the dominant methodologies in the field of translation studies. I hope to delineate the advantages of this poetics in my work in progress, “Approaches to Translating Poetry,” which is under contract with Multilingual Matters. In addition to my duties in the Department of Foreign Language and Literature at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, I continue to teach Spanish translation during the summers in the Translation and Interpretation Certification Program at Rutgers University. I also presently serve as vice president of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and as book review editor for Translation Review.
Specialties
Translation Studies, Literary Theory, Comparative Literature, Poetics
Publications
- Translator, “Life Is a Dream” by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Penguin Classics
- Translator, “Fuenteovejuna” by Lope de Vega, Norton Anthology of Drama
- Editor, “Three Comedies by Jaime Salom,” University Press of Colorado
- Editor, “Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) As Writer and Social Critic,” Edwin Mellen Press
- Author, “British Models, Methinks: Translating Jaime Salom’s ‘Renaissance’ for Contemporary American Audiences,” published by ESTRENO Studies in Contemporary Theater
- Author, “Strategies of Deletion in Pablo Neruda’s Romeo y Julieta,” published in “Latin American Shakespeares”
- Author, “Trimming Whitman’s Leaves of Grass: Borges as Translator of ‘Song of Myself’,” in “Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) As Writer and Social Critic”
- Author, “Straight to the Source: Using Phaedrus and La Fontaine to Retranslate Fable V, 25, of Félix María Samaniego,” published by Romanic Review
- Author, “Two Modes of Rereading in the Twentieth-Century Novel,” in “Second Thoughts: A Focus on Rereading”
- Translator, “Gerona” by Benito Pérez Galdós
Honors/Awards
- Honorary Member, Alpha Chi (National College Honor Scholarship Society)
- Recipient, Crossing Boundaries Award (for translation), International Quarterly
- Recipient, Carpeta de poesía Award, Luz Bilingual Publishing Poetry Translation Contest
- Recipient, Sidney Sulkin Award for Prose, Poet Lore
Professional Affiliations
- Vice President, American Literary Translators Association (ALTA)
- Member, American Translators Association (ATA)
- Member, Modern Language Association (MLA)
- Member, American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association (ATISA)
