Transgressive Circulation

by Johannes Göransson

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry, Frost is often quoted as having said, is what is lost in translation, and American poets and critics have long taken this as their cue to subordinate translation to other forms of literary activity and to disqualify translated texts. In TRANSGRESSIVE CIRCULATION, poet, translator, and publisher Johannes Göransson reverses this dynamic, holding that we should use translation to re-assess our entire aesthetic establishment. Rather than argue against the denigration and abjection of translation--and most foreign texts--this book investigates those dark zones of expulsion as grounds for new possibilities, not just for translation but for literature as a whole.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

Published November 21, 2018

About the author

Johannes Göransson is interested in approaches to writing that crosses boundaries – such as genre conventions and linguistic borders – and blurs the demarcations of the autonomous text. He is the author of three books of his own writings – A New Quarantine Will Take My Place, Dear Ra and Pilot (Johann the Carousel Horse) – with one more forthcoming in 2011, The Entrance Pageant. He wrote a performance piece The Widow Party, which was performed at Links Hall in Chicago in 2008. He is also the translator of the works of several modern and contemporary Swedish and Finland Swedish poets and writers – including Aase Berg, Henry Parland and Johan Jönson.

He has written critically about contemporary American and Swedish poetry, translation theory, the historical avant-garde, Sylvia Plath, and Gurlesque poetry and other neo-gothic aesthetics. In addition, he has a special interest in film, particularly the 1960s underground cinema of Kenneth Anger and Jack Smith.
Together with Joyelle McSweeney, Johannes publishes Action Books; and together with McSweeney and John Woods, he edits the online zine Action, Yes.

”For me poetry is inextricably bound up in issues of immigration, homelessness, translation.”

Interview: http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/mainte...

Reviews

[André Habet · Rating 4 out of 5]

No book on poetry or translation has made such a dramatic intervention on my perspective on both. Thrilled to write and read more translated works as a result

[Carlota Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important read for anyone who's interested in translation theory. Goransson is a stellar poet, so his ability to bridge concepts together doesn't really come as a great shock. It's impressive and ugly (yum!) how he relates the art medium (translation) to that of a virus or foreign invasion. He defends its status as a thing which enters and consumes. He loves and respects the grotesque, and I love and respect him. He takes translation out of a generalized box and argues for its autonomy and savagery. It's more idea-driven than pragmatic, and it's not a how-to guide, but that's a fine place to be when in conversation about the abstracts of art. I'm a big fan of his and his wife (Joyelle McSweeney)'s work. Their press Action Books is a powerhouse for indie translation. We stan the king and queen of the court.

[Ryan Bollenbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Poetry, I have argued, is at its strongest when we don't have the crutches of mastery; when we are thrown into its deformation zone."