On Borrowed Words
A Memoir of Language
Yiddish, Spanish, Hebrew, and English-at various points in Ilan Stavans's life, each of these has been his primary language. In this rich memoir, the linguistic chameleon outlines his remarkable cultural heritage from his birth in politically fragile Mexico, through his years as a student activist and young Zionist in Israel, to his present career as a noted and controversial academic and writer.
Along the way, Stavans introduces readers to some of the remarkable members of his family-his brother, a musical wunderkind; his father, a Mexican soap opera star; his grandmother, who arrived in Mexico from Eastern Europe in 1929 and wrote her own autobiography. Masterfully weaving personal reminiscences with a provocative investigation into language acquisition and cultural code switching, On Borrowed…
$32.00
July 30, 2002Ilan Stavans is the author of numerous short stories and more than 15 works of nonfiction, including Quixote: The Novel and the World and Resurrecting Hebrew. His many awards and honors include an Emmy nomination, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Pablo Neruda Medal, and the National Jewish Book Award (for his anthology The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature). He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and the Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor at Amherst College.
Quixote
Ilan Stavans
Hopscotch, Blow-Up, We Love Glenda So Much
Julio Cortazar; Introduction by Ilan Stavans
Backlands
Euclides da Cunha
The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature
Edited and with an Introduction by Ilan Stavans
Resurrecting Hebrew
Ilan Stavans
AN Organizer's Tale
Cesar Chavez
Spain, Take This Chalice from Me and Other Poems
Cesar Vallejo; Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden; Edited with an Introduction by Ilan Stavans
Selected Writings
Rubén Darío
The Underdogs
Mariano Azuela A new rendition by Beth E. Jorgensen, based on the E. Munguia, Jr., translation
On Borrowed Words
Ilan Stavans
Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca; Translated by Fanny Bandelier; Revised and Annotatedby Harold Augenbraun; Intoduction by Ilan Stavans
Facundo
Domingo F. Sarmiento