Eating Faulkner Eating Baudelaire: Multiple Rewritings and Cultural Cannibalism

Abstract

Eating Faulkner Eating Baudelaire: Multiple Rewritings and Cultural Cannibalism A writer is completely rapacious, he has no morals whatever he will steal from any source. He’s so busy stealing and using it that he himself probably never knows where he gets what he uses. —William Faulkner, Lion in the Garden (128) Each text is unique, yet at the same time it is the translation of another text. No text can be completely original because language itself, in its very essence, is already a translation. ... All texts are originals because each translation has its own distinctive charac­ ter. Up to a point, each translation is a creation and thus consti­ tutes a unique text. —Octavio Paz, “Translation: Literature and Letters” (154) W ith Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” as nexus, this study1 examines the interface of translation studies with literary and cultural studies by engaging the Brazilian concept of anthro­ pophagy.2 Derived from Oswald de Andrade’s modernist enter­ prise and propagated more recently by the de Campos brothers, anthropopha eschews resistance as an act ofrejection for a resistance characterized by creative synthesis, not so much a reversal of power as a leveling of power. Consequently, we are better able to understand cross-cultural networks not only between the “Old” and “New” Worlds, but also within the “New” World itself. Generally, anthropophagites see the theory as a call to action, a manifesto for the creation of new literary texts (including translations). In contrast, this study advocates use of the concept of anthropophagy also as a theoretical tool with which to analyze and understand texts long in existence, including texts by authors who may have had no contact with the theory. Rather than focus solely on Latin American texts (though we will get to some later), the case study here is Wil­ liam Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” which forms a nexus connecting not only France and Mississippi but also Latin America. It represents a series 'All faults in this article are my responsibility. For the better parts I certainly owe a debt of gratitude to David Vanderwerken, Edwin Gentzler, Ruth Gross, Kim Van Noort, and Chris Conway for reading through various sundry versions of the article, and Christopher Middleton for introducing me to Baudelaire many years ago, as well as encouraging me when I first noticed a connection with Faulkner. I also want to acknowl­ edge the advice of Bart Lewis, who has now, unfortunately, passed away. 2For my first introduction to the topic of anthropophagy, I am indebted to Susan Bassnett’s discussion of the movement in Latin America. See Comparative Literature, particularly 138-61. 65 66 Scott G. Williams. Eating Faulkner Eating Baudelaire of rewritings: Faulkner rewrites Baudelaire, the French rewrite Faulkner, Latin Americans rewrite Faulkner rewriting Baudelaire, etc. By looking at Faulkner in this way, we better understand the important role he plays as an intermediary between various cultures. In studying translations, one is perforce in the situation of examining cultur­ al interaction. As translation scholars have examined different translations over the centuries, it has become apparent that one person’s “translation” is another’s “adaptation” is another’s “version,” etc. Even texts that claim to be a “transla­ tion,” and are generally recognized as such, may alter the source text dramatically. Andre Lefevere and Susan Bassnett propose that we speak of“rewritings,” which would encompass not only translations per se but also anthologies, commentaries, histories, and even critical journals (10). Therefore, the way scholars write about cultural interactions constitutes a type of rewriting itself. In the case of Faulkner we have an interesting example of the interaction of the Americas with Europe and with themselves, both among writers and those who write about writers. Eating Europe One way to talk about transcultural exchange is by use of the metaphor of anthropophagy, which dates back at least to Brazil in the 1920s, the same era in which Faulkner visited France and also later wrote “A Rose for Emily.” In other words, in an effort to talk about a modernist text from one part of the Americas, we employ a concept stemming from a contemporary modernist thinker in an­ other part...