{"title":"Books by Ilan Stavans","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780190076979","title":"Jewish Literature","description":"The story of Jewish literature is a kaleidoscopic one, multilingual and transnational in character, spanning the globe as well as the centuries. In this broad, thought-provoking introduction to Jewish literature from 1492 to the present, cultural historian Ilan Stavans focuses on its multilingual and transnational nature. Stavans presents a wide range of traditions within Jewish literature and the variety of writers who made those traditions possible. Represented are writers as dissimilar as Luis de Carvajal the Younger, Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz, Isaac Babel, Anzia Yezierska, Elias Canetti, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Irving Howe, Clarice Lispector, Susan Sontag, Philip Roth, Grace Paley, Amos Oz, Moacyr Scliar, and David Grossman. The story of Jewish literature spans the globe as well as the centuries, from the marrano poets and memorialists of medieval Spain, to the sprawling Yiddish writing in Ashkenaz (the \"Pale of Settlement' in Eastern Europe), to the probing narratives of Jewish immigrants to the United States and other parts of the New World. It also examines the accounts of horror during the Holocaust, the work of Israeli authors since the creation of the Jewish State in 1948, and the \"ingathering\" of Jewish works in Brazil, Bulgaria, Argentina, and South Africa at the end of the twentieth century. This kaleidoscopic introduction to Jewish literature presents its subject matter as constantly changing and adapting.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56225278558581,"sku":"9780190076979","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780190076979_f954f40c-ec55-4f1c-a897-b01b24269a25.jpg?v=1786011421"},{"product_id":"9780197761380","title":"Jorge Luis Borges","description":"Jorge Luis Borges (1899--1986) is one of the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. His short stories, poems, essays, and translations explore Argentine mythology, mysticism, philosophical ideas, and myriad other topics. This Very Short Introduction gives an engaging overview of Borges's life and the major themes of his oeuvre. Ilan Stavans places Borges in the context of tango and gaucho literature and follows his transformation into an explorer of time and metaphysical dimensions across cultures. As an inveterate reader of Cervantes, Shakespeare, Flaubert, Coleridge, and The Arabian Nights, Borges has become closely associated with the book as an object of knowledge and of the imagination. Stavans demonstrates how Borges's evolution as a writer allowed him to revolutionize contemporary literature and thought in fundamental ways through such works as Ficciones, Other Inquisitions, and Labyrinths, and shows how his career redefined Latin American as well as global literature.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56226682438005,"sku":"9780197761380","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780197761380_87309e69-9d4c-40de-8e03-95a764c4dc42.jpg?v=1786011160"},{"product_id":"9780271087870","title":"A Pre–Columbian Bestiary – Fantastic Creatures of Indigenous Latin America","description":"An encyclopedic collaboration between award-winning Mexican American scholar Ilan Stavans and illustrator Eko, A Pre-Columbian Bestiary features lively and informative descriptions of forty-six religious, mythical, and imaginary creatures from the Nahua, Aztec, Maya, Tabasco, Inca, Aymara, and other cultures of Latin America.   From the siren-like Acuecuéyotl and the water animal Chaac to the class-conscious Oc and the god of light and darkness Xólotl, the magnificent entities in this volume belong to the same family of real and invented creatures imagined by Dante, Franz Kafka, C. S. Lewis, Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, and J. K. Rowling. They are mined from indigenous religious texts, like the Popol Vuh, and from chronicles, both real and fictional, of the Spanish conquest by Diego Durán, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, and Fernando de Zarzamora, among others. In this playful compilation, Stavans distills imagery from the work of magic realist masters such as Juan Rulfo and Gabriel García Márquez; from songs of protest in Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru; and  from aboriginal beasts in Jewish, Muslim, European, British, and other traditions. In the spirit of imaginative invention, even the bibliography is a mixture of authentic and concocted material.   An inspiring record of resistance and memory from a civilization whose superb pantheon of myths never ceases to amaze, A Pre-Columbian Bestiary will delight anyone interested in the history and culture of Latin America.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56232637923701,"sku":"9780271087870","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780271087870_0668cc5e-cb73-42bc-99a4-a7c76bcdde7d.jpg?v=1786012480"},{"product_id":"9781438471488","title":"On Self-Translation","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fascinating collection of essays and conversations on the changing nature of language.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the 2018 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eForeword\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the Essay category \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom award-winning, internationally known scholar and translator Ilan Stavans comes \u003ci\u003eOn Self-Translation\u003c\/i\u003e, a collection of essays and conversations on language in its multifaceted forms. Stavans discusses the way syntax is being restructured by texting and other technologies. He examines how the alphabet itself is being forgotten by the young, how finger snapping has taken on a new meaning, how the use of ellipses has lapsed, and how autocorrect is shaping the way we communicate. In an incisive meditation, he shows how translating one's own work reinvents oneself in another tongue. The volume includes tête-à-têtes with Pulitzer Prize–winner Richard Wilbur and short-fiction master Lydia Davis, as well as dialogues on silence, multilingualism, poetry, and the durability of the classics. Stavans's explorations cover Spanish, English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and the hybrid lexicon of Spanglish. He muses on the meaning of foreignness and on living and dying in different languages. Among his primary concerns are the role and history of dictionaries and the extent to which the authority of language academies is less a reality than a delusion. He concludes with renditions into Spanglish of portions of \u003ci\u003eHamlet\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDon Quixote\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Little Prince\u003c\/i\u003e. The wide range of themes and engaging yet informed style confirm Stavans's status, in the words of the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, as \"Latin America's liveliest and boldest critic and most innovative cultural enthusiast.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to Knowledge Unlatched-an initiative that provides libraries and institutions with a centralized platform to support OA collections and from leading publishing houses and OA initiatives. Learn more at the Knowledge Unlatched website at https:\/\/www.knowledgeunlatched.org\/.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299743904117,"sku":"9781438471488","price":27.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781438471488.jpg?v=1786020475"},{"product_id":"9781632062406","title":"Popol Vuh","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn inspired and urgent prose retelling of the Maya myth of creation by acclaimed Latin American author and scholar Ilan Stavans, gorgeously illustrated by Salvadoran folk artist Gabriela Larios and introduced by renowned author, diplomat, and environmental activist Homero Aridjis.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe archetypal creation story of Latin America, the \u003ci\u003ePopol Vuh\u003c\/i\u003e began as a Maya oral tradition millennia ago. In the mid-sixteenth century, as indigenous cultures across the continent were being threatened with destruction by European conquest and Christianity, it was written down in verse by members of the K’iche’ nobility in what is today Guatemala. In 1701, that text was translated into Spanish by a Dominican friar and ethnographer before vanishing mysteriously.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCosmic in scope and yet intimately human, the \u003ci\u003ePopol Vuh\u003c\/i\u003e offers invaluable insight into the Maya way of life before being decimated by colonization—their code of ethics, their views on death and the afterlife, and their devotion to passion, courage, and the natural world. It tells the story of how the world was created in a series of rehearsals that included wooden dummies, demi-gods, and eventually humans. It describes the underworld, Xibalba—a place as harrowing as Dante’s hell—and relates the legend of the ultimate king, who, in the face of tragedy, became a spirit that accompanies his people in their struggle for survival.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePopol Vuh: A Retelling\u003c\/i\u003e is a one-of-a-kind prose rendition of this sacred text that is as seminal as the Bible and the Qur'an, the Ramayana and the Odyssey. Award-winning scholar of Latin American literature Ilan Stavans brings a fresh creative energy to the Popol Vuh, giving a new generation of readers the opportunity to connect with this timeless story and with the plight of the indigenous people of the Americas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301836992885,"sku":"9781632062406","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781632062406_7ae4e914-45ea-45b4-b375-d32d0d9068a1.jpg?v=1786023564"},{"product_id":"9780198816218","title":"What is American Literature?","description":"An incisive, thought-provoking, and timely meditation, at once panoramic and synoptic, on American literature for an age of xenophobia, heightened nationalism, and economic disparity. The distinguished cultural critic Ilan Stavans explores the nation's identity through the prism of its books, from the indigenous past to the early settlers, the colonial period, the age of independence, its ascendance as a global power, and its shallow, fracturing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The central motives that make the United States a flawed experiment--its celebration of do-it-yourself individualism, its purported exceptionalism, and its constitutional government based on checks and balances--are explored through canonical works like Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Emily Dickinson's poetry, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, the work of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison, and immigrant voices such as those of Américo Paredes, Henry Roth, Saul Bellow, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jhumpa Lahiri, and others. This is literary criticism at its best-informed: broad-ranged yet pungent and uncompromising.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311611162997,"sku":"9780198816218","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780198816218_bbdaefc2-27ce-468f-bee7-68f23472d05b.jpg?v=1786012771"},{"product_id":"9781910691304","title":"The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo","description":"Most famously depicted as the 300-pound, pill-popping Samoan attorney in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Oscar 'Zeta' Acosta's wild, moving first book, originally published in 1972, reveals a man of astonishing variety. A converted Baptist missionary in Panama, bar hopper, psychiatric patient, struggling writer, heartbroken lover, great imposter, connoisseur of excess, Chicano activist, Brown Buffalo - Acosta did it all, then disappeared like a puff of smoke off the coast of Mazatlan, Mexico in the spring of 1974.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313133433205,"sku":"9781910691304","price":12.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781910691304_188499bc-d41a-4b85-89f1-d9997c547911.jpg?v=1786034290"},{"product_id":"9780826369185","title":"El Iluminado","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this entertaining, thought-provoking detective graphic novel set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a fictional Ilan Stavans seeks to solve a murder and locate a lost manuscript by a prominent 16th-century Crypto-Jew burned at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen young Rolando Perez falls to his death from a cliff outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, the mysteries immediately begin to accumulate. Was he pushed or did he jump? What might Rolando have been so desperate to protect that he would sacrifice himself? And what does a colorful \u003ci\u003econcha \u003c\/i\u003epastry have to do with any of this?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the midst of the investigation, Professor Ilan Stavans arrives in Santa Fe to give a lecture about the area’s long-buried Jewish history. He’s looking forward to relaxing afterward with an evening at the opera, but his presentation on “crypto-Jews” attracts unexpected attention, and soon Ilan is drawn into a desperate race to find the long-lost documents that might hold the key to Rolando’s death. His amateur sleuthing leads him to taco joints, desert ranches, soaring cathedrals, and, finally, deep into the region’s past, where he encounters Luis de Carvajal, also called “El Iluminado.” In a sixteenth-century tale of martyrdom that eerily echoes Rolando’s, Carvajal fled Spain for colonial Mexico at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, searching for his religious heritage—a hunt for which he, like Rolando, would pay the ultimate price.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eEl Iluminado\u003c\/i\u003e, esteemed literary critic Ilan Stavans and author and illustrator Steve Sheinkin present a secret history of religion in the Americas, showing how thousands of European refugees have left a trail of ghostly footprints—and troves of mysteries—across the American Southwest. This paperback edition includes a new afterword recounting the amazing events that occurred after the original publication, including the real-life discovery of the long-lost memoir of Luis de Carvajal and its restoration to Mexico.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368225157493,"sku":"9780826369185","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780826369185_b6de2fd1-96a8-43a9-baba-7c69c3a5beba.jpg?v=1786015632"},{"product_id":"fictional-translations","title":"Fictional Translations","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe culmination of \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author Ilan Stavans's distinguished career as a scholar and translator, \u003ci\u003eFictional Translations\u003c\/i\u003e pushes the boundaries of poetry. This extraordinarily original volume includes apocryphal poems by Petrarch, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Anna Akhmatova, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Celan, Fernando Pessoa, Jorge Luis Borges, Eugenio Montale, Pablo Neruda, Yehuda Amichai, and scores of others in their original languages, as well as English translations of those poems by invented translators whose approaches to the craft often clash. Each translator also explains, in personal reflections, their fears and dreams, their aesthetics, and the challenges of remaining \"invisible.\" \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e With astonishing élan, Stavans, known for his polyglot explorations, invites us to see language anew and liberate the alternative voices that exist within us.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57499249082741,"sku":"9780807187333","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780807187333.jpg?v=1786694566"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-ilan-stavans.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}