Hi all!
I have been asked to be a "guest lecturer" in an English class at the high school where I teach. The teacher would like me to speak about La generación del '98 and elaborate on Antonio Machado. I have a so many books and articles in Spanish, but I have found very little on the Internet this week as I have been trying to begin my research...in English! Any ideas on good translations of Machado or any other members of the Generation of '98? ¡Gracias!

Hola Esperanza,

What an exciting opportunity! I may be able to help you. I have material on Miguel de Unamuno in English, and perhaps on some of the others.

You know what would really be nice is to do a Powerpoint presentation explaining why the generation was so fecund, and also depicting how each of these luminaries exemplefied the spirit of this generation. Perhaps pick the best known: Unamuno,Ortega y Gasset Pio Baroja, Valle Inclan, Machado,Azorin, and Juan Ramon Jimenez.

I am sure you can find a representative passage in English of their most well known work. In the meantime I will do a search and see what I find.
Salud2
Carmen

---------------
This web page has a wonderful sampling of the members of the Generación. It also has noce photos, and an excellent precis on each author.

Here's a bibliography in English that may be of help if you have access to a university or college library:

Anthology. Modern Spanish Theatre, E.P. Dutton & Co., 1968. Edited by Michael Benedikt and George E. Wellwarth.

Anthology. Spain - Drama Contemporary, Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1985. Edited by Marion Peter Holt.

Anthology. Spanish & Portuguese Short Stories, Senate Press, 1995.

Anthology. Introduction to Spanish Poetry, Dover Press, 1965. Edited by Eugenio Florit.

Anthology. Great Spanish Plays in English Translation, Dover Publications, 1991. Edited by Angel Flores.

Anthology. Spanish Stories/Cuentos Españoles, Dover Publications, 1987. Edited by Angel Flores.

Ayala, Francisco. Usurpers, Penguin Classics, 1996. Translated by Carolyn Richmond.

Baroja, Pio. Zalacaín the Adventurer, Lost Coast Press, 1997. Translated by James Diendl.

Bazan, Emilia Pardo. Torn Lace And Other Stories, The Modern Language Association of America, 1996. Translated by Maria Cristina Urruela.

Galdós, Benito Peréz. Miau, Penguin Books, 1963. Translated by J.M. Cohen.

Galdós, Benito Peréz. Misericordia, Dedalus European Classics, 1995. Translated by Charles de Salis.

Galdós, Benito Peréz. That Bringas Woman, Everyman, 1996. Translated by Catherine Jagoe.

Galdós, Benito Peréz. Nazarin, Oxford Press, 1993. Translated by Jo Labanyi.

Galdós, Benito Peréz. Fortunata and Jacinta, Penguin Classics, 1988. Translated by Agnes Moncy Gullón.

Galdós, Benito Peréz. Dona Perfecta, Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1960.

Ibáñez, Vicente Blasco. The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, E.P. Dutton, 1941. Translated by Charlotte Brewster Jordan.

Ibáñez, Vicente Blasco. Reeds and Mud, Branden Press, 1966. Translated by Lester Beberfall.

Jiménez, Juan Ramón. Platero and I, University Of Texas Press, 1990. Translated by Eloïse Roach.

Jiménez, Juan Ramón. Stories of Life and Death, toExcel, 2000. Translated by Antonio de Nicolás.

Machado, Antonio. Selected Poems, Harvard Press, 1982. Translated by Alan S. Trueblood.

Spanish Literature, The Oxford Companion to. Oxford University Press, 1978. Edited by Philip Ward.

Unamuno, Miguel de. Abel Sanchez and Other Stories (includes The Madness of Doctor Montarco and San Manuel Bueno, Martyr), Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1996. Translated by Anthony Kerrigan.

Unamuno, Miguel de. Mist, University of Illinois Press, 2000. Translated by Warner Fite.

Unamuno, Miguel de. Three Exemplary Novels (Two Mothers, The Marquis of Lumbria, Nothing Less Than A Man), Grove Press, 1956. Translated by Angel Flores.

Valle-Inclán, Ramón del. Spring And Sumer Sonatas, Dedalus, 1997. Translated by Margaret Jull Costa.

That's an impressive bibliography you provided for Esperanza. Most admirable is the fact that you noted the names of the translators, the essential yet least appreciated and most ripped-off contributors to international literature.

WOW! Thank you so much Carmen !! That is an amazing bibiography. I do not have access to a university library, unfortunately. , but I will check in the NY public library. Also I can check at Amazon...I wouldn't mind getting some English translations for my own collection.

About Translations , I thought that this was really interesting to read. I also found this amazing quote which I shared with my own class yesterday:

Every translation is a metaphor of the poem translated. In this sense, the phrase "poetry is untranslatable" is the exact equivalent of the phrase "all poetry is translatable." The only possible translation is a poetic transmutation, or metaphor. But I would also say that in writing an original poem, we are translating the world, transmuting it. Everything we do is translation, and all translations are in a way creations. --Octavio Paz

Again, Thanks Carmen and any other ideas or perhaps copies that you might be able to send me would be sincerely appreciated. I feel like I had a fairy godmother...I went to bed after posting the question and woke up to find the answer.
Un beso, Esperanza

Hola Esperanza,
It is my pleasure to help professors with interesting assingments. This I believe is the true worth of the Internet, for us to help each other provide the best materials possible to our students! Pedagogy at its best!

I will look in my office Monday, that's where I keep my literature material and photocopy what I have, or if I find any books I can mail them to you. I meant to ask you what is the grade level, and how soon is your presentation? I have listed my e-mail here in MM's profile.

Salud2,
Carmen

Hello Esperanza,

Here's what I found in English:
Book by Beatrice P. Patt and Martin Nozick, titled The Generation of 1898 and After . Harper & Row, 1960. Sadly the works cited are in Spanish, but it has a very nice introduction of each author and a good preface of the roots of this generation.

I also have an English translation by Anthony Kerrigan of Pio Baroja's " The Restlessness of Shanti Andía."

And I have Chandler & Schwartz; A New History of Spanish Literature that has an excellent section on the Generacion and the authors.

If you would like I can photocopy the articles in the anthologies and mail you the Pio Baroja book. Let me know. You can e-mail me.

By the way, I was aghast that in the Norton Anthology of World masterpieces, 6th ed., the only Spanish writer listed was Garcia Lorca, the other two who write in spanish were from South America, Garcia Marquez and Borges! Sadly, this may be why Dame Edna made her Vanity Fair comment, our texts lack the examples of good literature written by luminaries like Machado, Unamuno, Gomez Serna, etc!

Carmen,
Thanks so much for the information. I will e-mail you if I think I could use the articles and book you mentioned. I did find two anthologies in our school's library: Ten Centuries of Spanish Poetry edited by Eeanor Turnbull and Spanish Poetry A Duel-Language Anthology edited by Angel Flores. They both have some very good examples of Machado's work.
As you suggested I am preparing a Power Point Presentation for the class...It is coming along!
It is for a group of high school juniors and seniors, BTW.

Again, thanks and you are an inspiration! I love books too!

Great, Esperanza, by the way, both Flores and Turnbull are the best! You will wow those lucky students!

If I recall correctly, Kerrigan translated and edited a multivolume hardback anthology of Unamuno's works. It was published by Princeton University Press in (I think) the 1980s.

The novel "Mist" is generally considered Unamuno's masterwork. When I was in high school, we didn't read the whole novel, but we were assigned the pivotal chapter in which the protagonist argues with the author over which of them is more real.

If you're looking for a short Unamuno work to assign, the novella "San Manuel Bueno, Mártir" (translated under various English titles) is excellent.