Borges, Joyce, and the Not-Quite-First Spanish-Language Review of Ulysses

Jorge Luis Borges famously claimed himself to be the first hispano to embark upon the odyssey of reading and reviewing James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). Along with his 1925 review, he also translated the last two pages of the novel, Molly Bloom’s sensation-creating, stream-of-consciousness monologue. Perhaps starstruck by the legendary pairing of two of the twentieth century’s most influential authors, many scholars have taken his claim as indisputable evidence that Borges single-handedly introduced Joyce to Latin America, and of the enduring impact of his translation. This talk will reveal that the true story of Joyce’s introduction to Spanish language readers is both more complex and more interesting than the one traditionally told.

Dr. Leah Leone Anderson is a Visiting Scholar with UWM’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Her book, Borges’s Creative Infidelities: Translating Joyce, Woolf and Faulkner (2024) was made possible with CLACS’s support. Her current research focuses on the work of Argentine critic, translator, and memoirist María Rosa Oliver (1898-1977).