Call Number:

C1561

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

5 boxes

Language:

Spanish; Castilian and French

Date:

1968-2017 (inclusive)

Creator:

Bensoussan, Albert (1935-)

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century and Translations (documents) -- 20th century

Abstract:

Albert Bensoussan is a writer, translator, and professor emeritus of Spanish literature at the University of Haute-Bretagne in Rennes, France. This collection consists of correspondence to Bensoussan from various Latin American authors whose works he has translated. Also included are writings from Bensoussan and others, interview transcripts, typescripts, and collected articles and essays about Latin American authors.

Albert Bensoussan is a writer and a translator of Spanish language works.

He was born on August 4, 1935 in Algiers, Algeria, to Sephardic Jewish parents. He received a doctorate in Spanish studies in 1966 and a doctorate in humanities in 1978. He has taught at the Lycée Bugeaud d'Alger, the Sorbonne, and the University of Haute-Bretagne in Rennes, France, where he was professor emeritus of Spanish literature. He has also taught at the European College of Literary Translators.

Bensoussan has translated hundreds of Spanish language titles including Alfredo Bryce Echeniche's Un Mundo para Julius and Tantas veces Pedro, Guillermo Cabrera Infante's Tres Tristes Tigres, José Donoso's Este domingo, Mario Goloboff's Criador de palomas, and Néstor Sánchez's Nosotros dos and Cómico de la lengua. He has translated multiple titles for Manuel Puig, including El Beso de la mujer araña, Pubis angelical, Maldición eterna a quien lea estas páginas, Sangre de amor correspondido, Il bacio della donna ragno, and Misterio del ramo de rosas.

He maintains a close relationship with Mario Vargas Llosa and has translated numerous works of his, including Los Cachorros, Pantaleón y las visitadoras, La orgía perpetua, La tía Julia y el escribidor, La señorita de Tacna, Historia de Mayta, and La guerra del fin del mundo.

He is the author of a number of original works which include Confessions d'un traitre: essai sur la traduction (1995); Retour des caravelles: lettres latino-américaines d'aujourd'hui (1999); J'avoue que j'ai trahi: essai libre sur la traduction (2005); and Ce que je sais de Vargas Llosa (2011), among others.

He received the Cultura Latina Prize in 1985 and a médaille de vermeil from the Académie française in 2011 for his translation work, and is a founding member of l'Association des Traducteurs Littéraires de France. In 1964 he married Mathilde (Tubau) Bensoussan, a Catalonian translator who lived in France most of her life and also taught at the University of Rennes. They collaborated occasionally on translation and other writings. After her death, he remarried in 2013 to Françoise-Déborah Bensoussan-Meinnel, a former high school librarian and translator.

He currently lives in Rennes, France.

Consists of translator and writer Albert Bensoussan's working files related to Latin American authors, including Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, José Donoso, Jorge Edwards, Jorge Goldenberg, Mario Goloboff, Luis Mizón, Abel Posse, Manuel Puig, Néstor Sánchez, Severo Sarduy, Manuel Scorza, and Mario Vargas Llosa. Files consist of incoming professional and personal correspondence to Bensoussan from authors, theatre producers, critics, translators, and French publishing houses; writings by Bensoussan on Latin American authors, and translation; transcripts of interviews Bensoussan conducted; collected essays and articles related to the authors represented and Bensoussan; scripts and ephemera from theatrical productions of work translated by Bensoussan; and assorted clippings related to the authors.

Materials are arranged alphabetically by writer's last name. Correspondence and subject files were kept in original order.