In “Mistranslation and Catastrophe”, Dr. Brickhouse reflects on the role of mistranslation in her own research, and the productive possibilities of embracing ‘mistranslation’ over other values-‘mastery,’ for example, or the ‘untranslatable.’ She addresses the role of translation and mistranslation in Estrella Distante (Distant Star) by the late Chilean writer Roberto Bolano, whose novella about the catastrophic aftermath of the CIA-encouraged coup in Chile begins with a mysterious, (mis)translated epigraph from Faulkner. Taking Estrella Distante as inspiration, she then move back in time to explore a much earlier catastrophe as well as a chain of translations and mistranslations surrounding it: the Lima earthquake of 1746.

Dr. Anna Brickhouse is a Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Virginia.