J. M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimópulos, The Right Word

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Photo courtesy of Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona

The winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, John M. Coetzee, and his Spanish translator, Mariana Dimópulos, talk with the editor Valerie Miles about the aesthetic and political dimension of language and translation following their book Speaking in Tongues (Don de lenguas, El hilo de Ariadna, 2025).

The languages we speak and the languages we write in, with their differences and their similarities, form a network that is aesthetic and political in nature. This becomes clear through the act of translation. The authors John M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimópulos discuss these topics, drawing on the book they wrote together: Speaking in Tongues. Born from the experience of translating Coetzee’s novel, The Pole, into Spanish and from the author’s ideas on the circulation of languages and the command of the English language, the book introduces some key themes such as a native language, the problem of grammatical gender, and the ideal of the right word.

Event will be held in Catalan, Spanish and English with simultaneous translation from English to Catalan.

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