Inhabiting Languages: Writing, Translation, and Self-Translation

The Case of Eduardo Berti

Abstract

Over the past several years, the Argentine writer Eduardo Berti—now based in Bordeaux—has been composing not only in Spanish but also in French, while at the same time producing distinguished translations of Francophone authors. Within the field of comparative literature, it proves timely to engage with these questions, which are at once linguistic and cultural, and which concern not merely the act of writing but also the artist’s condition as an exile. During an academic residency at Université Bordeaux-Montaigne in France, I conducted an interview with Eduardo Berti to illuminate, with his own guidance, the place of the French language within his artistic practice. The point of departure for this reflection was his first work written in French, Une présence idéale (2017). His novel Un padre extranjero (2016) likewise also became a subject of dialogue.