IN MEMORIAM
ANDRÉ LEFEVERE
André Alphons Lefevere, distinguished
professor at The University of Texas at Austin and beloved colleague,
friend and mentor to many there, died unexpectedly of acute leukemia
at the age of fifty on March 27, 1996, in Austin, Texas. He came
to the University in 1984 to take over the Netherlandic studies
program, which flourished under his guidance. He was also very
active in the Comparative Literature Program, where he directed
numerous theses and dissertations and contributed a vision of
how translations enlighten us about cultures in contact. He was
the motivating force behind a new M.A. in Translation Studies.
He brought great distinction to the University especially through
his efforts in translation studies where he was an innovator
and inspiration to many around the world.
André was a native of Belgium
and received his Ph.D. from the University of Essex, England,
with his dissertation Prolegomena to a Grammar of Literary
Translation. Thereafter he taught in Hong Kong and Antwerp.
During his years in Antwerp - 1973-84 - his numerous publications,
visiting professorships in the USA, and his teaching brought
him recognition as the leading theoretician of his time in the
field of literary translation. His range extended beyond Europe
to include Chinese, Greek and Arabic: he carried a global compass.
When he arrived in Austin he was
asked by a colleague how he might feel about teaching beginners.
He replied: "Well, Wittgenstein did it, you know." And
that was that. His Netherlandic literature and culture program
attracted more and more students, including graduate students.
André spent much of his time attending both to undergraduates
who needed individual instruction and to graduates who wanted
him to be their teacher in Comparative Literature, as well as
in Dutch and Afrikaans. His translation seminar in Comparative
Literature was a regular and popular event. He treated his students
as equals, trusting them to hold themselves to the same academic
standards as he himself held. The apparent ease with which he
constantly generated new ideas, together with the seemingly effortless
way he managed to do enormous amounts of work, were always inspiring
and made an academic career look light. His good moods, his friendliness,
and his uncommon and generous sense of humor contributed greatly
to the work environment in the Department of Germanic Languages
and the Comparative Literature Program.
Not only did he work long hours in
the classroom, he also wrote, with zest, acumen and fluency,
the ten books which made him so widely celebrated, especially
his MLA volume. Three or four more books are forthcoming. There
are also six edited books, a textbook, thirty-four book chapters,
thirty-nine articles, ten books of translation, ten translations
in sections of books, twenty-six translations in journals and
sixteen book reviews. There is a textbook in press. None of his
work, writing or teaching was the least bit perfunctory. In every
way, as writer, teacher, and translator, André was exemplary.
At the same time, he was very much
his own man; there was nothing "standard" about him.
This rare combination of independence and creative thinking brought
him invitations from about forty universities which he visited
as a guest professor for longer or shorter periods: Europe, Asia,
Africa, America North and South - in all those continents he
cut a significant figure. So, too, he was a luminary at just
the right time, as translation became a large part of the web
of relationships linking countries and continents. And to his
writing about translation he could bring the fullness of his
insight as an active translator: from French, Dutch, Latin, German,
English, and into Dutch and English. Two things should be stressed.
Firstly, his insights were rare, for they were those of a rare
bird - the polyglot and literary translator; he had style
in all the languages he translated texts into. Secondly, André was
sometimes dismayed by the way in which theorists had carried
his theories, models and conjectures to extremes of abstraction,
without having actually translated literary works. He deplored
theory that had no basis in experience.
Among translators and those involved
in the art and business of translation, particularly the scholars
associated with the American Literary Translators Association,
there has always existed a gap between those who actually do
translations and those who theorize about it. As one of the most
active members of ALTA and a scholar who was interested and very
productive on both sides of the translation field, André initiated
and was eventually one of the original founders of a movement
to bring these two groups together. What he set out to do was
to create a sort of bridge between the theory and practice of
literary translation. His own work is, in fact, a model for this
initiative as he engaged in the act of translating and theorizing
about it, generally in this order.
It is not possible in this limited
space to explain André's translation theory more fully.
However, it is worthy of note that André used the metaphor
of refraction to characterize the process of successful translation
as a refocusing and redirecting of a source text into a target
culture. This crystalline metaphor also seems to be an apt way
to understand teaching, André's teaching in particular:
as a bending of light that makes different parts of the spectrum
visible, allowing viewers to see and enjoy its various colors.
As hundreds of his former students have attested, André was
a brilliant intellectual and linguist, so much more so for his
ability to share that brilliance with others, in whatever terms
(or colors) they were able to experience it.
André was also interested
in and contributed to reception theory about translations. He
was among the scholars who saw the production and reception of
translations as a system, which, according to André, is "a
portion of the world that is perceived as a unit and that is
able to maintain its 'identity' in spite of changes going on
with it." What is also interesting in his various writings
are his reflections and insight about the role and cultural politics
of the translator in the transmission of literary texts between
cultures.
In closing, a little portrait indicates
his versatility and his finesse as a human being. At Christmas
time he would dress up as Sinterklaas (the Netherlandic Santa
Claus), in full regalia, a scarlet robe, lined with fur, a shepherd's
crook, a mitre, and a huge snowy beard. At the departmental Christmas
party he would sit, enthroned, among the students and make remarks,
never as "I" but always as "the Holy Man," always
to the point, always well-informed about the foibles of this
or that student, about their struggles, their successes, their
humors. He would give sweets as prizes, throwing them with a
flick of his wrist. He spoke very softly, in this role of "Holy
Man," softly and with irony, as a sort of mischievous mandarin,
a sly Santa. He loved every moment of that festive time, just
as he would brighten, three weeks into any semester, and say "Only
fourteen more weeks to go!" What he said as Sinterklaas,
the way he carried himself in his robes, had nothing whatever
to do with power or with importance. That is how he was: in his
world of learning, no animals were more equal than others. Thinking
of him now, we see him strolling, in his Santa Claus outfit,
all along the open beach at Patara (on the Lykean shore of Turkey),
where the "Holy Man," so some say, might have come
from. But wait: upon closer look, there they are, carefree, hand
in hand with him, his daughter, Katelijne, and his wife, Ria
Vanderauwera - she too a translator. So there they go.
André Lefevere touched the
lives of everyone around him, and for many, the University of
Texas will never be the same. Yet his colleagues and students,
his family and friends, are greatly enriched for having known
him.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
General Faculty Office
This Memorial Resolution was prepared
by a special committee consisting of Professors John Weinstock
(Chair), Mohammad Ghanoonparvar, Christopher Middleton, and Dolora
Wojciehowski.
Click here to view a related link in the Department
of Germanic Studies, A
Brief Recollection by John Denton
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