Background
Stavans, Ilan was born on April 7, 1961 in Mexico City. Came to the United States, 1985. Son of Abraham Stavchansky and Ofelia Slomianski.
( The whole of The Catcher in the Rye is in the Oxford En...)
The whole of The Catcher in the Rye is in the Oxford English Dictionary, waiting to be unscrambled, and so are all the novels of our past, present, and immediate future en·thu·si·ast Function: noun : a person filled with enthusiasm : as a: one who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit b: one who tends to become ardently absorbed in an interest A dictionary, despite its heroic effort to pin down language, is destined for failure the moment a single word is printed; language, with its eternal mutations, is forever uncontainable. In Dictionary Days, award-winning essayist Ilan Stavans explores our very human need to “seize upon the meaning of a word.” Owner of hundreds of dictionaries, he follows a fascinating, zigzagging history of lexicography across many languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and Cyrillic. Throughout his journey, Stavans spots strange meaning inconsistencies, uncovers unusual origins, and shares extraordinary and often hilarious anecdotes. With a dazzling knowledge of dictionaries through the ages, matched by a lively wit, Stavans reaches far beyond the margin of the page and pays a worthy tribute to a discipline that is at once inspiring and maddening. “For dictionaries are oracles: nothing is outside them—except the impossible.”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555974198/?tag=2022091-20
( Who was César Chávez? Here, an essay and photographs re...)
Who was César Chávez? Here, an essay and photographs restore this man to his place in American history. The real César Chávez got lost in the hoopla. Many think he was a Mexican boxer. Young people think he’s that guy on the stamp or that statue in the park. No wonder it’s difficult, especially for our young people, to understand his human complexities and the struggles to which he gave his life. Esteemed Latin American scholar and writer Ilan Stavans, supported by more than forty photographs from archival collections at the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, restores this man’s humanity so that readers can understand his struggles as a labor organizer and civil rights activist for farm workers. Cesar Chavez: A Photographic Essay, a 2011 Skipping Stones honor award book, discusses Chavez' growing up years and his family; his comadre Dolores Huerta, who stood with him from the beginning; his relationship with Dr. King and other activists in the broader struggles for civil rights for all people of color; and his insistence on being an activist for the rights of farm workers when so much media attention was given to the civil rights activists in the cities. Ilan Stavans is a nationally respected Jewish Latino writer and scholar. His story Morirse está en hebreo” was made into the award-winning movie My Mexican Shivah, produced by John Sayles. His books include An Organizer’s Tale (Penguin Classics, 2008), Dictionary Days (Graywolf Press), The Disappearance (TriQuarterly), and Resurrecting Hebrew (Random House). Stavans has received numerous awards, among them a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Jewish Book Award, the Latino Book Award, and Chile’s Presidential Medal. He is a professor in Latin American culture at Amherst College.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933693223/?tag=2022091-20
( In The Hispanic Condition, Ilan Stavans offers a subtle...)
In The Hispanic Condition, Ilan Stavans offers a subtle and insightful meditation on Hispanic society in the United States. A native of Mexico, Stavans has emerged as one of the most distinguished Latin American writers of our time, an award-winning novelist and critic praised by scholars and beloved by readers. In this pioneering psycho-historical profile, he delves into the cultural differences and similarities among the five major Hispanic groups: Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Central and South Americans, and Spaniards. Masterfully interweaving historical, literary, and political references with his personal experience, Stavans discusses the divisions within a common heritage; customs of music, love, sex, marriage, and religious belief; the role of the intellectual in society; ideological struggle; and the hopeful visions of the future at the core of a civilization rooted in the trauma of the past.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JZWVYA/?tag=2022091-20
( The One-Handed Pianist was published to acclaim in the ...)
The One-Handed Pianist was published to acclaim in the early 1990’s, with the two-part Spanish edition winning the Latino Literature Prize in 1989 and the Gamma Literature Prize in 1992. Its tales look at what it means to be Jewish in the Hispanic world—a world in which spirituality is often exercised outside the realm of orthodoxy. Stavans constructs fables that raise questions about ethnicity and community; even Stavans’ person raises questions about ethnicity and community: what does it mean that a Jew of Eastern European lineage can call himself Latino and speak for that group?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810124602/?tag=2022091-20
(In exploring the formation of Spanglish, award-winning es...)
In exploring the formation of Spanglish, award-winning essayist Ilan Stavans reflects on, andalso codifies, the most transforming linguisticphenomena in America in the last one hundredyears -- one that may predict our future as a nation and that of our entire hemisphere. No tool is more useful in understanding the changes inculture than language. In today's America, communicationis built around inclusion and efficiency, and this is no more apparent than in the blending of the two most spoken languages in the United States: English and Spanish. Spanish, the nation's unofficial second language, isimmediately obvious and audible on airwaves and mediascreens, streets and classrooms, from one coast to the other. But el español has not spread on this side of the Atlantic in its unadulterated Iberian form. Instead it is metastasizing into something altogether new: an astonishingly creative code of communication known as Spanglish, which in large part is the result of sweeping demographic changes, globalization, and the newly emergent "Latin Fever" that is sweeping the country. It is used predominantly by people of Hispanic descent but is also embraced by others in the United States, the Americas as a whole, and even Spain. Naturally controversial, Spanglish outrages English-language-only proponents, who seek to ban all languages other than English north of the Rio Grande. Equal in their outrage are Spanish-language purists and the supporters of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language in Madrid, as they deem Spanglish a cancer to their precious and centuries-old tongue. With elegance and erudition, Ilan Stavans reflects on the verbal rift that has given birth to Spanglish. He fascinatingly shows the historical tensions between the British and Spanish Empires, and how in 1588, with the sinking of the grand Spanish Armada, the rivalry between the two empires was solidified, and to this day, the differences in religion and culture continue their fight linguistically. He ponders major historical events, such as the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty of 1848 and the Spanish-American War fifty years later, as agents of radical linguistic change, although, as he rightly states, it is in the second half of the twentieth century that Spanglish sped into our daily reality. Stavans also points out the similarities and differencesSpanglish has with Yiddish, so thoroughly blending intothe American vocabulary, and the much-debated Ebonics, which made headlines in the early 1990s as a uniquelyAfrican American blend of proper English and urban slang.Ultimately, Stavans deftly proves that the manner in whicha language stays alive is through mutation and that itssurvival doesn't depend on academies but on the averageperson's need for expression. This explains why it is increasingly used not only in kitchens and school but in music, TV, film, and literature, all expressions of the American collective soul. Coupled with Stavans's insights is a substantial lexicon that shows the breadth and ingenuity of this growing vocabulary -- at times, semantically obvious, then also surprisingly inventive. An ingenious translation into Spanglish of the first chapter of Don Quixote de La Mancha comes as a bonus. The added impact proves that Spanglish is more than a language -- it is the perfect metaphor for an America that is a hybrid, a sum of parts.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060087757/?tag=2022091-20
(Art and Anger: Essays on Politics and the Imagination Art...)
Art and Anger: Essays on Politics and the Imagination Art and Anger: Essays on Politics and the Imagination by Stavans, Ilan ( Author ) Paperback Sep- 2001 Paperback Sep- 08- 2001
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(Examines the five major Hispanic groups--including Cubans...)
Examines the five major Hispanic groups--including Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Central Americans, and South Americans--describes their cultural characteristics, and draws conclusions about their eventual role in mainstream America.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060170050/?tag=2022091-20
(Here, Ilan Stavans, one of the foremost Latino scholars, ...)
Here, Ilan Stavans, one of the foremost Latino scholars, collects his best essays into one volume. As a Mexican Jew whose native languages are Yiddish and Spanish, Stavans writes in English to limn the tensions, contradictions, and possibilities within the compex notion of a multi-cultural identity.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415927544/?tag=2022091-20
( Is the Bible actually a love story between a deity and ...)
Is the Bible actually a love story between a deity and a people? And what does this love story have to do with the modern world? In With All Thine Heart distinguished cultural critic Ilan Stavans speaks to freelance writer Mordecai Drache about love in the Bible. Presented in an engaging, conversational format and touched with striking artwork, the textured dialogue between Stavans and Drache is meant to show how the Bible is a multidimensional text and one that, when considered over the course of history, still has the power to shape our world. The theme of love provides the connective tissue that binds this work. Addressing a wide range of topics, from biblical archaeology and fundamentalism to Hollywood movies, lexicography, and the act of praying, With All Thine Heart suggests that the Hebrew Bible is a novel worth decoding patiently, such as one does with classics like Don Quixote de la Mancha, In Search of Lost Time, and Anna Karenina. Similar to the protagonists in these tales, biblical characters, although not shaped with the artistic nuance of modern literature, allow for astonishing insight. This exploration of love through the pages of the Bible—organized chronologically from Genesis to Exodus and followed by insightful meditations on the Song of Songs and the Book of Job—is a delightful intellectual and spiritual treat . . . Shema Ysrael!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813547970/?tag=2022091-20
( Ilan Stavans's vast and subtle knowledge deftly emerges...)
Ilan Stavans's vast and subtle knowledge deftly emerges in this engrossing collection of essays. Fascinated by the idea of Western civilization as a sequence of innumerable misinterpretations and misrepresentations, Stavans covers in these nineteen pieces a broad range of personal and philosophical topics with the unifying theme being the crossroads where politics and the imagination meet. His engaging and provocative topics include the shaping of Latin America's collective identity, Peru's modern history as a bloody battle between Enlightenment and darkness, critiques of Octavio Paz and Gabriel García Márquez, his own fate as a Jew in the Southern Hemisphere, and Columbus's afterlife.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826317448/?tag=2022091-20
(In With All Thine Heart distinguished cultural critic Ila...)
In With All Thine Heart distinguished cultural critic Ilan Stavans speaks to freelance writer Mordecai Drache about love in the Bible. Organized chronologically from Genesis to Exodus and followed by insightful meditations on the Song of Songs and the Book of Job, this book is presented in an engaging, conversational format and touched with striking artwork. The textured dialogue is meant to show
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FFBQLUC/?tag=2022091-20
( With the release of the census figures in 2000, Latino ...)
With the release of the census figures in 2000, Latino America wasanointed the future driving force of American culture. The emergence of Spanglish as a form of communication is one of the more influential markers of an America gone Latino. Spanish, present on this continent since the fifteenth century, when Iberian explorers sought to colonize territories in what are now Florida, New Mexico, Texas, and California, has become ubiquitous in the last few decades. The nation's unofficial second language, it is highly visible on several 24-hour TV networks and on more than 200 radio stations across the country. But Spanish north of the Rio Grande has not spread in its pure Iberian form. On the contrary, a signature of the brewing "Latin Fever" that has swept the United States since the mid-1980s is the astonishing creative linguistic amalgam of tongues used by people of Hispanic descent, not only in major cities but in rural areas as well -- neither Spanish nor English, but a hybrid, known only as Spanglish.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060087765/?tag=2022091-20
( Ilan Stavans's collection of essays on kitsch and high ...)
Ilan Stavans's collection of essays on kitsch and high art in the Americas makes a return with thirteen new colorful conversations that deliver Stavans's trademark wit and provocative analysis. "A Dream Act Deferred" discusses an issue that is at once and always topical in the dialogue of Hispanic popular culture: immigration. This essay generated a vociferous response when first published in The Chronicle of Higher Education as the issue of immigration was contested in states like Arizona, and is included here as a new addition that adds a rich layer to Stavans's vibrant discourse. Fitting in this reconfiguration of his analytical conversations on Hispanic popular culture is Stavans's "Arrival: Notes from an Interloper," which recounts his origins as a social critic and provides the reader with interactive insight into the mind behind the matter. Once again delightfully humorous and perceptive, Stavans delivers an expanded collection that has the power to go even further beyond common assumptions and helps us understand Mexican popular culture and its counterparts in the United States.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826352561/?tag=2022091-20
essayist translator writer television host studies educator
Stavans, Ilan was born on April 7, 1961 in Mexico City. Came to the United States, 1985. Son of Abraham Stavchansky and Ofelia Slomianski.
Bachelor, University Autónoma Metropolitan, 1984. Master of Arts, Jewish Theological Seminary, 1987. Master of Arts, Columbia University, 1988.
Mphil, Columbia University, 1989. Doctor of Philosophy, Columbia University, 1990.
Lewis Sebring professor, Latin American and Latino culture Amherst College, Massachusetts, since 1993, Five College 40th Anniversary professor, 2005—2009. Research scholar Institute Latin American Studies, University London, 1998-1999.
( The whole of The Catcher in the Rye is in the Oxford En...)
(In exploring the formation of Spanglish, award-winning es...)
( Is the Bible actually a love story between a deity and ...)
(Examines the five major Hispanic groups--including Cubans...)
( Ilan Stavans's collection of essays on kitsch and high ...)
( The One-Handed Pianist was published to acclaim in the ...)
(Art and Anger: Essays on Politics and the Imagination Art...)
(In With All Thine Heart distinguished cultural critic Ila...)
( A searching and pioneering psycho-cultural profile of ...)
( In The Hispanic Condition, Ilan Stavans offers a subtle...)
( With the release of the census figures in 2000, Latino ...)
(Twenty witty and provocative essays touching on topics ra...)
( Who was César Chávez? Here, an essay and photographs re...)
(Here, Ilan Stavans, one of the foremost Latino scholars, ...)
( Ilan Stavans's vast and subtle knowledge deftly emerges...)
Married Alison Sparks, June 25, 1988. Children: Joshua, Isaiah.