On Jan 16, 2007, at 3:54 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> According to the National Endowment for the Arts, "fewer than 3% of
> all books published in the U.S. . . . were translations," writes John
> O'Brien ("A Simple Question," Context, No. 14, 2003, at
> <http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no14/simpleQ.html>). In
> contrast, says O'Brien, "In Western European countries, the percentage
> of translations is about 40-50% each year. Many of these are from the
> United States, but a significant number are from a wide range of other
> countries." I submit that American intellectuals are not cosmopolitan
> at all.
I'm not sure what this proves about intellectuals, because that 3% vs. 40-50% no doubt includes lots of mass market stuff. But certainly literary studies has been massively influenced by French, German, and Italian writers. At your own university, I see plenty of examples of internationalism, e.g. <http://comparativestudies.osu.edu/undergrad/ under_handbook.htm>. And that's for undergrads, not intellectuals; presumably the courses are taught by intellectuals resident in the U.S.
Doug