The mediated text: Transatlantic circulation among periodicals of interwar African American poetry

Abstract

ABSTRACT The early twentieth century saw an increase in the transatlantic circulation of African American poetry, evidenced in anthologies published in the 1930s and 1940s. This article traces earlier instances of this trend by focusing on the translation of poetry among periodicals during the 1920s. Adopting George Bornstein’s “bibliographic code” as a methodological approach, I trace the transatlantic itineraries of three poems by Langston Hughes, Sterling A. Brown, and James Weldon Johnson. A reading of the interlingual translation against its bibliographic code reveals the ironies and intricacies of texts in circulation, products of translation practices seeking to transcend structures of national particularity, and editorial practices seeking to reify them.