How, in a time of vibrant need, do you surface what is repressed societally lodged in the political unconscious? By translating it, Jacqueline Feldman has found.

Combining fiction in translation, travelogue, essay, the postcard, and a scholarly monograph, On Your Feet tells the story of a provincial citys victory over the far-right figure, Marine Le Pen. It is the story of a cat-owning local poets valiant resistance and of a US woman let us say an American girl making her own, Joan-of-Arc-like entrance into the fray. This novel in translations slows time to take, with precision, the imprint of a moment in French and world history. It was a moment when fascist speech could be distinguished, still, from the great mass, separated out leaving the moment, like the language, open to intervention.

Making contributions to the theory and practice of translation, which has been considered an applied linguistics, On Your Feet is a searching theorization of the politics of literature. What it offers, to readers of both languages or either, is a new kind of applied literature.

Featuring a story by Nathalie Quintane.

Paperback | 320 pages