Mark Polizzotti’s books include Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton, Highway 61 Revisited, Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto, Why Surrealism Matters, andJump Cuts: Essays on Surrealism, Film, Music, Culture, and Other Utopian Topics. His writings have appeared in Apollo, Bookforum, The Brooklyn Rail, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. His translations of works by André Breton, Marguerite Duras, Gustave Flaubert, Patrick Modiano, Scholastique Mukasonga, and Arthur Rimbaud, among others, have won or been shortlisted for the National Book Award, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, the Scott Moncrieff Prize, the International Booker Prize, the English PEN Award, the NBCC/Gregg Barrios Prize, and the French-American Foundation Translation Prize. A member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, he lives in New York, where he directs the publications program at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mark Polizzotti
Author & Translator
Director of the Publications Program, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Participant In These Roundtable Discussions
Sat
Dec 6th
2014
Dec 6th
2014
Watch
French Surrealism: A Revolution of the Mind
French Surrealism is probably best known for its paintings–images of floppy watches or men in bowler hats and topcoats falling from the sky. But just as central to the movement was the poetry produced from the beginning by André Breton, Robert Desnos, Benjamin Péret, Louis Aragon, René Char, and a host of others. We will... read more! »
Sat
Nov 21st
2015
Nov 21st
2015
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Translation Matters
Why is translation, which formerly referred to a set of restricted technical procedures taking place between two languages, now widely understood to be the basis of all human culture? What is it about this dynamic principle of displacement, exchange, and creative renewal that also links it to the exercise of political power and the possession... read more! »
Sat
Apr 21st
2018
Apr 21st
2018
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Boredom
Schopenhauer described boredom as “a tame longing without any particular object,” Dostoevsky as “ a bestial and indefinable affliction,” and poet Joseph Brodsky as “time’s invasion of your world system.” Unsurprisingly, not many can describe boredom even though most have felt it, and it is one of the central preoccupations of the age. The most... read more! »
Sun
Nov 8th
2026
Nov 8th
2026
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Fail Again, Fail Better
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett Why do NY Mets fans stay true to their team, season after losing season? The answer may have to do with the kind of delirious joy they experience when that special year comes around and they finally win the World Series. But... read more! »