Vivian Folkenflik
American translator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vivian Perlstein Folkenflik (August 21, 1940 – October 28, 2023) was an American educator and translator; she was a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, and translated works from French, by writers Germaine de Staël and others.
August 21, 1940
Vivian Folkenflik | |
|---|---|
| Born | Vivian Perlstein August 21, 1940 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. |
| Died | October 28, 2023 (aged 83) Montclair, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupations | Educator, translator |
| Children | 2, including David Folkenflik |
Early life and education
Perlstein was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the daughter of Jacob Perlstein and Natalie Brettschneider Perlstein. Her family was Jewish; her father was a cardiologist and her mother was a school librarian. She graduated from James Madison High School in 1957,[1] and from Radcliffe College. She traveled in Europe in 1958.[2] She earned a master's degree in French literature at Cornell University, and was working on a doctorate when she married a fellow graduate student in 1965.[3][4]
Career
Folkenflik translated into English several works by French writers, including Germaine de Staël, Jacqueline Chénieux-Gendron, and Anne-Gédéon de La Fitte, Marquis de Pelleport. She taught humanities courses at the University of California, Irvine, where her husband was a professor of English.[5] She retired from UCI in 2012.[6]
Publications
- "Vision and Truth: Baroque Art Metaphors in Guzmán de Alfarache" (1973)[7]
- "Words and Language in Father and Son" (1979, with Robert Folkenflik)[8]
- An Extraordinary Woman: Selected Writings of Germaine de Staël (1987, introduction)[9]
- Chénieux-Gendron, Surrealism (1990, translator)[10]
- Major Writings of Germaine De Stael (1992, translator)
- Pelleport, The Bohemians (2011, translator)[11]
Personal life
Perlstein married Robert Folkenflik in 1965.[4] They had two children, Nora and David, and lived in Laguna Beach, California for most of their lives together.[12] Her daughter died in 1995, and her husband died in 2019.[13] She died in 2023, at the age of 83, after she was struck by a truck outside her home in Montclair, New Jersey.[5][14]