Cfp: Glendon Graduate Student Conference in Translation Studies (3rd March 2018, Toronto)

Conference: Glendon Graduate Student Conference in Translation Studies
Date and place: 3rd March 2018, Glendon College, York University (Toronto)
Topic:Translation and (De)colonization
Deadline: Abstract 250-300 words by December 1, 2017

Call for papers

Translation has long played a key role in processes of colonization, often being used as a tool of the colonizer. However, as Indigenous peoples and settler allies have progressively worked toward dismantling oppressive institutions and divesting from colonial power, the function of translation has increasingly expanded to include practices that give voice to colonized and Indigenous peoples and move toward justice, reconciliation, and social solidarity. This year’s graduate conference aims to explore the complex, dynamic relationship between translation and decolonization.

We invite proposals for papers from a variety of fields and perspectives that engage with issues including, but not limited to:

• Translation, history, and collective memory
• Translation, solidarity, and social change
• Translation, power, authority, and dominance
• Translation as a tool of resistance and subversion
• Literary translation and self-translation in postcolonial contexts
• Indigenous language preservation and revitalization
• Legal translation and interpretation as a tool for decolonization
• Censorship, manipulation, and historical narratives
• Translation, orality, and transmission
• Voice, identity, and visibility in translation

Our one-day multilingual conference will address these and related topics. We welcome proposals for papers (20-minute presentations) and posters. Those interested are invited to submit an abstract of 250-300 words by December 1, 2017 to transconf2018@glendon.yorku.ca or transconf2018@gmail.com. Submissions should include the title of the paper and the author’s name, affiliations, and contact information.

Call for papers in English, French, and Spanish. To download the cfp as a pdf file please click here.

Trilingual author Ana Cecilia Prenz Kopušar on self-translation

In a recently published article "Reflexiones sobre la autotraducción desde la mirada del autor", Ana Cecilia Prenz Kopuša (*1968 in Serbia) reflects on translating her autofictional novel "Cruzando el río en bicicleta" (2015) from Spanish to both Italian and Serbian.
The three languages don't have equal status for her, she considers Spanish to be "el idioma que me permite ahondar en lo más íntimo de mi persona sin trampas ni escollos" (p. 108), and thus she chooses to write the original in Spanish. She insists that the three texts are not "tres versiones distintas construidas sobre una misma idea" (p. 106), but an original text in Spanish with two faithful translations which have been adapted to each audience:

La traducción al italiano no presentó mayores dificultades. Diría que se trata de
una traducción casi literal. El mundo cultural yugoslavo de referencia y lo narrado
en el episodio presentan la misma distancia cultural tanto con el mundo hispano
como con el italiano. Sin embargo, la traducción al serbio tuvo que ser limada de
esas intervenciones explicativas, obvias para el lector. (p. 111)

Please continue by reading her complete essay here.
Reference: Prenz Kopušar, Ana Cecilia. 2017. “Reflexiones sobre la autotraducción desde la mirada del autor”. El hilo de la fábula, 17, 105–116.

If you are interested in learning more about trilingual self-translations (and can read German), please check out chapter 7 "Dreisprachige Selbstübersetzung" (pp. 197-219) of my PhD dissertation which is availabl online.

Self-translation at ALTA conference 2017

Self-translation was also a topic of a panel at the annual American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) Conference, held October 5-8 in Minneapolis.

Panel: Refracting Meaning in Self-Translation
In recent years, self-translation has emerged as a new and growing field of interest. Contemporary scholars have, therefore, begun to examine how questions of literary creativity and agency can be applied to self-translation. As both authors and translators, self-translators are free to take ample linguistic and semantic liberties with their own work in translation, thus “refracting” the initial meaning of their texts within a new and arguably original work of fiction. In light of current research in self-translation studies, this panel will seek to answer the following questions: What is at stake when we consider how meaning is “refracted”/altered in self-translation? And in what ways can self-translated texts be viewed as new and original works of literature?

Moderator: Genevieve Waite
Participants: Xiaoqing Liu / Rebecca Dehner-Armand /  Kaitlin Staud

Conference, Translation & Minority 2: Freedom and Difference, 10-11.11.2017 Ottawa

Self-translation will be a topic of one of the panels at the international conference Translation & Minority 2: Freedom and Difference taking place from 10-11.11.2017 in Ottawa.

Saturday, 11th November
11:30-13:00 Self-translation - Panel 7 (SMD 125)

• Arianna Dagnino (University of Ottawa, Canada)
  “Breaking the Linguistic Minority Complex through Self-Translation”
• Garazi Arrula Ruiz (University of the Basque Country)
  “When Self-Translation (from Basque) Crosses Paths with Heterolinguism”
• Lucía Azpeitia (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)
  “Two-Way Minorness: Spanish ↔ Catalan Self-Translation in Spanish Republican Exile”

The titles are linked to the abstracts of each of the talks.
The complete program can be found here.