NEW Special Issue on Self-Translation

The special issue on self-translation of the journal Glottopol has just been published.
Glottopol issue N°25 directed by Christian Lagarde is entitled: L'autotraduction : une perspective sociolinguistique and discusses self-translation from a sociolinguistical point of view. 
The 18 contributions are written in French or Spanish.
The content is available online for free. You can download the whole issue or single articles on the website of the journal.

• Christian Lagarde : Des langues minorées aux « langues mineures » : autotraduction littéraire et sociolinguistique, une confrontation productive – 2
• Rainier Grutman : L’autotraduction : de la galerie de portraits à la galaxie des langues. –  14
• Christian Lagarde  : De l’individu au global : les enjeux psycho-sociolinguistiques de l’autotraduction littéraire. – 31
• Julio-César Santoyo : Consideraciones acerca del estatus actual de la autotraducción en la Península Ibérica. – 47
• Xosé Manuel Dasilva : Los horizontes lingüísticos del autotraductor. Una visión a partir del contexto de Galicia. – 59
• Elizabete Manterola Agirrezabalaga : La autotraducción en el contexto vasco : entre distancia interlingüistica y la constitución de un campo literario nacional transfronterizo. – 71
• Katixa Dolharé Çaldumbide : L’autotraduction comme résistance aux idéologies aliénantes et voie vers la paix : l’exemple de l’œuvre d’Itxaro Borda au Pays basque nord (Iparralde). – 88
• David ar Rouz : De l’autotraduction à la traduction de soi : éléments de réflexion bretonne. –103
• Erwan Hupel : Le cœur et l’esprit : déchirements et stratégies d’autotraduction chez quelques auteurs bretons. – 124
• Joan-Claudi Forêt  : L’auteur occitan et son double. – 136
• Turo Rautaoja et Yves Gambier : L’autotraduction : une pratique ancienne, un concept ambigu. Le cas du Suédo-Finlandais Karl Ekman. – 151
• Peggy Pacini : L’autotraduction chez Grégoire Chabot : médiation, transmission, survie d’une communauté et d’une littérature de l’exigüité. – 163
• Michel Calapodis et Elisa Hatzidaki : Du bilinguisme littéraire à la diglossie socio-historique : le cas de l’œuvre de Vassilis Alexakis. – 178
• María Recuenco Peñalver : Vassilis Alexakis ou le paradoxe systématique de l’autotraduction.  – 187
• Olga Anokhina  : Les traductions vers l’anglais de Vladimir Nabokov : traduction ou autotraduction ? –198
• Helena Tanqueiro et Meritxell Soria : Análisis traductológico de referentes culturales en La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro de Antonio Tabucchi. –211
• Chiara Montini: S’autotraduire en traduisant les mots : la vie entre deux langues de Dolores Prato. –223
• Delfina Cabrera : Ecrire en « demi-langue ». Multilinguisme et autotraduction dans les premiers scénarios de Manuel Puig. –235

To access the journal issue or the single articles, please click here.

Conference Self-translation Global and Local

I just came home from a very interesting and inspiring international conference on self-translation which took place at Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Basque Country on 26th February.

Here is an overview of the talks that have been given:

• Eva Gentes: Research on Self-Translation. A General Overview
• Xosé Manuel Dasilva: The Phenomenon of Self-Translation. Typology of Self-Translation
• Garazi Arrula & Elizabete Manterola: The Phenomenon of Self-Translation in Basque Literature
• Ibon Uribarri: Self-Translation Within a Diglossic Environment
• Frederick Verbeke: An Overview of Literary Self-Translation in Belgium
• Rainer Guldin: Self-Translation in Switzerland
• Agnes Pisanski Peterlin: Self-Translation in the Academic Field
• Nebojša Radić: Criss-Crossing the Language Boundaries as an Expression of the Plurilingual Self
• Ur Apalategi: The Self-Translating Author in Conflict with Diglossic Context. The Polygraphy of Iban Zaldua
• Aurélia Arkotxa: La autotraducción como medio de creación en la génesis de Mimodramak eta Ikonoak de JM Lekuona
• Olga Anokhina: Vladmir Nabokov:¿traducción o autotraducción?

Conference: Multiculturalism and Multilingualism in Canada

Self-translation will be a topic at the symposium Multiculturalism and Multilingualism in Canada taking place 21-22 February 2015 at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Two panels on Sunday 22 February are dedicated to self-translation with the following contributions:

11:15 – 12:45 Panel 5 Self-translation and the Canadian mosaic/L’autotraduction et la mosaïque canadienne I

• Rainier Grutman (University of Ottawa), Self-translation in Canada: a Multilingual Affair 
• Patricia Godbout (Université de Sherbrooke), Une autotraduction cleptomane? Le cas du Rêve de Kamalmouk de Marius Barbeau 
• Tiziana Nannavecchia (University of Ottawa), Searching for a place to call home: self-translation and the literary experience of Italian migrants in multilingual Canada

13:45 – 15:15 Panel 6 Self-translation and the Canadian mosaic/L’autotraduction et la mosaïque canadienne II 

• Cecilia Foglia (Université de Montréal), Autotraduire la « culture immigrée » : Marco Micone, une étude de cas 
• Hugh Hazelton (Concordia University), Reclaiming the Text: Self-Translation Among Spanish and Portuguese-Speaking Writers of Canada 
• Trish van Bolderen (University of Ottawa), Huston, we have a problem… (or What on earth is “Canadian self-translation” supposed to mean?)

To see the full programme please click here.

Call for posters. 5/27/2015. The Fictions of Translation. Canada.

Self-translation is one of the possible topics for a poster presentation at the international conference to be held May 27-29, 2015, at Concordia University, in Montreal, Canada.

Deadline for submission: January 30, 2015

Poster Presentations
The organizing committee of Transfiction 3 is seeking undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students as well as postdocs for poster presentations during the conference. A poster presentation involves producing an academic poster that translates your research into an engaging visual format, and presenting that information informally to conference attendees during specific periods such as lunchtime and coffee breaks. Posters give you an opportunity to interact one on one with conference attendees by giving a short talk on your topic and answering any questions. Your poster should contain the title of your presentation, a summary of your topic, relevant quotes, images, examples or illustrations of your key points, and any other information that helps you communicate your ideas clearly and fully.

Interested participants are invited to submit 300-word proposals for poster presentations by January 30, 2015, to transfiction@concordia.ca. The proposals should be attached in Word, with the file name in the following format: authorname.doc, and “poster presentation” indicated in the subject line of the e-mail. (Please include your contact information in the body of your e-mail, not in the file.)

Date of notification regarding acceptance of poster presentations: February 15, 2015.

Conference Theme
This conference is a follow-up to the first Transfiction conference on “Fictional Translators” (Vienna 2011) and its sequel, Beyond Transfiction, on “Translators and (Their) Authors” (Tel Aviv 2013). Transfiction 3 will continue to explore the complex relationship and shifting borders between writing and translation, in the past and at present. Using historical perspectives and current theoretical frameworks, participants will reflect on the continuing presence of the theme of translation and translators in fiction, drama, and other art forms such as cinema, on the often problematic interface between writers and translators, and the evolving status of translation in relation to so-called original work.

Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to:

· The figure of the translator and the theme of translation: is this primarily a (post)modern phenomenon or one that can be traced back to earlier times?

· Historical perspectives: shifting attitudes to the status of translation and the role of the translator; evolving perceptions of the authorial voice and the translator’s visibility.

· Fictionalized practices of translation such as pseudotranslation.

· Self-translation: can it really be called “translation” or is it a form of (re)writing?

· Translation and hybridity: dialects/diglossia/polyglossia across expatriate and diasporic communities, and their implications for writing and translation.

· Translation in/and/of modernism: Joyce, Pound, Beckett, etc.

· Intra-cultural or inter-semiotic forms of translation: for example, novels adapted for the cinema or stage, and graphic novels.

· New developments in a globalized, technological world: what are the implications for translations, translators, and relations between authors and translators of such phenomena as crowdsourcing, collaborative translation, and open translation?

· The “translation turn” in the social sciences and humanities: is the use of “translation” a metaphor, a fiction, or a legitimate epistemological practice?

Conference Languages
The languages of the conference will be English and French.

Note: The conference is being planned in cooperation with the Canadian Association for Translation Studies, whose annual conference will be held in Ottawa the following week, from June 1 to 3, 2015, on the theme “Literary Translation and Canada.” Scholars may wish to participate in both conferences.

Fee
Early registration fee for students (before March 31, 2015): CAN$75
Fee after March 31, 2015: CAN$100

Local Organizing Committee
Judith Woodsworth, Chair / Patricia Godbout, Co-chair / Gillian Lane-Mercier, Co-chair
Danièle Marcoux / Carmen Ruschiensky / Christine York

Scientific Committee
Véronique Béghain (Université Bordeaux Montaigne) / Nitsa Ben-Ari (Tel Aviv University)
Patricia Godbout (Université de Sherbrooke) / Gillian Lane-Mercier (McGill University)
Xuanmen Luo (Tsinghua University) / Judith Woodsworth (Concordia University)

Information and further details:
For all correspondence about the conference please use the e-mail address: transfiction@concordia.ca .

Sébastien Doubinsky on self-translating

Sébastien Doubinsky, born in France but living in Denmark, speaks about his experience of self-translating his novels in an interview with the arts and literary journal The Missing Slate:

I have translated myself—and others—many times and know well that perfect translation doesn’t exist. It can be seen as a tragedy, a communication failure, but actually I consider this a chance—a chance of freedom, of the irreconcilable space between cultures—and the mutual respect it implies. So if you read closely and compare the two versions of the same novel I’ve written, I think you might be shocked by the liberties I am taking with the original text! But that is because the second one becomes a new original, if you want, another text altogether. (The Missing Slate 2015)

To read the complete interview please click here.

Conference "Lyrik transkulturell"

Self-translation will be a topic at the international conference Lyrik transkulturell taking place 21.-24th January at the University Innsbruck in Austria.

• Samstag, 24.01.2015 (Un)Übersetzbarkeit
  09:00–09:45 Barbara Siller: Lyrik in zwei Sprachen – monolinguale Rezeption? Selbstübersetzung als literarische Handlungsform am Beispiel Gerhard Kofler

To see the complete program of the conference please click here.

UPDATE Bibliography on self-translation

The bibliography on self-translation has been updated. To access the pdf-file, please click here. The next update is scheduled for April 1, 2015.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Alexakis on self-translation

Vassilis Alexakis talked about his experience as a self-translator at the Festival VO-VF in October earlier this year. Thanks to Clotilde Monteiro we can now read what Alexakis has said on the website of BULAC (Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations).

Please continue here. [In French]

Interview with Francesca Duranti on self-translation

Francesca Duranti (*1935) is an Italian author who lives in New York and Italy.
She has self-translated her novel Sogni Mancini (1996) into English as Left handed dreams (1996).
In a recently published interview (in Italian) she talks about this experience. The interview tackles the following aspects: the reasons for self-translation, her experience as a translator, her translation strategies, identity & multilingualism.

The interview has been published on 18.11.2014 and has been conducted by Translation Designers. 3 more interviews with other self-translators have been announced but not yet published.

To read the interview with Francesca Duranti please click here

Conference: Literature and Global Culture

Self-translation will be a topic at the conference Literature and Global Culture, taking place in Santa Barbara, January 23-January 24, 2014. Among the keynote speakers is the self-translator Ngugi Wa Thiong’o. Also there will be a panel devoted to self-translation:

Januar, 24
11:00-12:30: Collaborative and Self-Translation: Authors as Translators, Translators as Authors Chair: Suzanne Jill Levine, University of California, Santa Barbara
-“Co-Translating Untranslatability,” Rose Réjouis and Val Vinokur, The New School
-“Queer Collaboration,” Amanda Powell, University of Oregon
-“Self-translational Self-fashioning,” Rainier Grutman, University of Ottawa

To see the complete conference program, please click here.

CFP: Translation in Exile

International Conference organized by the Centre for Literature in Translation of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University, in cooperation with the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Federal University of Santa Catarina.

Venue: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, December 10-11, 2015

Bringing together scholars from different disciplines such as cultural studies, translation studies, area studies, comparative literature and anthropology, this conference aims at providing a new understanding of exile as a theoretical concept, analytical category, and lived experience in the study of the translation of (literary) texts. 

[...] 

This conference will touch on questions of multilingualism and displacement, and on their methodological implications for translation studies, first and foremost with regard to translating literary texts as a political and cultural practice. This conference wants to plead for a less metaphorical and more empirical understanding of translation. The focus will thus be on the interlingual nature of translation and exile as an interstitial locus of enunciation. The aim of the conference is to further our understanding of the authors’ experiences of exile, their function, opportunities and problems as (self-) translators, as well as explore how these émigrés have documented and represented their stories. It aims at circumnavigating a broad spatial and temporal spectrum. The focus of the conference is neither limited to the analysis of translation in the context of European languages and cultures, nor to one specific historical period.

Submissions for 20-minute papers may include, but are not restricted to:

- theoretical approaches to the concept of ‘exile’ in translation

- translation as agency and medium of political commitment in exile (issues of freedom, resistance and human rights)

- the relation between the translator/publisher and the exiled author

- translation and diasporic communities

- ‘inner emigration’ and translation

- Samizdat and translation

- influence of translation in exile on canon formation

- postcolonial studies in relation to translation and exile

- imagology and translation in exile

- translation, censorship and persecution

- exile journals as media establishing a critical counter-hegemony of literary texts and their translations

- self-translation and the question of exiled authors writing in adopted languages

- the role of remigrés in the post-World War II professionalization of the translator

Registration:

300 word abstracts and a 100 word bio should be submitted by January 15, 2015. Please send your abstracts and bios to translation.exile@vub.ac.be. Graduate students are also welcome to submit their proposals and participate in the conference.

Please note there will be a conference fee of 100 Euro.

The language of the conference is English, but other languages (French, German, Portuguese and Spanish) will be considered. A publication of the proceedings with selected contributions is planned.

To read the full text of the call for paper please click here