CFP: Vladimir Nabokov and Translation: Transatlantic Symposium (Lille, France-Chapel Hill, USA)

Deadline for Submissions: September 01, 2017

Vladimir Nabokov and Translation:
Transatlantic Symposium
Lille, France-Chapel Hill, USA
Spring 2018-Fall 2018

No translator and translation theorist has brought an equal amount of attention to the humble applied craft of literary translation than Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977). Standing at the crossroads of five languages and a matching number of literary traditions (English, French, German, Italian, and Russian), he experienced translation on a level unattainable to the majority of his predecessors, presaging and influencing our modern understanding of the indispensability of linguistic and cultural interconnection.

Nabokov’s entered literature as a translator. He claimed to have retold Mayne Reid’s The Headless Horseman in French alexandrines at eleven, while his adaptation of Romain Rolland’s Colas Breugnon became the most exacting rite of passage of his career in letters. Yet while the controversy stirred by his rendition of Aleksandr Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and the methodology of “literalism” he applied therein forever changed the way we conceive of translation today, the totality of his work in translation remains the least appreciated and understood area of Nabokov’s creative enterprise.

To address this omission, Drs. Julie Loison-Charles (University of Lille, France) and Stanislav Shvabrin (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA) cordially invite you to submit a 500-word-long abstract explicating Nabokov’s legacy as translator and translation theorist as well as multiple other areas and instances of his engagement with “the art of verbal transmigration.”

We invite scholars interested in the multiple aspects of Nabokov’s legacy in translation to consider the following lines of inquiry:

* Nabokov as translator (with special emphasis on the vast number of works beyond Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Eugene Onegin);
* Nabokov’s translation theory, its evolution, and legacy;
* Translation as reflected in Nabokov’s works;
* Self-translation;
* Nabokov translated (collaboratively with the author and independently) or retranslated;
* Intersemiotic (audiovisual, cinematic, and theatrical) translations of Nabokov’s works;
* Teaching translation with Nabokov;
* The impact of translation on Nabokov’s writing.

The participants invited by the selection committee will have a choice to present their papers either in Lille, France (May 2018) or Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA (Autumn 2018). The two sections of the Symposium will work in concert to facilitate collaboration between participants on both sides of the Atlantic: papers will be made available to participants via a platform (written and/or recorded) and participants will be invited to collaborate when they focus on similar topics, to respond to a paper given in the previous section or to publish a co-authored essay. This platform may also be used to work with graduate or post-graduate students in collaborative transatlantic seminars in translation.

Please send your abstracts (maximum 500 words, in English or French) to the following email addresses:julie.loison-charles@vladimir-nabokov.org and shvabrin@unc.edu

If you wish your abstract to be considered for the first installment of the Symposium in Lille, France, please send your abstract by September 1, 2017, and by May 1, 2018, for Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.

This project is organized with the French Society Vladimir Nabokov – Les Chercheurs Enchantés, The Université of Lille, SHS (France) (Unit Research CECILLE) and the Center for Slavic Eurasian and East European Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA).

Source: https://sites.utexas.edu/creees/2017/06/13/cfp-vladimir-nabokov-and-translation-transatlantic-symposium-lille-france-chapel-hill-usa/

Struggling with self-translation

In a recent interview with the journal Apogee, Hong Kong Poet Wawa (Lo Mei Wa) described the struggle of self-translating one of her poems into English:

"I do terrible in self-translation from one language to another because my linguistic personality, which was already laid down in the poem, is too complete. I know the cultural context too well. I am totally there. I couldn’t translate “Nation Rooftop” and I did it terribly. I translated the poem into an English dictionary."

To read the complete interview, please click here.

CfP: International Conference on Samuel Beckett – Literature and Translation (Cáceres, Spain; 12-13 April 2018)

For the International Conference “Samuel Beckett: Literature and Translation”, interdisciplinary proposals, either in Spanish, French or English, on the following topics (but not exclusively) are welcome:

• Translations of Samuel Beckett’s works into Spanish and other peninsular languages: An analysis of particular cases and the state of the arts
• Samuel Beckett and bilingualism in his works
• Beckett and self-translation into English and French
• Samuel Beckett’s reception in Spain
• Censorship of Samuel Beckett’s works in Spain
• Critical trends in the interpretation of Samuel Beckett’s works

Proposals should be sent by e-mail to the following address: samuel_beckett@unex.es and should include:

• title of the paper
• participant’s name, institutional affiliation and e-mail address
• 200-300-word abstract

Deadline for submission: 30 September 2017
For more information, please click here.

Cfp: NeMLA Pittsburg in 2018 (April 12-15) Roundtable: Self Translation Is Not Translation at All

At the 2018 convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association there will be a roundtable on self-translation chaired by Yves Cloarec (LIM College).

CfP

Is the term “Self-Translation” even a valid expression? Granted, it seems better than the previously accepted term “auto-translation;” but, whatever we choose to call it, defining it and understanding it may prove to be more elusive than may at first appear.

NeMLA 2018’s theme “Global Spaces, Local Landscapes and Imagined Worlds” is an excellent lens through which we propose to analyze this chimera of the literary world: the self-translated text.

Nicola Danby tells us in La Lingusitique (2004/1 – Vol 40) “many bilinguals cannot help but struggle with the distinction between their two language-bound selves.” I would go further; I put forward as a basis for discussion in this roundtable the proposition that a multilingual writer possesses as many “identities” as the number of languages mastered. In this sense, the term “Self-Translation” is doubly erroneous, as it is neither the text nor the self that is being translated; rather, what we call a self-translation is in fact an artistic creation by a transformed, "different" self.

This roundtable invites self-translators willing to share their experiences (joys and despairs given equal consideration), translators interested in venturing into this very different craft, and scholars who study or are intrigued by the myriad opinions and theories of those writers who seek to occupy global spaces by “translating” their local landscapes and imagined worlds.

Please be prepared to present your ideas (and/or read from some "self-translated" passage) as well as engage fellow participants and audience members in thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion.


For submission and more information: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/17123

Special Issue Ticontre: Narrating the self in self-translation

I am very happy to announce that the special issue of Ticontre "Narrating the self in self-translation" edited by Giorgia Falceri, Elizabete Manterola and myself, has been published.

Content overview:

• Giorgia Falceri, Eva Gentes, Elizabete Manterola, Narrating the Self in Self-translation (pp. vii-xix)
• Garazi Arrula-Ruiz, What we talk about when we talk about Identity in Self-Translation (pp. 1-21)
• Maria Recuenco Peñalver, Zodorís Califatidis y la ventana del ladrón o de cómo la autotraducción le hace a uno menos extranjero (pp. 23-39)
• Melisa Stocco, Negociación lingüística e identitaria en las autotraducciones de tres poetas mapuche (pp. 41-65)
• Elena Anna Spagnuolo, Giving Voice To The Hybrid Self. Self-Translation As Strategy By Francesca Duranti / Martina Satriano (pp. 67-85)
• Maria Alice Gonçalves Antunes, Autobiographie, Self-translations and the Lives In-Between: the Cases of Gustavo Pérez Firmat and Ariel Dorfman (pp. 85-107)
• Chiara Lusetti, Provare a ridirsi: l’autotraduzione come tappa di un processo migratorio in Amara Lakhous (pp. 109-127)
• Valeria Sperti, Traces de l' auto/traduction dans les romans de Nancy Huston (pp. 129-148)
• Nami Kaneko, ¿Quién puede hablar por los de Obaba? Una relectura de Obabakoak de Bernardo Atxaga en vista de un cuento perdido en la autotraducción (pp. 149-168)
• Alain Ausoni, Et l’autotraduction dans l’écriture de soi ? Remarques à partir de Quant à je (kantaje) de Katalin Molnár (pp. 169-181)

Ticontre is an open access journal, so you can immediately start reading the very interesting contributions on its website: http://www.ticontre.org/ojs/index.php/t3/index

We hope you enjoy it!

Jhumpa Lahiri on (non-)self-translation

In the preface to her language memoir In altre parole /In other words, translated into English by Ann Goldstein, Jhumpa Lahiri explains why she opted against self-translation:

"Writing in Italian is a choice on my part, a risk that I feel inspired to take. It requires a strict discipline that I am compelled, at the moment, to maintain. Translating the book myself would have broken that discipline; it would have meant reengaging intimately with English, wrestling with it. rather than with Italian. In addition, had I translated this book, the temptation would have been to improve it, to make it stronger by means of my stronger language. But I wanted the translation of In altre parole to render my Italian honestly, without smoothing out its rough edges, without neutralizing its oddness, without manipulating its character," (pp. xiii-xiv)

Rejecting self-translation into the dominant language thus offered her the possibility to protect her new literary language. In the chapter L'adolescente peloso / The Hairy adolescent she shares her experience of having self-translated one of her short stories, an experience which led to the ultimate rejection of self-translation:

"I imagined that it would be an easy job. A descent rather than an ascent. Instead I am astonished at how demanding I find it. When I write in Italian, I think in Italian; to translate into English, I have to wake up another part of my brain. I don't like the sensation at all. I feel alienated. As if I'd run into a boyfriend I'd tired of, someone I'd left years earlier. He no longer appeals to me." (p. 117)

She recalls the overwhelming richness of her dominant English in comparison to her Italian and the urge to protect the latter:

"The two languages confront each other on the desk, but the winner is already more than obvious. The translation is devouring, dismantling the original text." (p. 117)

Self-translation forces her to face her split identity:

"As I translate this short piece into English, I feel split into two. I can't deal with the tension; I am incapable of moving like an acrobat between the languages. I am conscious of the unpleasant sensation of having to be two different people at the same time - an existential condition that has marked my life." (p. 119)

Although the self-translation into English felt like an "obligation" (p.119), she acknowledged that "traveling between the two versions turns out to be useful. In the end, the effort of translation makes the Italian version clearer, more articulate. It serves the writing, even if it upsets the writer" (p. 120)


In other words is a beautiful testimony of falling in love with a foreign language, of the struggles to conquer it while - despite - all the efforts remaining an outsider forever.

Quotations are taken from:
Lahiri, Jhumpa: In other words. Translated by Ann Goldstein. Bilingual Edition. London/New York: Bloomsbury 2017

Chiara de Manzini Himmrich on her self-translations in Trieste 22nd May

Chiara de Manzini Himmrich will discuss her self-translations in her talk Scrivere altrove. Scrittura tra le lingue, traduzione, autotraduzione, riscrittura? at the University in Trieste, sede di via Filzi 14, aula magna, on 22nd May 2017.

CfP: Au mirroir des langues la traduction réflexive/ In the Mirror of Languages: On reflexive Translation

Appel à contributions

Les études seront réunies et présentées par Esa Hartmann (Université de Strasbourg) et Patrick Hersant (Université Paris VIII)

et publiées aux Éditions des Archives Contemporaines (Paris)

dans la collection « Multilinguisme, traduction, création » dirigée par Olga Anokhina (CNRS/ITEM).

Au miroir des langues : la traduction réflexive

Avant-texte, intratexte, paratexte

Consacrées aux diverses questions de traduction comme au processus traductif lui-même – que ce soit dans une perspective linguistique, stylistique, génétique ou culturelle –, les multiples facettes du discours du traducteur représentent l’objet central que ces études se proposent d’explorer. Le traducteur, surtout s’il est lui-même écrivain, est souvent aussi traductologue en ce qu’il accompagne son travail d’une dimension réflexive et critique. Miroir de l’acte traductif reflétant l’ethos du traducteur et son art poétique, le discours traductologique peut alors investir trois niveaux différents de la création : l’avant-texte, l’intratexte et le paratexte.

L’avant-texte.

Un « art de la traduction » en filigrane

Apparaissant sur les manuscrits et les brouillons du traducteur, les traces sinueuses du processus traductif dévoilent une genèse créatrice : le cheminement d’une transposition en train de naître. Celle-ci déploie un éventail de variantes et de réécritures où transparaît, en filigrane, l’art poétique du traducteur. Le corpus avant-textuel peut ainsi être lu et interprété comme miroir d’un discours traductologique où, progressivement, éclot l’avènement d’une traduction en acte. Les choix opérés par l’auteur de la traduction s’avèrent d’autant plus éloquents de cet art implicite du traduire qu’ils dessinent, plus ou moins subrepticement, une position éthique, voire politique derrière le style de l’auteur-traducteur.

L’intratexte.

Traduire entre les lignes ou réécrire dans une autre langue :

genèse plurilingue et autotraduction

L’activité d’autotraduction ouvre la genèse de l’oeuvre littéraire à un nouvel horizon linguistique. Consécutive, l’autotraduction classique se distingue de la genèse plurilingue, régie par le principe de la simultanéité. La dimension chronologique et paradigmatique dans laquelle évolue l’avant-texte autotraductif est ici projetée sur l’espace synchronique et syntagmatique de la création intratextuelle du manuscrit bilingue ou plurilingue. Entre les lignes de son texte naissant, l’auteur se livre à une invention interlinguistique en passant d’une langue à l’autre : l’acte traductif est ainsi mis en abyme. Dans les deux cas, l’autotraduction devient l’espace privilégié d’un nouveau discours critique et traductologique : le détour par une autre langue illumine la sémantique et la stylistique du texte de départ, et les choix de l’écrivain plurilingue conditionnent l’art poétique par excellence de la traduction.

Le paratexte.

Critique du traduire et ethos du traducteur

C’est dans l’espace périphérique entourant l’oeuvre traduite que le discours du traducteur a lieu d’être explicite. Préface, postface, correspondance avec l’auteur ou l’éditeur – toutes ces formes paratextuelles portent avec profit le témoignage du traducteur. Elles présentent non seulement sa posture éthique, mais aussi sa vision de la poétique de l’oeuvre traduite ainsi qu’un commentaire de sa genèse. Miroir de l’acte créateur à l’oeuvre dans toute entreprise de traduction, le paratexte révèle souvent, en dehors de la traditionnelle captatio benevolentiæ, un passage conventionnel où se noue un pacte de lecture entre le traducteur et son lecteur, entre l’écrivain et son traducteur.

Les propositions d’articles seront envoyées aux adresses électroniques suivantes :

esahartmann@yahoo.fr et patrickhersant@orange.fr

La date limite d’envoi pour les propositions d’articles est fixée au 1er juillet 2017.

La version finale des articles est attendue pour le 1er décembre 2017.

Source: https://www.fabula.org/actualites/au-miroir-des-langues-la-traduction-reflexive_79359.php

Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez: "If I’m doing a self-translation, I find myself changing the original in many ways"

Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez is a Chicano self-translator and currently a Fulbright Senior Lecturer at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. In an interview with Xánath Caraza, published on La Bloga on 1st May 2017, he talks about his experience of self-translating his short story “Algún día te cuento las cosas que he visto” into English.

"Even after publication, I still tinker with my cuentos. And, if I’m doing a self-translation, I find myself changing the original in many ways to the point where I have to go back to make those changes in the other version. My story, “Algún día te cuento las cosas que he visto” has undergone a number of changes, and that’s probably the story that has been most edited as it moved from Spanish to English to Spanglish."

To read the complete interview please click here.

38th APEAA Conference

Self-translation was a topic of a talk given at the 38th APEAA Conference, 27-29 April 2017

• Thursday, 27 April 2017 11.00 – 13.00
  Eleonora Federici, “From Hyphenated to Transnational Identity: Jhumpa Lahiri’s self-translation into Italian”

International Society of Anglo-Saxonists Eighteenth Biennial Meeting

Self-translation will be a topic of a talk given at the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists Eighteenth Biennial Meeting, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 31 July – 4 August 2017.

• Thursday, 3 August 2017, 14:15-15:45
  Session: 11B: Translating Ælfric, Ælfric as Translator Sakamaki B102
  Tristan Major:  Ælfric of Eynsham and Self-Translation