Lecture: The Denial of Self-translation

Sara Kippur, Assistant Professor of French at Trinity College, will speak about "The Denial of Self-Translation" at 4:30 p.m. on April 13 in the Alumni House of the Amherst College, Massachusetts.
Here is the official announcement from their website:
"Professor Kippur's talk explores why authors write the same book in two languages. While many authors since Samuel Beckett have embraced the practice of self-translation between French and another language, they nonetheless have found ways to "deny" or undermine their very projects. Professor Kippur considers such authors-- including Raymond Federman, Nancy Huston and Jorge Semprun --and asks what it is about self-translation that makes it difficult for writers and critics to affirm as a literary art form. This event is sponsored by the French Department and the Amherst College Lecture Fund."

Alexakis: Exorciser l'exil

A shortened version of the dissertation by Marianne Bessy on Vassilis Alexakis will be published by Rodopi next month. On the editor's homepage you can take a look at the content of the book.
It is the first book-length study of Alexakis bilingual work and I can highly recommend reading it.
I presented the dissertation about 2 years ago on another blog post. The free online version of the dissertation to which I refered in my previous post has been removed from the site.

Lecture: Canadian Multiculturalism and Female Writings of the Other

Dr. Anna Pia De Luca, Università di Udine, will speak about Canadian Multiculturalism and Female Writings of the Other with focus on Italian-Canadian women writers at the University of Bologna:
Bologna – Dip.LLSM (Sala Convegni) – Via Cartoleria, 5, April 6, 2011 10:15 am

Please click here for more information.

Raymond Federman

I am thinking much of Raymond Federman these days. How he kept me motivated during my research for my diploma thesis, how he still influences my research today and how much I miss the possibility to just write him an email again.
I recently came across a blog post by Arie Altena - he translated the The Voice in the Closet into Dutch- in which he is sharing his personal memories of Federman and of his translation:
"he specifically urged me to be free with the translation, to feel free to turn it into flowing Dutch".

Call for papers: International Symposium Self-translation

The international symposium on self-translation: Borders of language and culture will take place in Perpignan, France from October 20, 2011 – October 22, 2011. Submissions should be sent before February, 14 2011 to the following address: autotradperpi@univ-perp.fr , or though the conference website.

For information in English, click here. For information in French, please check the conference website.

New book by Anne Weber

Anne Weber has written a new book "Auguste" (French) / "August" (German). The French version has already been published in January, the German version is announced for March.

You can find a discussion of the French version by Laure Depretto on fabula.org [Link removed, no longer active]
Information about the German version can be found on the homepage of her publisher Fischer Verlag.

Lectures by Anne Weber in France and Austria

The German-French self-translator Anne Weber will present her book „Tous mes voeux“/ „Luft und Liebe“at several occasions in France next month:

• Tuesday 8 february 2011, 6:30pm Goethe-Institut Nancy, 39 rue de Ravinelle (free entry)
• Monday, 7 february 2011, 6:30pm Librairie Géronimo, 2 rue Ambroise Thomas, Metz (free entry)
• Wednesday, 9 february 2011, 6:30pm Médiathèque Jean Falala, 2 rue des Fuseliers, Reims free entry)
• For more information, please click here.

and in Vienna, Austria:

• Tuesday, 15 february 2011 7:00pm at Alte Schmiede.
  

Literary self-translation, exile and dialogism: the multilingual works of Vassilis Alexakis

Eleftheria Tassiopoulos has now published an article on Alexakis based on her lecture presented at the conference “New Research in Translation and Interpreting Studies” held in Tarragona in 2009.
Her article Literary self-translation, exile and dialogism: the multilingual works of Vassilis Alexakis is available online. Referring to Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, she discusses two of his works Talgo (fiction) and Les Mots étrangers (autofiction).

How a Poet Translates His Own Poetry

Yihai Chen writes his poems in English and Chinese. In How a Poet Translates His Own Poetry (you have to scroll down for the English version) he tells about his experience of editing a bilingual edition of his poems and therefore translating a selection of his poems in both directions. As a self-translator he feels privileged because he "knows the author and the text much better than anyone else". Although he rises some important questions: "Which is more faithful, the poet’s own translation or a professional translator’s? Does a poet translator encounter the same problems of cultural transfer as other translators do? Is his or her strategy in solving such problems different from that of other translators?", he unfortunately does not answer them.

Interview with Vassilis Alexakis

Yesterday Vassilis Alexakis talked about his new book "Le premier mot" at France Inter Cosmopolitaine. If you missed it, you will soon have the possibility to listen to the whole broadcasting on the website from France Inter-Cosmopolitaine. Meanwhile you could listen to an interview about his new new book, which he gave to RFI in september last year.

Nancy Huston: Goldberg Variations adapted

At Paris you can see an adaptation of the French version of The Goldberg Variations from 6th January till 6th March at La Folie Théâtre.