Wieseneck Symposium: "Multilingualism in Israeli Literature"

Self-translation was one of the topics which has been discussed at the Wieseneck Symposium: "Multilingualism in Israeli Literature" (Thursday, February 16, 2017, University of Michigan).

Until fairly recently, Israeli literature was understood as essentially monolingual, created exclusively in Hebrew. In the last few years, scholars have turned their attention to the many languages in which literature was, and still is written in Israel. The symposium will bring Institute fellows and leading scholars to explore Israel literature written in Yiddish, Arabic, German, Russian, and English, as well as the interplay between these languages and Hebrew. The speakers will explore issues such as translation and self-translation, the politics of language in literature, and the historical shifts that enabled or restricted inter-linguistic contacts.

10:40 am—12:30 pm: Session 1: Multilingual Encounters and Dialogues
Chair and Respondent: Liora Halperin, University of Boulder

Shachar Pinsker, University of Michigan: Between “Loshn-Mame-Koydesh” and the Father Tongue? Israeli-Yiddish Encounters
Adriana X. Jacobs, University of Oxford: Like a Centipede, Multiple Voices: Harold Schimmel’s Translingual Poetry
Alex Moshkin, University of Pennsylvania: Beyond the Wall: The Encounter between Russophone Writers and the State of Israel
Yael Kenan, University of Michigan: “Dialogue in Monologue”: Addressing Mahmoud Darwish in Hebrew


1:30 pm – 3:00 pm: Session II: Between Original and Translation: Rewriting Israeli Literature
Chair and Moderator: Joshua Miller, University of Michigan

Maya Barzilai, University of Michigan
Naomi Brenner, Ohio State University
Rachel Seelig, University of Chicago


3:30 pm—5:30 pm: Session III: Keywords in Multilingualism and Israeli Literature
Chair and Moderator: Shachar Pinsker, University of Michigan

Lital Levy, Princeton University: "Multilingualism, Transnationalism, and World Literature: Theoretical Frameworks for Israeli Literary Studies"

Roundtable Discussion
Maya Barzilai, Naomi Brenner, Adriana Jacobs, Yael Kenan, Lital Levy, Alex Moshkin, Rachel Seelig

For more information the event, please click here.

Politics Of Self-Translation: Authorial Representation, Cultural Identity, And Global Hong Kong Literature

Talk by Uganda Sze-pui KWAN (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) on Thu, Feb 16, 2017, 4:30 pm at Princeton University.

Abstract:
The talk will discuss a new piece of translation of Hong Kong literature, which was done by the author himself after he had published his original fiction about two decades ago. This English translation, entitled The Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City by Dung Kai-cheung (Columbia University Press, 2015), not only allowed the author an opportunity to reconnect with his work through the role of an active reader, but it also opened up a new vista for the author to rewrite and deconstruct his original work. However, this is more than a seminal self-translation such as those by Milena Kundera, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov or many other bilingual writers. In this work the author had to deal with the hermeneutical power and critical discourses of two other professionals. His freedom to authenticate, interpret and rewrite his own work was constrained under the condition of collaborative translation. How is authorial right limited under this kind of self-collaborative translation? Where are the boundaries and what are the dynamics, synergies and benefits of this new emerging model of self-collaborative-translation?

For more information on the event, please click here.

Cfp Multilingualism in 19th Century European Literature

Call for Contributions to an Edited book on Multilingualism in 19th Century European Literature
Ed. by Olga Anokhina (CNRS, Paris), Till Dembeck (University of Luxemburg), and Dirk Weissmann (University of Paris-Est)

We kindly invite scholars in all disciplines devoted to European (Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Finno-Ugric) literature to submit contributions for a collective volume on “Multilingualism in 19th Century European Literature”.

The bilingual English-French book will be published in 2018 by the Lit-Verlag in the “poethik polyglot” series directed by Britta Benert, Rainier Grutman, and Alfons Knauth.
Scholarship on multilingual literature from Europe has up to now mostly focused either on pre-modern periods (e. g., Medieval and Renaissance multilingualism), or on avant-garde modernism, and on the present (e. g., postcolonial literature, literature of migration, etc.). At first sight, the 19th century does not seem to matter for the history of European literary multilingualism. This might seem logical since the 19th century is rightfully considered the epoch that most effectively promoted nationalist monolingualism, in the wake of the European reception of the Post-Herderian theory of culture. Still, it is worth considering forms of multilingualism also in this period. Firstly, not all European countries have undergone a process of nationalization and monolingualization to the same extent. And secondly, recent studies, namely in sociolinguistics, have shown that monolingual norms can be implemented only by massive language-political intervention. Therefore, it is plausible to assume that some forms of multilingualism play a role even in the apparently most monolingual constellations of European literary history. A mapping of literary multilingualism in 19th-century European literature seems thus necessary.

This collective book will propose an investigation into 19th-century European literary multilingualism, particularly into the period from 1800 to 1880. All areas of European literature will be considered. The term ‘multilingualism’ as used in this book includes all kinds of code-mixing, either in single literary texts or in multiple texts produced by the same author.

Topics to be explored might be the following, amongst others:

• multilingual authors in struggle with monolingual or national frameworks, multilingualism as a (hidden) background for national writers
• literary subversions of monolingual norms, language normalization processes and literature
• language contact and literary creativity
• travel, exile, extraterritoriality and literary multilingualism
• translation, heterolingualism and language hybridity
• representations of multilingual realities in monolingual literary writing
• translingual borrowing of literary, aesthetic and rhetoric structures and strategies
• multilingualism in writers’ manuscripts, sketches, notebooks, etc. (critique génétique)
• the heritage of pre-1800 multilingualism and links to modernist literary multilingualism (post-1880), lines of rupture and continuity

Proposals (in English or French) should be send before June 1st 2017 to the following addresses: till.dembeck@uni.lu; weissmann@u-pec.fr; olga.anokhina@freesbee.fr.
The full texts (5000-8000 words) of accepted contributions will be expected before December 31st 2017.

New edited volume on (self-)translation in the Middle Ages

In February 2017, an edited volume on (self-)translation in the Middle Ages will be published: La traduction entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance Médiations, auto-traductions et traductions secondes, edited by C. Galderisi, J.-J. Vincensini (eds.).

The second part "L’auto-traduction : typologies et pratiques" consists of four articles on self-translation:

• Jean-Jacques Vincensini, Des conditions de possibilité des auto-traductions au Moyen Âge flamboyant 
• Anna Maria Babbi, L’auto-traduction au Moyen Âge: mensonges et vérités 
• Marie-Luce Demonet, Étienne Dolet, auto-traducteur bifrons 
• Marie-Christine Gomez-Géraud, La Bible et la Theologia deutsch : Sébastien Castellion et ses doublets de traduction

For more information please click here.

Cfp Panel on Self-Translation and Canadian Writers

This panel is planned as a joint session of ACQL and the Canadian Comparative Literature Association to take place a Congress 2017, Ryerson University, Toronto.

CFP
In the history of World Literature there are famous examples of authors who translated their own works: Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, Italo Calvino and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The phenomenon has recently been re-examined in a collection of studies edited by Anthony Cordingley, Self-Translation: Brokering Originality in Hybrid Culture (2013). The proposed panel will assemble three or four speakers who will examine the practice of selftranslation among some Canadian writers who work in English and French and sometimes in another language. Speakers may consider any of the following topics: how do theories of translation relate to the practice of self-translation, the relation between re-writing and selftranslation, multicultural self-dialogue, the language problems of translation, the cultural differences confronted by translation, self-translation as indigenization, the reception of selftranslated works, the politics of the English and French in self-translation, and other questions. Some of the authors to be considered may include: Nancy Huston, Marco Micone, Dôre Michelut, Erin Mouré, Antonio D'Alfonso, Roy Kiyooka, and Josef Skvorecky.

• Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes and can be in English or French.
• Proposals should be no more than 300 words, and should be accompanied by a short biography and a 50 word abstract (in Word or RTF). 
• They are due on or before 15 February 2017, and should be sent to Joseph Pivato at pivato@athabascau.ca. 
• Those who propose papers must be members of the ACQL by 1 March 2017. 

To see the call for papers in French please click here.

Update Bibliography on Self-translation

The bibliography on self-translation has been updated.
You can download the new version here.
If you have additions to make, please leave a comment.
The next update is scheduled for April 1, 2017.

Flusser Studies - special issue on Translingual Writing, Translation, Self-Translation

The Flusser Studies published a special issue on Translingual Writing, Translation, Self-Translation including the following articles and interviews:

• Rainer Guldin: “General Introduction”
• Mary Besemeres: “Travels through Russian in English: Dale Pesman, Maria Tumarkin, Maxim Shrayer and GaryShteyngart” 
• Eva Gentes: “Literarische Selbstübersetzung im Kontext weniger verbreiteter Sprachen – ein zweischneidiges Schwert?”
• Rainer Guldin: “Literary Translingualism in Switzerland: Pierre Lepori and Beat Christen”
• Beat Christen: “Selbst-Übersetzung und mehrsprachiges Schreiben”
• Pierre Lepori: “Scrittura bilingue”
• Clemens van Loyen: “Translation as an Act of Freedom – Vilém Flusser’s Philosophy of Translation”

Conferencia "Autotraducción: ¿recreación, reescritura o ideología?"

El grupo de investigación TXICC invitará a la Dra. Tai Yufen a impartir una conferencia sobre autotraducción. Después de hacer un breve recorrido por el fenómeno de la autotraducción, se centrará en dos casos concretos: el de la escritora china Eileen Chang y el de la mallorquina Carme Riera.

Lugar: Aula 1 (Facultad de Traducción e Interpretación, UAB)
Día y hora: martes, 15 de noviembre de 13.00h a 14.30h
Organiza: grupo de investigación TXICC

Link to source 

Conference Sound / Writing: On Homophonic Translation, Paris (17.-19.11.2016)

Self-translation will be a topic at the conference Sound / Writing: On Homophonic Translation taking place in Paris (17.-19.11.2016).

• SAMEDI 19/11/2016  Session 9 16:00
  Maison Heinrich Heine, Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, 27c bd. Jourdan, 75014 Paris
  Eliana VICARI (Paris) : De l'autotraduction à la traduction : l'exercice de style « homophonique » de Raymond Queneau face à son texte source et à ses versions italienne, anglaise et espagnole
  
  Abstract: Non seulement Raymond Queneau et l’Oulipo se sont beaucoup intéressés à la traduction, mais ils l'ont aussi pratiquée. Certes, il s'agit bien souvent d'une traduction sui generis, effectuée à l'intérieur de la même langue et axée sur l'application d'une contrainte parfois étonnante : traduction transsexuelle, lipogrammatique, antonymique ou homosémantique (qui implique un changement de typologie textuelle, voire le passage de la prose au vers ou vice versa...). Dans ce domaine, comme dans tant d'autres, le précurseur reste Raymond Queneau dont l'une des œuvres les plus connues, Exercices de style (1947 édition originale ; 1973 édition définitive), représente sans doute le premier recueil d'auto-traductions intra-linguales. L'analyse d'« homophonique » - posée en guise de synecdoque - vise à rendre compte des spécificités du travail mis en acte par le fondateur de l'Oulipo aussi bien que des implications traductologiques sous-entendues. Tout cela permet de mieux examiner – quoique brièvement - la démarche de certains traducteurs pour observer comment ils ont effectué le transfert de cette rose rare et sonore. Comment l'ont-ils transplantée dans leur jardin italien, britannique et espagnol ? Ce rosier insolite a-t-il produit presque les mêmes fruits ? Et les fruits, eux, ont-t-ils gardé voire dépassé la promesse des fleur-phénix en dépit du changement de sol et de climat ? 

• To see the complete program, please click here.
• To access the booklet of abstracts, please click here.
• To see the conference page on facebook, please click here.

Interview With Poet and Self-Translator Alison Whittaker', by Elizabeth Bryer

Alison Wittaker is a Gomeroin poet living in Sydney. In an interview with Elizabeth Bryer she speaks about her experience of translating her poem ‘Wattle in the Dykes’ into and then out of Gamilaraay.

"It’s important that readers see the poem in Gamilaraay on the screen as its own poem, not just as a catalyst to change the meaning of a poem in English."

To read the interview, please click here.

Conference Translation & Minority 11-12th November 2016

Self-translation will be a topic at the conference Translation & Minority, 11-12th November 2016 at University of Ottawa’s School of Translation and Interpretation.

November 12, 16:00-17:30 Panel 13: Self-translation

• Rainier Grutman: La dynamique de l’autotraduction verticale
  
  La plupart des auteurs qui se traduisent eux-mêmes ne sont pas bilingues dans deux langues officielles d’États-nations tout aussi officiels, mais écrivent dans une « grande langue » et, parallèlement, dans une langue moins connue et reconnue. La traduction n’est pas un « échange » symétrique pour eux, mais plutôt une « négociation » asymétrique, « verticale » (Folena; Stierle), entre deux langues au statut inégalement reconnu. La recherche sur ces autotraducteurs fait apparaître deux types de « minorités »: 1) celles qui sont globales en raison de la position périphérique qu’occupe leur langue maternelle dans la « galaxie des langues » (De Swaan; Calvet) et 2) les minorités nationales dans le cadre des États-nations dont ils sont citoyens. C’est à l’approfondissement de ces catégories et à l’étude de leurs intersections (p.ex. la migration) que je m’attacherai dans cette communication, afin de décrire la dynamique propre à l’autotraduction verticale.
• Elizabete Manterola Agirrezabalaga:Translating a (Self-)Translated literature:  Challenges of Direct Translation from a Minority Literature
  
  Spanish is the main target language of translations from Basque. It is hard to find direct translations in the exportation into other languages, as not many people learn Basque as a foreign language. Even though, one of the goals of the Basque literature is to produce direct translations in order to avoid the use of the Spanish version as the source text. This paper will analyze the efforts made so far in promoting direct translation.
  Some other interesting questions will also be addressed. As Spanish versions are vastly produced by the actual author, is it legitimate to translate a original book that has already been translated (or revised) by the author? If the target translator knows both Basque and Spanish, is it right to translate a book only from the Basque version or should the translator consult both versions (or even any other)? Opinions of professional translators will illustrate the difficulties that target translators have to face in direct translations from Basque.
• Trish Van Bolderen: From One-Man Show to Stage Manager: Self-Translators and “Minority” Literatures in Canada

For more information on the conference please click here.