CFP: The Materiality of Feminist Texts and Translations: Economy, Production, and Text, Bern 23-24 June 2017

The Materiality of Feminist Texts and Translations: 

Economy, Production, and Text

Bern, Switzerland 23-24 June 2017

International Network "Translating Feminism: Transfer, Transgression, Transformation (1945-1990)"

Organisers: Dr. Maud Bracke, Dr. Penny Morris and Dr. Kristina Schulz

23 June 2017-24 June 2017, Bern, University of Bern
Abstract deadline: 15 March 2017

The project "Translating Feminism" brings together scholars from three continents wishing to pursue original, interdisciplinary research focused on the global reach of feminist writing and women’s movements. While the transformation of women’s social status is one of the most significant developments of the post-war period, little is known about the precise ways in which women’s rights campaigners across different national and cultural settings communicated with one another, read and translated each other’s texts, and locally recontextualised them. The first international workshop in Glasgow in November 2016 provided the opportunity to discuss historical findings and new theoretical approaches. These discussions will be pursued further at the second international workshop that will take place in Bern, Switzerland, June 23-24, 2017.

More precisely, the forthcoming workshop will be dedicated to the materiality of feminist texts and to the material culture of feminist literary activities, with a special focus on translation. Following Roger Chartier, the meaning that readers give to a text is never detached from the material conditions in which it is produced and diffused. Chartier reminds us that the printed object is crucial to an understanding of why and how people make sense of what they read. This applies to translations in particular ways, as the physical quality of both the source text and the translation establish an (imagined) relationship between transnational and translingual writers and readers.

Women’s literary activities involved producing, diffusing, reading, translating, and discussing texts from a woman’s point of view. But what was considered to be a "woman’s point of view", and how do global transfers and translations de-stabilise accepted notions thereof? Instead of studying feminism as a given system of ideas, regardless of the context of its production and reception, we aim to study the variety of material supportive of women- centred ideas, ranging from pamphlets to self-published pirated editions and to printed books, as well as the literary activities by which they are produced and transmitted. This includes the fact that, while practising what social movement theorists call 'counter-cultural retreat', when it came to literary activism, feminists did engage with a broader public, both in terms of a (potential) feminist public and the institutions and actors of the publishing market.

Translating Feminism: Transfer, Transgression, Transformation (1945-1990)

We invite papers that deal with different aspects of feminist text and book production, diffusion, and translation, such as:
– The materiality of the printed object and the conditions of (non-)reproducibility
– The economic contexts of book publishing and translation
– The technical conditions of writing, translation and transnational communication transfer
– Aspects of distribution
– Bookshops and reading communities
– The history of translation and a transnational feminist reading market

Practical arrangements:
Presenters will have approx. 15 minutes to discuss their paper, and panels will consist of 3-4 papers. The pre-circulation of papers is intended to foster deep engagement with each other’s work.
Presenters may be asked to act as discussant for another paper. Please include the following in your proposal:
– A 300-word paper abstract
– A 200-word biographical statement with main publications and current affiliation
– State if you are seeking funding, with reference to the following criteria: Limited funding to cover travel and accommodation is available for researchers working on temporary contracts, and for academics working outside Europe and North America.

Please send your proposals to the organisers by March 15, 2017. You will be notified by mid-April 2017 and will be asked to circulate a draft of your paper by June 1. The programme will be finalised and published in the course of May 2017.

Second Workshop of the Leverhulme Trust funded International Network 'Translating Feminism: Transfer, Transgression, Transformation (1945-1990)'; organised by Dr. Maud Bracke, Dr. Penny Morris and Dr. Kristina Schulz

Please address your abstract and any questions to Dr. Emily Ryder:
translatingfeminism at gmail.com

Call for Papers: ARTIS@BANGKOK2017, 29-30 July 2017

There's a great-looking event coming up organised under the aegis of ARTIS:

Call for Abstracts

ARTIS@BANGKOK2017

“Translatorship”

  29-30 July 2017

Jointly organised by Chalermprakiat Center of Translation and Interpretation, Chulalongkorn University, and the MA program in English-Thai translation, Thammasat University

As a platform for “empowering translators” (Tymoczko 2007), translation studies has developed into a discipline that encourages inclusionary approaches, culturally sensitive methodologies and agency-focused paradigms which unsettle the traditional author/translator hierarchy. However, this emphasis on the importance of “translatorship” is not always adopted within translator training programmes. We are faced with generations of translators who are not equipped with the ability to reflect critically on themselves and their works.

In this ARTIS event, we offer lectures and workshops that focus on research methodologies and critically engage with the issue of translatorship on both textual and sociological levels. On the textual level, the translator’s presence can be studied, for example, through the translator’s point of view, style, ideology, without a traditional, rigid comparison with the author. On the sociological level, translators are considered influential players in the creation of the social world, as can be seen in Bourdieu’s sociological approach to translation that pinpoints translators as mobilizers of economic and symbolic capitals through their works. Both approaches highlight the significance of the role of translators in the importation and transmission of knowledge, whilst acknowledging that this is not always properly documented, and that it thus tends to be wiped out from public memory.

This two-day ARTIS event is the first of its kind that is specially designed for MA students who are working on their dissertations. We also welcome PhD students and scholars who are interested in starting new research in translation studies. Participants can choose to join public lectures and panel discussions on the first day, or continue to participate in workshops led by our invited speakers on the second day. Workshop participants are required to submit an abstract for poster presentations which will take place on the second day. We invite abstracts that address or are related to the following issues:

•       Translator’s style and ideology
•       Translation as textual intervention
•       The translator’s voice and identity
•       The translator’s agency
•       Sociological aspects of translation
•       Translation as profession
•       The sense of translatorship in translation pedagogy

Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words, together with your name, affiliation and email address, to Dr. PhraeChittiphalangsri phrae.c[at]chula.ac.th by 30th April 2017. Successful applicants will be notified by email no later than 30th May 2017. Please note that MA students need a recommendation letter from their advisor to accompany the application.

“First day only” option
Those who wish to attend the lectures and panel discussions on 29th July 2017 only can send your name, affiliation and contact details (email, and contact number for local participants) to Dr. Tongtip Poonlarp (send your details to both of the following email addresses tongtip.c[at]chula.ac.th and ccti_2010[at]hotmail.com). You will be given instructions on how to make a reservation. A registration fee must be paid in advance to guarantee your place.

Lecturers and workshop leaders:
•       Professor Jeremy Munday (University of Leeds, UK)
•       Dr. Sameh Hanna (University of Leeds, UK)
•       Dr. Sue-Ann Harding (Queen’s University Belfast, UK)

Organisers:
•       Dr. Phrae Chittiphalangsri (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand)
•       Dr. Tongtip Poonlarp (Chulalongrkorn University, Thailand)
•       Dr. Sirirat Na Ranong (Thammasat University, Thailand)


Accommodation
Chulalongkorn University is situated in the heart of Bangkok and is well connected to both BTS (sky train) and MRT (underground) networks. The Siam Square area which is adjacent to the campus offers a wide range of accommodations. We recommend our participants to stay at the Pathumwan Princess Hotel, Hua Chang Heritage Hotel or our own International House (CU iHouse). Information regarding accommodation costs and reservation will be available soon.

Registration Fees
Information regarding registration fees and payment options will be available soon.

Important Dates
Deadline for submission of abstracts            30th April 2017
Notification of acceptance                            30th May 2017
Registration opens on                                   1st June 2017
Early-bird rates are applicable until              30th June 2017
Registration closes on                                   21st July 2017

Link to event page on ARTIS website https://artisinitiative.org/events/upcoming-events/artisbangkok-translatorship/

CFP: The Translator Made Corporeal: Translation History and the Archive, British Library, 8 May 2017

British Library and University College London

The Translator Made Corporeal: Translation History and the Archive

8 May 2017 
British Library Conference Centre

Keynote speaker: Jeremy Munday

CALL FOR PAPERS

In 2001 Theo Hermans suggested that while we have recognized that there can be no text without the human translator, translators are still expected to remain “hidden, out of view, transparent, incorporeal, disembodied and disenfranchised”.

Anthony Pym describes the need to look at the “flesh and blood” translator if we are to gain a deeper understanding of translators as cultural agents. D’Hulst suggests that we should ask Qui? - who is the translator? To answer this question he suggests we need to investigate the biographical detail of the translator, including his/her educational, social and economic background. More recently, Jeremy Munday, Outi Paloposki and others have suggested that we should research translators’ archives to reveal their every-day lives, struggles, networks, and even friendships. Munday has further suggested the creation of micro-histories of translators.

This conference sets out to explore current progress in studying the human, flesh-and-blood translator in an historical and cultural context.  A final panel, chaired by Theo Hermans, will focus on the future potentials, limitations and risks of biographical research of translators in Translation Studies and the humanities.

The British Library and University College London are currently accepting abstracts for papers from scholars and early career researchers in Translation Studies, History, Gender Studies, Comparative Literature, Sociology etc. We also welcome papers from archivists, curators and translators.

Scope

Themes for papers may include, but are not restricted to:

•    Biographical case studies of translators
•    Translators as political and/or cultural agents
•    The translator’s every-day life
•    Status and agency of translators
•    Translators' networks
•    The translator’s relationship with the author, publisher, editor
•    Translators’ social and cultural profile(s)
•    The translator negotiating her/his public persona – visibility versus invisibility
•    Translator as a poly-professional versus mono-professional
•    Amateur translators
•    Translation as a collaborative act
•    Collection of, and access to, translators archives
•    The opportunities and difficulties posed in of crossing disciplinary boundaries
•    The place of Bourdieu in investigating translators (“field”, “habitus”, capital)
•    The potential of collaborative research

Deadline and further details

Abstracts of 300 words should be sent to deborah.dawkin[at]bl.uk by Friday 4 November 2016.
Selection of papers will be confirmed by the committee by 9 December 2016.

Scientific Committee

Theo Hermans, Jeremy Munday, Outi Paloposki, Mark Shuttleworth, Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, Deborah Dawkin, Peter Good, Rachel Foss.

The British Library and Translation
The British Library is committed to promoting the importance of translation through its collections and events.  Among other translation related events, it is proud to host the annual Sebald Lecture and International Translation Day. “The Translator Made Corporeal: Translation History and the Archive” conference builds on two recent conferences held here: “Archival Uncertainties“, an international conference, exploring  the “diasporic archive” which featured leading Translation Studies scholars presenting their work on translation related archives, and the 2011 Conference “Literary Translators: Creative, Cultural and Collecting Contexts” which served as a forum for translation scholars, publishers, curators and archivists to discuss the future of collecting translators’ archives

CFP: 'Transnational Modern Languages' conference, London, 2-3 December 2016

Interesting conference coming up:

TRANSNATIONAL MODERN LANGUAGES

The Italian Cultural Institute, 39 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8NX
Friday 2 and Saturday 3 December 2016

Teaching and research in Modern Languages are conventionally structured in ways which appear to insist on national or linguistic specificity. Work on the transnational inevitably poses questions on the nature of the underlying framework of Modern Languages: whether the discipline should be construed and practised as the inquiry into separate national traditions or as the study of cultures and their interactions. These structures seem inadequate at a time when the study of cultures delimited by the concept of the nation/national identities is becoming more difficult to justify in a world increasingly defined by the transnational and translingual, and by the material and non-material pressures of globalization. Challenging the assumption that cultures are self-contained units that correspond to sharply defined national boundaries must become an essential part of all disciplinary fields and sub-fields that make up Modern Languages, as they seek to avoid the risk of methodological nationalism and of participating in the very structures that it is their purpose to critique. At the same time, how might the transnational acknowledge the residual pull of the nation as a potent, albeit porous, container of cultural identity, and broker of citizenship?

A great deal of research within Modern Languages is already, albeit often implicitly, concerned with the transnational dimension of culture. In so doing, it poses questions about language, translation and multi-lingualism; about the set of practices that make up a sense of location and of belonging to a geographically determined site; about the notions of temporality that obtain within cultures; about modes of understanding subjectivity and alterity. All these questions are of fundamental importance for the study not only of the contemporary world, and its likely future, but for the study of the past.

The aim of the conference is to explore how the ‘cultural’ and the ‘transcultural’ cannot be studied in isolation but rather need to be seen as part of a complex system of circulation which goes beyond national boundaries, canons or linguistic discreteness. The conference aims to bring together researchers who are working on the transnational across Modern Languages and whose work poses questions both on how we study culture and how we produce a version of Modern Languages that is fully respondent to practices of human mobility and cultural exchange.


250 word abstracts should be submitted by 30 April 2016 to Georgia Wall at: G.Wall at warwick.ac.uk

Abstracts should follow this order:
author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) bibliography

Please specify in the subject of your email: 'Transnational Modern Languages’.

We will acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in two weeks, you should assume we did not receive your proposal.

Conference: Linguistic and cultural representation in audiovisual translation

 

This conference looks like a line-up of the great and the good in audiovisual translation... 

(Ignore the image, just one from my files that I thought suited the topic...)

Linguistic and cultural representation in audiovisual translation

International Conference

Sapienza Università di Roma & Università degli Studi di Roma Tre

Rome, 11-13 February 2016

Given the enormous and ever-increasing impact of audiovisual products on the general public, the representations that audiovisual texts convey of other languages and cultures cannot be underestimated. Films have been chief players in the construction of linguistic and cultural identities (Kozloff 2000, Bleichenbacher 2008), which is always the result of an act of selection of traits and features, both visual and verbal. Their critical role in reinforcing negative stereotypes has not been overlooked by scholars (Lippi-Green 1997), and so has the role of technical and ideological manipulation in shaping audiovisual texts and their translation (Díaz-Cintas 2012), while the creative, positive role of films in constructing images of other languages and cultures has been comparatively neglected by research, as has the similar role played by audiovisual products other than cinematographic films.

The translation process is a further step in the direction of shaping representation. As Venuti (1998) points out, “[t]ranslation wields enormous power in constructing representations of foreign cultures” and translated audiovisual texts in particular have the power “to produce insights into the cultures and languages represented” (Guillot 2012), to add further layers of meanings and to create new webs of associations only alluded to, if not altogether missing, in the original texts. Studies conducted on dubbing and subtitling have shown the mimetic capacity of some linguistic features to convey pragmatic meaning and sociolinguistic variation in both source and target languages (Pavesi 2009). Particular emphasis has been placed on audiovisual translation as a site of representational practice (Pérez-González 2014), on the representations that translations convey, on their serving as “a locus for (re)-negotiations of individual and group identities”, “as a vehicle promoting crosscultural and cross-linguistic sensitivity”, and “as agents of hybridisation of communicative practices” (Guillot 2012). The linguistic resources employed by translators in the representation of language varieties and communicative practices have also been an area of increased scholarly interest (Brumme and Espunya 2012).

This conference aims to explore the expressive and representational potential of the interplay of words, images, sounds and silences on the screen focussing on the negotiation of identity in audiovisual texts, and, more generally, on audiovisual translation as a mode of intercultural exchange. Linguistic and cultural representation will be ideally investigated from various viewpoints: that of the power of script-writers and translators to create, reinforce or undermine assumptions about the foreign language and culture represented; that of the audiences who negotiate the representations and meanings conveyed by audiovisual texts; that of stylistic and generic conventions, which contribute to shaping cultural and linguistic representation via established features and topoi in both source and target texts; and that of participatory translation practices, which are playing an important role in challenging and reshaping established representational schemas and conventions.

We encourage proposals for presentations (20 minutes + questions) on all areas of linguistic and cultural analysis of audiovisual texts, as well as on audiovisual translation. Intersections with related areas of research, such as film and television studies, which are advocated (Chaume 2004) but still under-researched, are especially welcome. Topics for presentations may include, but are not restricted to, the following:

- Linguistic and cultural representation in audiovisual texts;

- Representational practices in AVT (e.g. the representation of orality in both fictional and non-fictional audiovisual genres, the representation of identity and difference);

- Cross-cultural and cross-linguistic perspectives (e.g. communicative practices and their representation);
- Representation and audience perception;

- Translators’ representations of viewers (e.g. translators’ assumptions about their audience);

- Representation and accessibility;

- Representational practices in non-professional translation;

- The representational contribution of film, television and other audiovisual media to contemporary culture;

- The social impact of tele-cinematic representation;

- Linguistic and cultural representation in specific film and television genres (science fiction, war films, romantic comedies and so on);

- Culture-specific references in original and translated audiovisual products.

Submission Procedure:

Abstract deadline: 1st September 2015. Abstracts should be max 300 words (excluding references) and include title of the contribution, name of the author and affiliation. A brief bio-sketch of no more than 100 words should be also included.

Notification of acceptance: 10th October 2015.

Language: English.

Proposals should be sent to: confaudiovisual2016@gmail.com.

Invited speakers:

Frederic Chaume (Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain)

Jorge Díaz-Cintas (University College London, UK)

Marie-Noëlle Guillot (University of East Anglia, UK)

Maria Pavesi (University of Pavia, Italy)

Luis Pérez-González (University of Manchester, UK)

Scientific Committee:

Dr Rocío Baños-Piñeri (University College London, UK)

Prof. Rosa Maria Bollettieri Bosinelli (University of Bologna)

Prof. Silvia Bruti (University of Pisa)

Dr Elena Di Giovanni (University of Macerata)

Prof. Maria Freddi (University of Pavia)

Prof. Donatella Montini (Sapienza University of Rome)

Prof. Stefania Nuccorini (Roma Tre University)

Dr Irene Ranzato (Sapienza University of Rome)

Dr Annalisa Sandrelli (UNINT, Rome)

Prof. Mary Wardle (Sapienza University of Rome)

Prof. Monika Wozniak (Sapienza University of Rome)

Dr Serenella Zanotti (Roma Tre University)

Organisers:

Irene Ranzato (Sapienza University of Rome)

Monika Wozniak (Sapienza University of Rome)

Serenella Zanotti (Roma Tre University)

For queries regarding the conference please contact:

Irene Ranzato: irene.ranzato@libero.it

Monika Wozniak: moniwozniak@hotmail.com

Serenella Zanotti: serenella.zanotti@uniroma3.it

A conference website with all information regarding the conference, the location and the registration procedure is under construction at https://audiovisualrome2016.wordpress.com/.

Oxford conference: Prismatic Translation, 1-3 October 2015 (abstracts by

I heard Matthew Reynolds of St. Anne's College, Oxford, speaking about his concept of prismatic translation at an EHRC conference last autumn and found it a beautifully formulated and intriguing way into thinking about retranslation (which seems, by comparison, a reductive term). I'm glad to see that a conference is in the offing:

Call for papers: Prismatic Translation

Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT)
in collaboration with the European Humanities Research Centre (EHRC)

St Anne’s College Oxford, 1-3 October 2015

Call for papers:
Translation is prismatic when it produces multiple variants. This can happen in the process of a single translational act, or when a text is translated into different languages, or when it is translated into the same language several times. Our conference will explore all these aspects of the prism of translation in order to assess their origins, their effects and their potential.

Presentations might consider multiple translations across languages or within one language; texts that include variant translations; the way prismatic possibilities are handled in different translation cultures; or the way they are controlled in commercial interpreting or in relation to sacred texts.

Questions to be explored might include:

• what do translation prisms show us about the nature of the texts that are being translated? 
• Can they illuminate the differences between script systems (Roman, Chinese, Arabic etc)? 
• Is there virtue in translation practices that display variants instead of choosing between them? 
• Are such practices more at home in new digital media than in the old technology of the book? 
• Is the culture of translation shifting, with new ventures showing interest in prismatic translation? 
• Is the discovery of variants a kind of creativity? 
• What should we make of the distorting effects of the prism (mistranslation, erasure, collage, pseudotranslation)? 
• Is there political potential in the way prisms can be harnessed to invert, deviate, split apart? 
• Is it problematic that global translation is dominated by a few major languages? 
• Can machines contribute to a prismatic translation culture, or will they blight it? 
• Could translation prisms be a resource for cross-linguistic, cross-scriptal, cross-cultural study at the micro level?’

Our conference will bring together scholars, theorists, translators, writers and artists to explore these questions. We are open to dialogic and multi-lingual modes of presentation, to scholarly papers focusing on any language and historical period, and to theoretical explorations. The aim will be to generate productive – indeed, prismatic – discussion.

With the participation of Emily Apter (NYU) and Rocío Baños Piñero (UCL).

Essays arising from the conference will be published in the Legenda books series Transcript.

Please send your proposal (300 word max) and short CV to comparative.criticism[at]st-annes.ox.ac.uk by 27th April 2015.  The programme will be announced at the end of May.

Comité scientifique: Prof Matthew Reynolds, Prof Phillip Rothwell, Dr Sowon Park, Dr Adriana Jacobs, Dr Mohamed-Salah Omri, Dr Ben Morgan, Dr Xiaofan Amy Li.

More details at http://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/cfp-occt-annual-conference. 

CFP: Territories of Understanding: Conflict and Encounter

Deadline for abstracts for this very interesting-looking conference is 31 January:

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS

Queen’s University Belfast,
4- 5 June 2015

Second International Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Interpreting
 
Territories of Understanding: Conflict and Encounter

Translation and interpreting are understood – and indeed function – all too often as tools that universalize and level. Unsustainable claims are made for their capacity to tap into and re-generate channels of communication which operate at the level of the species, while at the same time the deficits of translation and interpreting, in terms of significant and far-reaching failures of understanding, still structure our geopolitics. This conference will seek to address these broad issues by posing the following questions:

·                What might we mean by culture-specific definitions of translation/interpreting?

·                How do translators/interpreters operate within and/or go beyond such definitions?

·                What sort of contribution can translation/interpreting make to the development of public and/or international policy?

·                What do we mean by cultural encounter? Can we legislate for it?

·                In what ways are translation/interpreting answerable to a politics of recognition?

·                In what ways can translators/interpreters address cultural and political conflict?

We would be delighted to receive proposals for twenty-minute papers on any aspect of the issues and questions set out above. Please send a 300-word abstract to conference2qub at gmail.com by 31 January 2015.  All papers will be refereed and you will be notified of acceptance by 6 February 2015.

Abstracts should also include:

·                The presenter's name

·                The presenter's affiliation

·                The presenter's academic status and current year of study

·                Title of the paper to be presented

·                Three keywords that best describe the content of the paper to be presented

 Confirmed plenary speakers are:

Professor Michael Cronin MRIA, Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City University

Professor Susan Bassnett, Professor of Comparative Literature and former Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Warwick

Dr Samia Bazzi, Head of Translation at the Lebanese University of Beirut

Conference participants will be responsible for travel to and from Belfast, and for their own accommodation. The conference fee will be £30, which includes refreshments, lunches and wine receptions on both days, and dinner on the first night.  More details are available at

www.territoriesofunderstanding.wordpress.com

Or find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TranslationQUB and Twitter: @TranslateQUB

CFP: Recent European (Re)translations of Shakespeare

This just came round on the Translatio mailing list and looks like an interesting seminar:

Call for Papers: Recent European (Re)translations of Shakespeare

(a seminar at the ESRA conference, 2015, Worcester)

Conveners: Lily Kahn (UCL),  l.kahn@ucl.ac.uk

                     Márta Minier (University of South Wales), marta.minier@southwales.ac.uk

                     Martin Regal (University of Iceland), martinregal@gmail.com

The longevity of Shakespearean translations is generally somewhat limited. Although some canonical translations have a relatively long life as literary works and/or in the theatre, it is common for Shakespeare to be retranslated periodically. Within Europe there is a widespread phenomenon of systematic series of (re)translations of Shakespeare’s complete works; in recent years this trend has given rise to the WSOY Finnish Complete Works, completed in 2013, the new Polish Complete Works, the New Romanian Shakespeare series, and others. In addition, specially commissioned individual retranslations designed for specific productions are a common feature of the European theatrical scene. Examination of the rich variety of issues surrounding this phenomenon of retranslation in the European context can provide valuable insights into the theory and practice of Shakespearean interpretation.

This proposed seminar will bring together scholars, editors and practising translators engaged in the production and analysis of Shakespearean translations. It will also be open to dramaturges or directors who would like to comment on working with new or revised (that is, dramaturgically adjusted) translations. Proposals will be welcomed on topics including but not limited to the following:

·         factors galvanising the decision to produce new translations, including philological and interpretive shifts, changing conventions of theatre, and the emergence of new performance and directorial styles;

·         the collaborative framework behind commissioned translations and the relationship between the translator and other stakeholders;

·         societal perceptions of the modern Shakespeare translator; trends in the selection of different translation strategies (e.g. foreignising vs. domesticating);

·         comparisons between alternative translations of the ‘same’ play (both synchronically and diachronically);

·         different translations of a single play by the same translator; the use of updated and otherwise modified versions of existing translations in new productions instead of commissioning completely original work;

·         the critical reception of new translations both in textual format and in theatrical contexts.

We will consider papers focusing on academic translation series not necessarily intended for performance in addition to those specifically commissioned or designed for theatrical use that may not be as suitable for employment in educational contexts.

Please submit an abstract (200-300 words) and a brief biography (150 words) by 1 December  2014 to all seminar conveners. 

All participants will be notified about the acceptance of their proposals by 1 March 2015. 

The deadline for submitting the completed seminar papers (3,000 words) is 1 May 2015.

CFP: Early Cinema in the Balkans and the Near East: Beginnings to Interwar Period (Athens, June, 2015)

It's great to see translation included in this conference call for papers; will look forward with interest to the resulting publication.


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Early Cinema in the Balkans and the Near East: Beginnings to Interwar Period

Athens, Greece: 5-7 June, 2015

Hellenic Open University
Hyperion University Bucharest and Istanbul Şehir University
Altcine and Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies


CALL FOR PAPERS

This conference aims to broaden the geo-cultural scope of early film studies by providing a forum for scholarship on early and silent cinema in the Balkans and the Near East. These geopolitical designations are to be taken heuristically, as temporary placeholders for conceptual mappings that remain to be developed and that this conference seeks to encourage.

A key common denominator between these otherwise diverse areas in (film) historical terms is that the arrival of the moving pictures finds them in varying stages of transition away from the Ottoman imperial system. The post-Ottoman transition was characterized by intermediate geopolitical formations that no longer exist, though they remain controversial, and by a high degree of overlap between imperial, national, and colonial jurisdictions.

These are critical issues that contribute to the under-representation of the Balkans and the Near East in early film studies. It is broadly known that the Balkans and the Near East feature prominently in early Western cinema’s orientalist imaginary and have stocked Western film companies’ catalogues with filmed “views.” Scholarship on these issues is still scarce, however, and these areas, as producers and consumers of early cinema, are virtually non-existent in film studies. Understanding the impediments to scholarship and mapping out focus areas for investigation can make for exciting and paradigm-changing scholarship.

With this potential in mind, the conference committee welcomes presentation proposals from university-, museum- and archive-affiliated scholars, as well as from independent researchers.  In addition to showcasing developments in research, the conference should be an inviting environment for building collegial ties with a view to future archival, historical, and theoretical work. The broader objective is for this event to become the first step towards a transnational community of scholars working on early and silent cinema in and about the Balkans and the Near East across new media and multiple platforms.

A selection of the conference papers will be published in an edited Special Issue of Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies.

Sample Topics

§  Periodization: pre-history; introduction of sound; the meaning of “earliness” in the geocultural space in question; etc.

§  Production: the meaning of domestic (local, regional, indigenous, etc.) and national; genres; personnel; organizations; economics; etc.

§  Exhibition practices and contexts: intertitles and commentators; open-air venues and fairgrounds; travelling cinematographers-projectionists; urban venues; distribution; etc.

§  Regulation: censorship; film trade agreements; diplomacy; quota systems; litigation; professional associations; etc.

§  Imports: networks; markets; economics; etc.

§  Specialized press and other cinema-related writing: star and fan discourses; reviewing; advertizing and marketing; audience research; etc.

§  Reception: spectatorship (gender, class, ethnicity, etc.); translation and appropriation; cultural politics; etc.

§  Intermediality: film and oral or print cultures; film and photography, film and theater, film and music; film and shadow-play (shadow-puppet theater), film and mass commercial print genres; film and non-Western pictorial or other systems of (re)presentation; etc.

§  Comparative approaches: comparative film histories; comparative aesthetics; metropolitan vs. peripheral early cinema; trans-national, sub-national, trans-local approaches; etc.

§  Film and history:  film and war; film and national histories; film and colonialism; film between empires; film and society; propaganda and ideology; fiction and event; etc.

§  Theory:  film and the nation(al); geopoetics and national poetics; post-Ottoman and post-colonial transitions; “mimicry;” coloniality; genre theory; gender; orientalism; alternative theorizations; etc.

§  Archives and other institutions of cultural heritage: public education; access; preservation; etc.




The conference will be conducted in the English language.

Keynote speakers:

·      Prof. Dina Iordanova (University of St Andrews, UK)
·      Prof. Cemal Kafadar (Harvard University, USA)
·      Prof. Hamid Naficy (Northwestern University, USA)

Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2014

Proposal length: 300 words + short BIO

Registration: 30€ (university faculty)—15€ (students and unaffiliated researchers).  Free and open to the public.

Contact & Submissions: earlybalkansfilms at gmail.com

Conference Committee:
Emmanuel Arkolakis<http://eap.academia.edu/EmmanuelArkolakis>
Canan Balan
Maria Chalkou
Vassiliki Tsitsopoulou
Marian Tutui

Subtitling panel at Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference, Montréal, 25-29 March 2015

This may be of interest to some readers:

CFP for SCMS 2015 panel: On Subtitles

Patricia Rozema’s “Desperanto,” the first section of the 1992 omnibus film Montréal vu par/Montreal Sextet, follows Ann, an Anglophone Canadian housewife who just wants to have a good time visiting this Francophone city, yet struggles mightily with her inability to speak or understand French. A fantasy sequence during a party, however, suddenly allows her to see – and then interact with – the subtitles in English at the bottom of the screen, eventually serving as a magic carpet of sorts that whisks her off the screen at the end of the film.

Rozema’s character playfully enacts the viewer’s rather serious relationship with international cinema through the use of the subtitles. Subtitles permit wider, transcultural distribution of cinematic and televisual images, but do so by altering the image (and the viewer’s relationship with the mise-en-scène of that image). As such, viewers simultaneously read two images – one cinematic, one textual, both prone to mistakes and misreadings.

Inspired by Atom Egoyan and Ian Balfour’s edited collection Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film, this panel invites papers that consider subtitles as critical objects of study. Potential topics might include, but are not limited to:

- The practice of subtitling
- The history of subtitling
- Mistranslation in subtitles
- Theorizing the relationship between image and subtitle
- Films that metatextually interact with their own subtitles (e.g. “Desperanto,” Who the Hell is Juliette?) or place subtitles somewhere besides the bottom of the screen (e.g. Man on Fire).
- Subtitles vs. dubbing
- What gets subtitled and what does not
- Cinematic vs. televisual subtitling
- Subtitling practice and archives on the internet
- Subtitles for the hard of hearing

Please submit a paper title, an abstract no longer than 2500 characters, a five-item bibliography, and a brief author bio (no more than 500 characters) to Jeffrey Middents (middents at american.edu) by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, August 4th.

More information on the conference at http://www.cmstudies.org/?page=call_for_submissions. 

CFP : Translation and the Caribbean (special issue of Sargasso)

Translation and the Caribbean: Tensions & Transformations

Deadline: September 30, 2014

The journal SARGASSO, edited and published at the University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus, invites submissions for the issue “Translating the Caribbean: Tensions & Transformations.” The issue seeks to explore the art and craft of the translator as indispensable resources for scholarly inquiry, interdisciplinary collaborations, and artistic endeavors in the Humanities.  The editors hope to receive critical essays that address the aesthetics, politics, ethics, and history of translation, as well as works that focus on specific initiatives, authors, literary movements, or theoretical proposals.  Previously unpublished translations will be included in the volume.

Practitioners and theorists alike have recognized translation as having an important role in the region since Caribbean Studies emerged as a discrete field of scholarly inquiry.  Some have described it as a lens that brings into relief tensions associated with the processes of conquest, naming, colonization, and resistance that inform the history of the region.  Translation has also been upheld as a necessary response to divergent colonial histories and political and linguistic fragmentation, one that can transform the lives and ideologies of people both within and outside the Caribbean.  What is the significance of these ideas today?  How do they relate to the view of translation as a cultural dynamic? How can translation contribute to the growth and sustainability of Caribbean communities and institutions as well as interregional and international networks?  What types of partnerships involving translators and the Humanities are needed in the future?  What challenges do they face?

Possible topics for essays include, but are not limited to:

Translation as a necessary task

Hybrid writing as a process of translation

Translation & literary criticism

Translation, language policy, & linguistic rights

Translation and Creole languages

Translation & Caribbean Studies

Translation & coloniality

Translating multilingualism & code-switching in literature

Translation & pedagogy

Translation & technological innovation

Translation and publishing

Essays should be 10-15 pages, double-spaced, and adhere to APA guidelines.  They should also conform to Sargasso’s style guide and include an abstract of 120 words or less.  B & W photos and illustrations may be included.  The editors welcome the submission of visual art and creative work, including new translations of poetry and short fiction.  Contributions may be submitted in English, Spanish, French, or Creole languages of the region.  Submissions should be sent to sargassojournal at gmail.com by September 30, 2014.  Visit http://humanidades.uprrp.edu/ingles/pubs/sargasso.htm for details about the journal.