OCCT HT 2022 — Week 3 Updates

Good afternoon!

Next Monday, the Discussion Group will welcome Oliver Ready, who will discuss his translations of Vladimir Sharov, particularly his recent translation of Be As Children (2021), as well as his translations of nineteenth-century Russian authors, including Gogol and Dostoyevsky.

We are also excited to be able to announce that registration for this term’s Metaphors in Translation Conference, which will take place on Saturday 26 February at St Anne’s College, is now open. To register, and for more information, please see the event’s page.

Hosted by the OCCT, this conference will explore the relationship between translation and metaphor through a series of roundtables and workshops. The word translation originates in the past participle of the Latin verb transfero—literally meaning to transfer, to carry beyond. The act of translation can thus be understood as a means of subverting the constraints of language-specific boundaries and transporting signification from one linguistic or modal realm into another. Similarly, the word metaphor—usually defined as ‘a figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to’—is, in fact, the Greek variant of the concept of transfer. With a focus on the interplay between these terms, the day's events will consider metaphors for translation, and the challenges and creative possibilities of conveying metaphors across languages and media.

Organised by Erin Nickalls (Oxford) and Maëlle Nagot (Oxford), the sessions will be moderated by Professor Patrick McGuinness (Oxford) and Dr. Joseph Hankinson (Oxford). Closing remarks will be given by the Chair of OCCT, Professor Matthew Reynolds (Oxford).

In the first roundtable, Oxford DPhil candidates studying diverse languages and literary traditions will discuss metaphors commonly, or less commonly, used to describe and interpret the act of translation. This session will include contributions from Billy Beswick (Oriental Studies), Isabel Parkinson (German), Trish Bilia (Modern Greek) and Hannah Scheithauer (German and French).

The second roundtable will explore approaches to translating metaphors in practice. This session will feature literary translators working across a range of language combinations: Peter Bush (Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, and French to English), Jen Calleja (German to English), Mohini Gupta (Hindi to English, English to Hindi), and Ayça Türkoğlu (Turkish and German to English).

The workshops will be led by artist and academic Sophie Seita and translator and professor of French Hélène Boisson (École Normale Supérieure). In Seita’s workshop, participants will try their hands at visualising and performing metaphors through manipulating materials and interacting with their environment. Boisson’s workshop will examine how metaphors, analogies and illustrations interact in the process of translating children's literature.

All sessions are free and open to the public. There will be coffee, tea and a buffet lunch with vegetarian and vegan options. Please indicate on the registration form if you have any other dietary requirements.
 
For more information, see the events page or email Erin Nickalls.

Events and Calls for Papers

1. CfPs: Code-Switching in Arts—Online Conference

29 September - 1 October 2022

Abstract: 31 March 2022 (250-300 words)
Conference: 29 September – 1 October 2022 (presentations and posters)
Article Submission: 1 November 2022
Publication: 2023
No participation fee
Hosts: Bielefeld University, Goethe University Frankfurt, University of Belgrade and Károli Gáspár University Budapest

Contact: zerocodeswitching@pm.me

Website: https://langueflow.wordpress.com/2021/09/17/code-switching-arts-conference-2022/

Contemporary and historical multilingual narratives transcend the boundaries and constraints dictated by our physical world, allowing verbal and audio-visual artists, as well as their mediators to elaborate innovative linguistic solutions, which broaden and also break the common communication norms. There are multiple ways to involve diverse languages and other communication codes in an artistic production. Interest in multilingualism and multimodal discourses is on the increase. Multilingualism has also been defined as polylanguaging (Jorgensen et al. 2011), polylingualism (Sternberg 1982), heterolingualism (Grutman 2012), semiodiversity (Gramling 2016), literary translingualism (Kellman 2015/2020), zero and 1–5 degree code-switching (Domokos 2018, Deganutti & Domokos 2021) etc. Research shows frequently the potential and the complexity of multilingualism. The aim of this conference is to explore the code-switching/multilanguaging strategies used by contemporary and historical writers and artists to structure their multilingual narratives in different forms of art, including literature, theatre and film.

Some possible topics include, but are not limited to:

What factors determine multilingual authors’/artists’ language choices?
How do multilingual authors/artists implement their own experiences and language reality/realities and repertoires in their works?
How overt or covert (open or hidden) do the languages of the fictional worlds manifest in the piece of art? Do we have a multilingual narration of a multilingual story or not, if not, then why?
How does code-switching manifest in literature, on stage and in films? What are the differences and the similarities?
How can translation and/or synchronization/subtitles cope with multilingual stories?
What kind of language policies function behind the production and reception of a multilingual work?
How do language practices of different communication levels (non-fictional and fictional) influence each other?
How do readers/viewers manage multilingual narratives and multimodal discourses?

Proposals from literary, film, theatre, art, sociolinguistics, multilingualism, comparative and translation studies, as any other fields related to these topics are welcome. We encourage especially creative, innovative, interdisciplinary and any other fresh approaches!

2. CfPs: 70th National Postgraduate Colloquium in German Studies

Thursday, 9 and Friday, 10 June 2022

CALL FOR PAPERS (closing date: 30 March 2022)

The National Postgraduate Colloquium in German Studies is a biannual event organised in association with the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR - formerly Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies), at the University of London. Launched in 1987, it provides an informal and friendly forum for graduate students in all areas of German Studies to present and discuss their current research. It is a measure of its success that the Colloquium now routinely attracts students from universities in mainland Europe and North America.

Offers of papers from graduate students working on any aspect of German Studies, including all periods of literature, the arts, social sciences, history, and linguistics are invited for the 70th meeting which will be held in person at King’s College London (Virginia Woolf Building, Kingsway, London WC2) and online.

A general knowledge of German culture and language can be assumed, though not a specialised knowledge of individual topics. Presentations, no longer than twenty minutes in length, should be targeted to the occasion and make use of appropriate media. Papers may be given in English or German. Each paper is followed by a ten-minute period for questions and discussion.

If you would like to contribute a paper, please send an abstract of not more than 500 words to the organisers, c/o jane.lewin@sas.ac.uk. The abstract must include the following information as part of the same file (in either MS Word or pdf format, not just as part of the covering email):

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your contact telephone number
• The name of the institution at which you are registered
• Whether you anticipate giving the paper in person or online, and
• If online, where you will be located at the time of the Colloquium (needed for programming)
• Abstracts should be sent by email to jane.lewin@sas.ac.uk. Offers of papers must be received by 30 March 2022.

The Colloquium is organised by a committee in association with the Institute of Modern Languages Research. Current members are: Lauren Cuthbert (Aberdeen); Matthew Hines (Birmingham); Anja Rekeszus (King's College London); Monja Stahlberger (IMLR, London).

3. Event: Conference on Literature and Science in Europe, 1890 - 1950

10 - 11 February 2022 | Mgr. Sencie Institute, Arts Faculty, KU Leuven

As part of the Literary Knowledge, 1890 - 1950: Modernisms and the Sciences in Europe project within the University of Leuven’s MDRN research lab, this symposium seeks to address a simple question: what significant changes in the relation between science and literature in the modernist period (1890 - 1950) have either received too little attention, or have received a great deal of attention but require revision? The conference is to look at ‘literature’ and ‘science’ in a broad sense, charting practices and discourses in the sciences from the social sciences to the physical sciences, and approaching literature as writing aimed at a wide variety of audiences. It is also to pay special attention to whether (and if so, how) the rapid changes to the sciences in the modernist period led to corresponding alterations to the epistemic status of European literatures within the larger economy of knowledge production. Over two days of plenary sessions, invited speakers will present on a wide variety of European modernisms.

Invited speakers:

 Ken Hirschkop (University of Waterloo)

Thomas Klinkert (University of Zurich)

Hugues Marchal (University of Basel)

Benedikt Hjartarson (University of Iceland)

Nicolas Pethes (University of Cologne)

Michael H. Whitworth (University of Oxford)

Stefan Willer (Humboldt University Berlin)

Tyrus Miller (University of California, Irvine)

A provisional programme and the abstracts can be found at http://mdrn.be/news/literature-and-science-europe-1890-1950-10-11-febr-2022.

To attend a live-stream of the conference, please contact adele.guyton@kuleuven.be.

4. Call for Applications: Newton International Fellowships

Jointly run by the British Academy and the Royal Society, Newton International Fellowships enable researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of fostering long-term international collaborations. The scheme aims to attract the most promising early career postdoctoral researchers from overseas in the fields of natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities.

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University welcomes applications from outstanding candidates. For further information, see the British Academy's website