TT 2016 Week 6 Updates

Week 7!? It’s time for Oxford Translation Day! Book now! For the poetry lovers among you we have the acclaimed Agi Mischol (all the way from Israel) speaking, in addition to Stephen Romer, Sasha Dugdale, and Jamie McKendrick. Into Shakespeare? Well then come along to Ulrike Draesnar and Ewan Fernie’s talk on radical translations of the Bard! Or are you an aspiring translator yourself? In that case, we have THREE practical translation workshops. And for the history buffs and psychoanalytic types we have absolutely fascinating talks on the Spanish Civil War and translating psychoanalytic theory. Here’s our programme:  http://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/oxford-translation-day-2016. See you on the 11th of June!

But that’s not all! In Week 7 we also have a film screening of Isaac Julien's Looking for Langston (1989) with commentaries by Elleke Boehmer, Andrew Gardner, and Justine McConnell (chaired by Lloyd Pratt). More here: http://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/looking-langston-art-poetry-and-harlem-renaissa... final meeting of this term’s OCCT Discussion Group on Multilingualism will take place on the 7th May, at 12.45-2pm, in Seminar Room 5, St Anne's College. Please note the change of room! As usual, a sandwich lunch will be provided. Readings are listed on http://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/discussion-group.

A general discussion meeting to look over OCCT's activities and make plans for next year took place on the 2nd of June 2016. Some great ideas were discussed, and you have lots to look forward to in the new academic year!

 

Events and CFPs

1) You are warmly invited to our upcoming International Conference Caribbean and Diasporic Dialogues in the University taking place at Goldsmiths College, University of London, 27-9 June, 2016. The event is organised by Prof. Joan Anim-Addo, Director of the Centre for Caribbean & Diaspora Studies (CCDS) and Professor of Caribbean Literature and Culture at Goldsmiths College. 

The conference aims to challenge the limited visibility of Caribbean and Diaspora Studies in many higher education institutions and to interrogate the ways in which the precarious presence/ absence of indigenised black thought, currently being highlighted primarily through protest within, for example, higher education culture in countries like the UK, might be transformed. The theme of the conference – ‘Caribbean and Diasporic Dialogues in the University’ – seeks to foster and develop multi- and interdisciplinary conversations exploring critical, theoretical, historical and creative questions in a number of related fields that together contribute to Caribbean and Diaspora Studies.

We are especially interested to move beyond the construct of area studies ‘out there’ and to heighten the transglobal, transnational and postcolonial present with which Caribbean and diasporic research and arts practices are already richly conversant. We aim to engage a wide audience of scholars and practitioners researching these areas from within a range of disciplinary fields and contexts.

Registration is now open at  http://www.gold.ac.uk/caribbean/

Conference Fee is payable by cash at the start of the conference or by Bank transfer as per the details when you follow the link, above.

Early bird conference rate: £35 (payable by 31 May 2016).

From 1 June, Registration fee for all will be the full £45.00.

Please also visit our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Centre-for-Caribbean-and-Diaspora-Studies-CCDS-...

 

2) CFP for our Série Noire conference that was postponed from late 2015. We’ve reissued to see if there are any additional contributions. In addition, we very happy indeed to announce the participation of Aurélien Masson, director of the Série Noire at Gallimard, at the event.

Noire is the new noir: the Série Noire and the Franco-American detective traditions

Saturday, November 5th, 2016, The American University of Paris.

Plenary speaker: Aurélien Masson, director, Gallimard Série Noire

In 2015, the Série Noire, Gallimard’s iconic crime fiction imprint celebrated its 70th birthday. Throughout its history, the collection has published cult and classic texts from authors as diverse as Raymond Chandler and Chester Himes to Jean-Patrick Manchette and Thierry Jonquet in its distinctive yellow and black covers. Some of its writers were destined for mainstream and literary recognition outside the world of detective fiction, others, such as James Hadley Chase, James Gunn and Jean Amila were to remain appreciated only by a narrow, but voracious band of crime aficionados.

Best known for its compelling depictions of detectives striving to close cases in murky and ambiguous moral milieux, the novels of the Série Noire also maintain a consistent dialogue – both explicit and implicit – between France and the USA. While the early years of the collection post World War II saw pro-American feeling manifest through the popularity of US writers, the Série Noire gradually became more critical of American culture, politics and society as time progressed through 1968 and towards a contemporary networked and late capitalist world of American hegemony. If, as Dennis Porter argues, the figure of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe brandishing a Colt Detective pistol is quintessentially American, what are the implications when the image is doubled in a French setting by Manchette’s Martin Terrier? What does it mean when French language detective fiction is translated and filmed by Hollywood?

This one-day conference at the American University of Paris (AUP) will consider how the Série Noire reflects the dynamics of the relationship between France and the USA. It will explore how the novels of the Série Noire can be understood as a prism through which the social, political and cultural links between the two nations can be better understood.

The organisers invite proposals for twenty-minute research papers in English or French. Possible themes for exploration could include, but are by no means limited to, the following:

•      The French writers of the Série Noire
•      The American writers of the collection
•      The Série Noire and race
•      The women of the Série Noire: writers and characters
•      Consumerism and capital
•      American culture seen from France
•      French culture viewed from the USA
•      La France profonde in the Série Noire
•      Impact of the Série Noire in American fiction
•      Film adaptations of Série Noire texts
•      French and American crime styles

Proposals (maximum 300 words), together with a short biography indicating your academic background, affiliation and research interests or short CV, should be submitted via e-mail to Russell Williams (rwilliams@aup.edu) and Alice Craven (acraven@aup.edu) by June 30th, 2016. Please include your name, academic affiliation (where appropriate), and contact details.

This conference is jointly organised by the AUP departments of Comparative Literature and English and Film Studies.

 

3) We are delighted to invite you to the following book launch on June 7 at 5:30 pm in Senate House, London

Paola Sica

Futurist Women: Florence, Futurism and the New Sciences (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)

Respondent: Simona Storchi, University of Leicester

Chair: Katia Pizzi, University of London

*ALL WELCOME*

About the author

Paola Sica is Professor and Chair of Italian Studies at Connecticut College, USA. Her publications, both in English and Italian, include a book on comparative modernism, Modernist Forms of Rejuvenation: Eugenio Montale and T.S. Eliot (2003), and various articles on twentieth-century literature and culture  - especially modernism and the avant-garde  - in such journals as Italica, Annali d'Italianistica, Modern Language Note, Yale Italian Poetry, Quaderni d'italianistica and Italian Quarterly. She has presented her work in numerous academic and cultural settings internationally, including the MLA convention and Columbia University in the United States; the ISSEI conference in Helsinki, Finland; Queen Mary, University of London, UK Istituto di Cultura Italiana in Toronto; and Dante Alighieri in Italy and the United States.
 

Dr Eleni Philippou

Comparative Criticism and Translation

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