Translation Matters Saturday, November 21, 2015 2:30-4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » Why is translation, which formerly referred to a set of restricted technical procedures taking place between two languages, now widely understood to be the basis of all human culture? What is it about this dynamic principle of displacement, exchange, and creative renewal that also links it to the exercise of political power and the possession of linguistic/literary capital? Why do some still consider it a necessary evil, while others regard it as a testimony to the rich diversity of human expression? Because its processes are so pervasive a feature of thought and experience, we must ask, on the one hand, does anything escape translation? And on the other hand, we must also ask, is everything (ultimately) translatable? Translation Studies as a field has grown tremendously in the last two decades. This event will focus on translation as a psychic, aesthetic, and cultural phenomenon. We are extremely fortunate to have with us a group of celebrated literary translators and theorists of translation, who work in different languages and across genres and periods. Their distinctive insights into this most significant and challenging enterprise will remind us of the countless ways we all live in translation and are subject to its elusive and reverberating implications. Participants: David Bellos Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Princeton University David Bellos studied Modern Languages at Oxford and taught French at the Universities of Edinburgh, Southampton and Manchester before moving to Princeton, where he is Professor of French and Comparative Literature and Director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication. He is the author of Romain Gary. A Tall Story (2010); Jacques Tati. His… read more » Bella Brodzki Professor of Comparative Literature, Sarah Lawrence Bella Brodzki is professor of Comparative Literature at Sarah Lawrence, where she teaches courses in world literature/global writing, translation studies, autobiography, and literary and cultural theory. She is the coeditor of Life/lines: Theorizing Women’s Autobiography; a special issue of Comparative Literature Studies on Narrative and Trauma, and author of Can These Bones Live?: Translation, Survival,… read more » Anne-Marie Levine Poet and Visual Artist Anne-Marie Levine lives in New York City. A poet and visual artist who began writing while touring as a concert pianist, she’s the author of three books of poetry: Euphorbia, Bus Ride to a Blue Movie, and Oral History; and a forthcoming artists book called Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter. Her work also appears in various… read more » Suzanne Jill Levine Director of Translation Studies, the University of California, Santa Barbara Suzanne Jill Levine’s translation Mundo Cruel: Stories (by Luis Negron) won the 2014 Lambda Prize for Fiction. Editor of the Penguin paperback classics of Jorge Luis Borges’ poetry and essays, and translator of canonical Latin American writers such as Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Julio Cortazar, Manuel Puig, Severo Sarduy and Adolfo Bioy Casares, she has received… read more » Mark Polizzotti Author, Director of the Publications Program at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Mark Polizzotti has translated more than fifty books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Patrick Modiano, Marguerite Duras, André Breton, and Raymond Roussel. A Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the recipient of a 2016 American Academy of Arts & Letters Award for Literature, he is the author of… read more » Michelle Woods Associate Professor of English, SUNY New Paltz Michelle Woods is the author of Kafka Translated: How Translators Have Shaped Our Reading of Kafka (Bloomsbury, 2013); Censoring Translation: Censorship, Theatre and the Politics of Translation (Continuum, 2012); and Translating Milan Kundera (Multilingual Matters, 2006). She is currently editing a book of essays on literature and translation, Authorizing Translation (Routledge, 2016). She is co-editor… read more »
David Bellos Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Princeton University David Bellos studied Modern Languages at Oxford and taught French at the Universities of Edinburgh, Southampton and Manchester before moving to Princeton, where he is Professor of French and Comparative Literature and Director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication. He is the author of Romain Gary. A Tall Story (2010); Jacques Tati. His… read more »
Bella Brodzki Professor of Comparative Literature, Sarah Lawrence Bella Brodzki is professor of Comparative Literature at Sarah Lawrence, where she teaches courses in world literature/global writing, translation studies, autobiography, and literary and cultural theory. She is the coeditor of Life/lines: Theorizing Women’s Autobiography; a special issue of Comparative Literature Studies on Narrative and Trauma, and author of Can These Bones Live?: Translation, Survival,… read more »
Anne-Marie Levine Poet and Visual Artist Anne-Marie Levine lives in New York City. A poet and visual artist who began writing while touring as a concert pianist, she’s the author of three books of poetry: Euphorbia, Bus Ride to a Blue Movie, and Oral History; and a forthcoming artists book called Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter. Her work also appears in various… read more »
Suzanne Jill Levine Director of Translation Studies, the University of California, Santa Barbara Suzanne Jill Levine’s translation Mundo Cruel: Stories (by Luis Negron) won the 2014 Lambda Prize for Fiction. Editor of the Penguin paperback classics of Jorge Luis Borges’ poetry and essays, and translator of canonical Latin American writers such as Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Julio Cortazar, Manuel Puig, Severo Sarduy and Adolfo Bioy Casares, she has received… read more »
Mark Polizzotti Author, Director of the Publications Program at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Mark Polizzotti has translated more than fifty books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Patrick Modiano, Marguerite Duras, André Breton, and Raymond Roussel. A Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the recipient of a 2016 American Academy of Arts & Letters Award for Literature, he is the author of… read more »
Michelle Woods Associate Professor of English, SUNY New Paltz Michelle Woods is the author of Kafka Translated: How Translators Have Shaped Our Reading of Kafka (Bloomsbury, 2013); Censoring Translation: Censorship, Theatre and the Politics of Translation (Continuum, 2012); and Translating Milan Kundera (Multilingual Matters, 2006). She is currently editing a book of essays on literature and translation, Authorizing Translation (Routledge, 2016). She is co-editor… read more »
So sorry I had to miss this. Levine is the only person I’ve ever encountered who understands the intimate relationship between the art of humor and the art of translation, and whenever I see her I’m as entertained as I am informed. Hope it was as lively as it usually is. Reply
My gratitude for your commentary, dear Bruce Benderson–and I hasten to express my admiration for you as an astute and original cultural critic, essayist, fiction writer–and fellow translator. Reply