The Translator Made Corporeal: Translation History And The Archive
Call for papers
Organized by the British Library and University College London. 8 May 2017, British Library Conference Centre
Keynote speaker: Jeremy Munday
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@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
Posted by The Editors on 14th Oct 2016 in News: Call for Papers
inTRAlinea [ISSN 1827-000X] is the online translation journal of the Department of Interpreting and Translation (DIT) of the University of Bologna, Italy: www.intralinea.org.