This seminar invites proposals for papers that explore the aesthetics and politics of Cold War literary translations.
Around the world, literary translation increased during a period of intense surveillance of writers, who were seen as "cultural ambassadors" on both sides of the iron curtain.
Contemporary Translation Studies tends to posit as both desirable and inevitable the translator's prioritization of the receiving culture and language. However, as time passes and security archives become increasingly available, we can study literary translation's adaptations to target language and culture as a privileged site for close readings of literary translation aesthetics and ideology of the period.
Of particular interest is the "sound" of literary translations in a particular language and period; correspondence between translator-writer pairs; collaborative translations; exophonic translations; comparisons of translations across ideological divides (e.g. translations into German in the GDR vs. West Germany).
Around the world, literary translation increased during a period of intense surveillance of writers, who were seen as "cultural ambassadors" on both sides of the iron curtain.
Contemporary Translation Studies tends to posit as both desirable and inevitable the translator's prioritization of the receiving culture and language. However, as time passes and security archives become increasingly available, we can study literary translation's adaptations to target language and culture as a privileged site for close readings of literary translation aesthetics and ideology of the period.
Of particular interest is the "sound" of literary translations in a particular language and period; correspondence between translator-writer pairs; collaborative translations; exophonic translations; comparisons of translations across ideological divides (e.g. translations into German in the GDR vs. West Germany).