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(Un)performable & (un)translatable (Dublin)

(Un)performable & (un)translatable (Dublin)

Publié le par Arnaud Welfringer (Source : School of Advanced Study)

(Un)performable & (un)translatable

International Conference

Trinity College, Dublin. 19 – 20th May 2017

Trinity Centre for Literary Translation in association with the Institute of Modern Languages Research

Conference organisers: James Hadley (TCD) and Dominic Glynn (IMLR)

 

Declarations of practical, political, technical, or ideological impossibility may seem at first glance like dead-ends. However, they can subsequently act as provocations to consider the problem in question more creatively. For example, in 2012 Mo Yan stated that censorship is as necessary as airport security but argued that writing literature is about transcending politics.

The concept of untranslatability is old in translation studies, but continues to gather substantial interest. Barbara Cassin’s Dictionary of untranslatables (2014) has become a bestseller, and there is a thriving discussion among theoreticians about the supposed impossibility of translating certain terms or even texts between languages. As for practice, it has informed, contradicted and ignored theoretical debates. For instance, Schopenhauer attempted to translate Kant despite having previously declared his work untranslatable, and for experimental groups such as the Outranspo, the notion of untranslatability constitutes a challenge to provide a translation.

In performance studies, on the other hand, the notion of unperformability has not been adequately theorised. This is despite plays being frequently labelled unperformable by theatre professionals with regards technical constraints or a perceived lack of interest for live audiences. There has also been considerable work on the fear and repression of performance practices, from Jack Goody’s seminal Representations and Contradictions (1997) to the Observatoire de la vie littéraire’s ongoing project on the hatred of theatre.

The aim of this conference is two-fold. First, it seeks to uncover the relationship between untranslatability and unperformability, to establish correlations between the two terms and underlying paradigms. Second, it aims to subvert the notions in the two respective fields, by suggesting that what is, in fact, denoted by them is simply unrealised potential. 

 

Conference Schedule

Day 1

1200

Registration and Lunch

 

1300

Dominic Glynn & James Hadley

Welcome and Introduction

 

Panel 1

1330

1)       Lorna Shaughnessy

Static or Status Quo? The ‘performability’ of Alfonso Reyes’ Cruel Iphigenia

1400

2)       Salomé Paul

Sartre’s Trojan Women: Incomprehensible Greeks

1430

3)       Siobhán McElduff

Greek Gestures and Roman Voices: Translating the unperformable in ancient Rome

1500

Coffee break

 

 

 

 

Panel 2

1530

4)       Alice Folco

The French “injouable”, from Voltaire to Vitez

1600

5)       Karen Quigley

‘This play is getting in the way of me explaining it’: Unperformable texts, oscillatory pleasure, and the creativity of theatrical adaptation.

1630

6)       Séverine Ruset-Penketh

The unperformable on the contemporary stage: appeal and limits

1700

Comfort Break

 

 

 

1730

7)       Nicholas Johnson & David Shepherd

The David Fragments

1900

Dinner

 

 

 

Day 2

 

Keynote Presentation

0930

8)       Geraldine Brodie

 

Dead or alive? Theatrical retranslation and the paradox of (un)translatability

1030

Coffee break

 

 

 

 

Panel 4

1100

9)       Junjie Jang

Translating the play Toilet—(re)creating slangs, puns, and wordplays; introducing the footnote as a character, or recreating scenes from context?

1130

10)   Justine Houyaux

(Un)Translating Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to French: Strategies of Transfer of Realia (1869-2009)

1200

11)   Faisal Hamadah

On the untranslatability of cruelty

1230

Lunch

 

 

 

 

Panel 5

1400

12)   Andy Lavender

(Un)Performing the unthinkable: Brexit, Trump and the performativity of knowledge

1430

13)   Karin Sibul

(Un)interpretable and (Un)performable: Challenges Faced By a Diplomatic Interpreter

1500

14)   Charlotte Thevenet

How are you going to translate that?" (Un)performing the untranslatable in Jacques Derrida's "Living On"

1530

Closing remarks