translation studies

Revolutions in Reading: Literary Practice in Transition

The conference will focus on linguistic fragmentation as a means of cultural inclusion. In the passage from late antiquity to the high Middle Ages, a number of written translations in various vernaculars and dialects already appear – suffice it to think of the first attempts at translating the Bible, of the effect of Carolingian culture, or of King Alfred’s cultural policy, aimed at making vernaculars the vehicle of faith and knowledge. As we move towards the late Middle Ages, translation becomes an essential instrument for the transmission of literature, religion and science. The proliferation of translations, through the linguistic fragmentation represented by target languages, allowed the transferral of texts to an ever-wider audience.

“I have lived that moment of the scattering of the people that in other times and other places, in the nations of others, becomes a time of gathering.”

— Homi K. Bhabha, “The Location of Culture”

Keynote speaker: Ariella Azoulay

Dates: March 13-14, 2020

In June 2019, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Trump’s administration was establishing “concentration camps” for immigrants on the southern border of the US. Her viral tweet, which has as of the posting of this CFP has46k retweets and 102k likes, has caused a bipartisan commotion.

Can we theorize World Literature as an intellectual and creative practice of resistance against the cultural imperialism embodied by the idea of the Global, the celebration of what Graham Hubbard calls the “postcolonial exotic,” and the hegemony of the English language? Is there a degree of antagonism between World Literature and the Global--or between the notions of translation and lingua franca? In what ways have these various terms been conflated or exchanged, and what do these conceptual entanglements tell us about the stakes and methodology of World Literature as a theory, a field of inquiry, and an institution?

****This is a CFP for the 2020 ACLA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, March 19-22, 2020.***

In The Anatomy of Fascism, Robert Paxton reminds us that fascism has always proved difficult to define. Fascism “seemed to come from nowhere.” Though it “took on multiple and varied forms” and “exalted hatred and violence in the name of national prowess,” it still “managed to appeal to prestigious and well-educated statesmen, entrepreneurs, professionals, artists, and intellectuals.” Despite this, “everyone is” nonetheless, “sure they know what fascism is.”