Emma Burston (College of the Holy Cross)
ebur@****.com (Log-in to reveal)
What happens when an author, playwright, or filmmaker chooses to embed a translation in a fictional setting? This panel will consider the many forms of fictional, imaginary, and somewhat deceitful translations—from pseudotranslation (a text written as if it had been translated from a foreign language, even though no foreign language original exists) to self-translation (when an author composes a text in one language and translates it into another)—to interrogate the act of translation as both a motor and an obstacle in a work of fiction.
What happens when an author, playwright, or filmmaker chooses to embed a translation in a fictional setting? This panel will consider the many forms of fictional, imaginary, and somewhat deceitful translations—from pseudotranslation (a text written as if it had been translated from a foreign language, even though no foreign language original exists) to self-translation (when an author composes a text in one language and translates it into another)—to interrogate the act of translation as both a motor and an obstacle in a work of fiction.
For instance, the narrator and pseudotranslator in Stendhal's Chroniques Italiennes interrupts the story he appears to be translating from old, damaged, Italian manuscripts, with digressions about the etymology of one word or the readability of another. By bringing the reader's attention to this purported translation, Stendhal not only disrupts the flow of events within the story, he highlights the paradox of translation: as soon as the reader realizes the text is a translation, the authenticity of the translation has failed. Some questions we might consider include: How do these fictional translations double as creative writing forms? What could be the purpose of a deceitful translation in a work of fiction? What is at stake when one character interprets for another? How does this mediation increase or decrease the reality effect sought out by the author?