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Below are the roundtables of the conference.
Roundtables
Roundtable 1: The tradosphere and decolonization
Convenor: Anne Malena (University of Alberta)
Roundtable 2: Powerful minorities
Convenor: Pilar Orero (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Roundtable 1: The tradosphere and decolonization
Convenor: Anne Malena (University of Alberta)
Keywords: ecology; tradosphere; decolonization; indigenous; queer; gender; education
This roundtable invites scholars from fields concerned with decolonization—Indigenous Studies, Queer Studies, Gender Studies, Education and others—to send proposals for presentations on this theme either theoretically or through the examination of case studies. What Michael Cronin has termed the tradosphere, that is the kinds of translations occurring between the interconnected beings, non-human and human, organic and inorganic that exist on the earth, raises important questions. Participants in this roundtable will consider the ways translation and decolonization theories and practices might join forces to formulate a cultural ecology of translation politically able to address the human-made damages inflicted for millennia on the planet and its inhabitants by the Eurocentric thirst for power and profit. For example, a major concept that might be inspiring and productive in our discussion is what Marie Battiste and James Youngblood Henderson have described as “the Eurocentric illusion of benign translatability” that summarizes the Eurocentric position that worldviews can be translated (2000, 79). What does this mean for translation strategies, in a given field? What would collaborative or activist translation look like? What notions may be untranslatable in a particular culture? How is difference to be conceptualized? While Cronin has placed three terms at the centre of his discussion—place, resilience and relatedness—can we assume that those same three terms have the same significance in all cultures? For example, ‘place’ probably resonates with many but, for most Indigenous people in Canada, a better term would be ‘land’ as it is “the most important relationship embodied by First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages” and also “involves the creatures and plants, as well as the people’s historical and spiritual relationship to their territories” (2016 Canadian Report to the Assembly of First Nations). By the same token, “resilience” might be better termed “survivance,” for the same populations, after Gerald Vizenor’s redefinition of the term to include a cultural presence that exceeds mere survival and endurance. As translation and decolonization efforts are happening within the tradosphere, we invite scholars to explore the various theories circulating and practical changes being made within their own fields and to reflect on the translatability of notions germane to their areas of study.
Papers:
Anne Malena: "Place, resilience and relatedness in Gerald Vizenor's Chair of Tears."
Wangtaolue Guo: "Tick as Appropriate: (A) Gay, (B) Lesbian, (C) Tongzhi, (D) Adju: Rethinking Gender and Sexual Politics in the Spaces Between Languages and Indigeneity."
Sofía Monzon: "A Queer Medley: Piecing Together Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood through Archives, Editions, and Retranslations (1936-2003)."
Abstract: This roundtable will consider, from different perspectives, how research into translation reveals ways to imagine a cultural ecology of translation that will include previously ignored, censored or marginalized viewpoints. Colonization is responsible for neglecting these viewpoints. We argue that translation research and translation practice now have to rely on decolonizing theories and practices to rethink the potential importance of these viewpoints for the future of the planet and of translation studies. Inspired by the three concepts discussed by Michael Cronin, place, resilience and relatedness, we will examine three different contexts where these notions operate or are lacking: Indigenous cosmologies, queer and queering translation, and literary censorship.
Through the analysis of a 2012 novel by the Anishinaabe writer Gerald Vizenor, Chair of Tears, Anne Malena (University of Alberta) will discuss how ‘place’ resonates with many Indigenous people and how the term is replaced by ‘land’ in North America as it is “the most important relationship embodied by First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages” and also “involves the creatures and plants, as well as the people’s historical and spiritual relationship to their territories” (2016 Canadian Report to the Assembly of First Nations). By the same token, ‘resilience’might be better termed ‘survivance’ after Gerald Vizenor’s redefinition of the term to include a cultural presence that exceeds mere survival and endurance. As for relatedness it is the glue that holds everything in the cosmos together and, in this context, translation is everywhere and essential for maintaining a healthy environment.
Energized by the symbiotic ideas of queering indigeneity and indigenizing queerness, Wangtaolue Guo (University of Alberta) will present the nuanced ways in which gender and sexuality are inscribed in and transferred between languages used in Taiwan (Mandarin, English, Hokkien, various Formosan languages). Using the 2018 Adju Indigenous (the Paiwan and the Rukai) Music Festival as a starting point, he looks into the “spaces of indeterminacy” (Spurlin 2017, 174) where Indigenous queer sexualities reside. He argues that such sites of struggle in the negotiation, transference, and circulation of meaning illustrate, on the one hand, the complex dynamics of socio-cultural forces that (re-)configure the understanding of non-normative sexualities in Taiwan and, on the other hand, the violence inflicted upon Taiwanese Aborigines through the eradication of Indigenous expressions with respect to gender and sexual performativity.
Sofía Monzon (University of Alberta) will show how important it was for editor Cheryl J. Plumb to piece together Djuna Barnes’ 1936 novel Nightwood through archives, editions, and retranslations (1936-2003) since it was censored in Spain during the Franco regime (1939-1975). She will analyze several editions of Nightwood in Spanish that were issued throughout the twentieth century. To do that, special attention will be paid to the translations that were published during the Francoist
dictatorship in order to determine the different layers of censorship that the novel and the translations were exposed to by the institutions, the publishers, or even the translatorsthemselves. These texts will then be contrasted with the new, complete version edited by Plumb and translated by Maite Cirugeda (2003).
References
Battiste, Marie Ann and James [Sákéj] Youngblood Henderson. Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: a Global Challenge, Purich Pub 2000.
Cronin, Michael. Eco-Translation: Translation and Ecology in the Age of the Anthropocene, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.
Vizenor, Gerald (ed.). Survivance: Narratives of Native Presence, University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
For informal enquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bionote of roundtable convenor:
Anne Malena is a translator and Professor of French and Translation Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta (Canada). She edits TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies (http://journals.library.ualberta.ca/tc) and organizes the Annual St. Jerome’s Day Conference. Her publications include French translations of two novels by Kristjana Gunnars, as well as articles in various journals on translation and Caribbean Literature. One of her most recent article, “The City That Shouldn’t Be: New Orleans” appeared in Translation Studies 7.2 (2014). Her current research deals with the history of translation in Louisiana. The Tradosphere and Decolonization / English.
Roundtable 2: Powerful minorities
Convenor: Pilar Orero (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Keywords: accessibility, universal design, assistive technologies, disability, ability, inclusion, diversity, objectivity, subjectivity
Equal opportunities is what defines best Europe and the utopian ecology of equal distribution. The EC issued a Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 where provisions are described among: individuals, of opportunities for education, training, employment, career development and the exercise of power without their being disadvantaged on the basis of their sex, race, language, religion, economic or family situation, etc. This quest for fairness has a direct implication of the EC approaches to equality. Politics in Europe promote opposite actions that go from the social promotion of substantive distribution of results to the liberal notion that a free competition guarantees a fair outcome. There is a tug of war between individualism versus communal, between compensation to quotas. The liberal concept of helping the individual talent, where discrimination is compensated for disadvantage clashes with social intervention aim at redistribution as a result of the collectivization of individualistic processes. This theoretical approach to equal opportunities can be transposed to the field of Translation Studies where some areas of theoretical discourse are discriminated against major trends. Translation formats are also an arena where studies are unfairly distributed between written and other formats such as oral or visual. Translated languages and their technologies are also lacking in equality, with conflicting concepts such as minority versus under resourced. To the extreme imperialism of English as the official Translation Studies academic publications language.
Equal opportunities and Human Rights are at the core of Media Accessibility, a small area of research within the already marginal realm of Audiovisual Translation. Deciding on basic concepts have a direct impact on both the theoretical, applied study, and analysis approaches with clashing issues in: Universal Design/Assistive Technologies, Disability/Ability, Inclusion/Diversity, Objectivity/Subjectivity, etc. Media Accessibility is also under the illusion of having breached the gap between theory and practice, academia and industry, service and model. The aim of this round table is to understand the different approaches towards fulfilling European Directives towards equal access to media, through: funding research, end user association, industry, education, certification, and regulation.
For informal enquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bionote of convenor:
Pilar Orero, PhD (UMIST, UK) works at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). She is a member of the research group TransMedia Catalonia http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/transmedia/ She has written and edited many books, academic papers and book chapters all on Media Accessibility http://gent.uab.cat/pilarorero, leader and participant on numerous EU funded projects such as HBB4ALL http://pagines.uab.cat/hbb4all/ ACT http://pagines.uab.cat/act/, UMAQ (Understanding Quality Media Accessibility) ;; http://pagines.uab.cat/umaq/ EasyTV (interaction to accessible TV) https://easytvproject.eu:3001 and ImAc (Immersive Accessibility) http://www.imac-project.eu, REBUILD and HELIOS 2018-2021, and the three ERASMUS+ ADLAB PRO http://www.adlabproject.eu EASIT http://pagines.uab.cat/easit/ and LTA https://ltaproject.eu Co-founder of the Media Accessibility Platform MAP http://www.mapaccess.org. She works in standardisation and participates in the ITU IRG-AVA - Intersector Rapporteur Group Audiovisual Media Accessibility http://www.itu.int/en/irg/ava/Pages/default.aspx, member of the working group ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35. Member of the Spanish UNE working group on accessibility. She is also a member of ANEC Accessibility working group (www.anec.eu). She leads the EU COST Action on Media Accessibility LEAD-ME