During recent years self-translation has received growing scholarly attention, analysing the double bilingual and bicultural affiliations of the author-translators, their ideological stances, the stylistic, spatial and temporary reworking and adaptation of the ST, self-censorship or deliberate omissions and expansions. The multilingual and diglossic situation in the Iberian Peninsula offers a perfect intercultural and intracultural milieu to examine the political, cultural and economic implications and consequences of self-translation. Indeed, the interactions between official state languages (Portuguese and Spanish) and non-state languages (Basque, Catalan and Galician) generate a series of cultural and linguistic tensions affecting notions of hegemony and interdependency between literary polysystems. This may be further problematized by the fact that some self-translations are presented as originals themselves, with both versions ‘competing’ with each other in the same book market, or by the fact that the self-translator’s autonomy to modify the ST for the target audience is less constrained than that of professional translators.

Given their double role/position/affiliation as authors and translators, self-translators are placed in a privileged position to scrutinise peripheral and hegemonic cultural identities. The aim of this conference is to explore the self-translators’ role as cultural mediators between languages of disparate status in the Hispanic and Lusophone context.

Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to:

· Language politics: diglossia, bilinguism, multilinguism

· Language/Cultural planning

· The ideologies of self-translation

· The book market and reception

· Cultural mediation

· National/territorial identities

· Subverting hegemony; centre vs. periphery

· Self-Translation as autonomous recreation

· Authorial voice/intervention/representation

The organisers intend to publish a selection of articles stemming from this conference.

Please email a 200-word abstract of your proposed 20-minute paper or 3-people panel by 31 May 2013 to the organisers, including name, institutional affiliation and contact details:

Dr Olga Castro (Aston University) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dr Sergi Mainer (University College Cork) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.