In the wake of the cultural turn in Translation Studies and post-colonial studies, Translation Studies has become increasingly interested in how theoretical concepts are themselves subject to modulation and resistance as they move (or fail to move) into different socio-cultural and linguistic contexts. The need for enhanced international circulation of theoretical texts from a diversity of linguistic and cultural contexts has also been recognized. Within Translation Studies, for instance, John Benjamins, is presently envisaging a French translation of its online Handbook on Translation Studies.
This conference seeks to explore how the concept of voice could enhance an understanding of how the re-contextualizing of theoretical disourses and concepts through translation influences and changes theoretical ideas. It focuses on the challenges and obstacles to the delicate passage of theoretical concepts from one linguistic and socio-cultural tradition to another. Theoretical voices do not only circulate via translation in the strictest sense of the word, but when quoted and referred to in research as well. How such translating/quoting/referring practices function in different culturel contexts is also a theme of this conference.
Recent scholarship has examined the voice of the translator, the role of authorial and editorial voices in the translation process, the difficulties in translating intra-textual voices, and the different voices involved in preparing translations of literary texts for educational purposes. How does a 'voice' become a 'theoretical voice'? How do theoretical voices become audible in their own language and in other languages? What are the challenges in translating theoretical voices from one cultural and linguistic tradition to another? Can the notion of voice be applied to theoretical discourses and conceptual texts written by translators about their practice?
Papers are invited on questions such as the following (the list is not meant to be exclusive): Biographical studies of authors of theoretical works or texts; Comparative studies of how specific theoretical concepts are used in different soci-cultural and linguistic contexts; Studies of translations of theoretical texts Analyses of the circulation (or non-circulation) of theoretical texts beyond their own cultural and linguistic context; Explorations of how the notion of voice can be applied to theoretical discourses.
Please send an abstract (250-300 words) of your paper and a short bio to Agnes Whitfield (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by September 15, 2013. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by October 15, 2013. Conference languages (for papers and discussions) will be English and French.
Scientific Committee: Cecilia Alvstad, University of Oslo, Christine Raguet, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, Elżbieta Skibińska, University of Wrocław, and Agnès Whitfield, York University.