IASS 28th Study Conference:

TRANSLATION − ADAPTION, INTERPRETATION, TRANSFORMATION

Lund University, Sweden

3 − 7 August 2010

After the memorable and productive conference in Gdansk 2008 – with the theme 20th Century Drama in Scandinavia – it is now time to look forward to next conference, which will take place in Lund August 3th – 7th 2010. It will be the first time since 1986, when the conference was arranged in Gothenburg on The Modern Breakthrough in Scandinavia, that the conference will be held in Sweden and that is one of the reasons to why we feel proud and happy to be able to invite you to  Centre of Literature and Languages at Lund University. The theme this time will be Translation – Adaption, Interpretation, Transformation – that is translation in the broadest sense. It means that this is not a conference for specialists. The idea is that all of us who are occupied with literature and other media – not least Scandinavists – in fact are dealing with translation, more or less all the time. We read literature which is translated, we deal with understanding and interpretation, we discuss meanings in and between different codes, discourses, genres and media, we are translating and teaching neighbour languages or teaching Scandinavian languages abroad. We study – contrastively – conditions of book production and cultural exchange, impulses and influences, transports and flows in different directions. Already in Gdansk mechanisms active in transference and adaptions of different kinds, from drama text and stage directions to performance, from Scandinavian languages to others, from one art form to another were highlighted. Translation – in the broadest sense – immediately arouses a swarm of related concepts which give a suggestion of of the amount of topics to deal with, in lectures, papers and discussions. Concepts like adaption, belles infidèles, imitation, selection, format exchange, transformation, traduction, traditore-traduttore, interpretation, reception, staging, transculturaçion, parody, misreading, paraphrase, interlinguistic, intersemiotic and intralinguistic processes – the list could be made much longer – all point to the productive processes involved in the creation and spreading of new and ”old” cultural artifacts (which thereby become new). It is our intention to organize the conference around some overall themes, somewhat catchy formulated below.

What is translation?

Philosophy, philosophy of language, poetics, linguistics; actual problematics and historical views; authors, critics and scholars tend to have a lot of ideas concerning what translation is. Actual trends in theory and scholarship; institutional frameworks; where and how are people concerned with translation; ”Translations studies”, ”Rezeptionsästhetik”; intermedial studies and so forth.

History of literature and translation

The translated literature and its signicance in a given situation of literary history; the concept of ”system” as an alternative to the national, chronological history; book-historical explorations, cuturally specifique interpretations and adaptions; histories of reception. Certain authorships and individual initiatives – the significance of translation in the creative process for some remarkable writers; important individual translators and their accomplishments.

Import

Under this heading not least waves of influences from outside during later decades (the Latin-american ”boom”, chick lit, language poetry, witness literature etc.), introduction of new voices, from different parts of the world – when, how, under which conditions? Successes, bestsellers, neglected milieus, cultural-political and commercial conditions, individual efforts and actual initiatives from publishing houses. Textual analyses, philological details, broader considerations.

Export

How does the flow ”out of the house” appear in the different Scandinavian countries? Efforts of cultural politics, translations to the established milieus, but also to new countries and cultures. The reception and translation of Scandinavian authorships and certain genres in (which?) parts of the world. Success histories, important local initiatives. Linguistical observations, creative solutions, innovations and misunderstandings.

Scandinavian traffic

Routes of interest and influences between the Scandinavian countries, historically and in the present, tendencies and individual cases; initiatives from publishers and the role of magazines, experiences from nabosprogsundervisning and the situation  of text- and handbooks, the media situation, juridical circumstances. During Spring and Summer 2009 discussions around the theme and the above, somewhat abstractly sketched subtitles will continue and continually become more precise. We look forward to questions  and wishes and suggestions when it comes to concrete ideas about what singular lectures, papers and discussion could deal with. In September 2009 a  more detailed call for papers will be issued. where we ask you to register to the the conference and where we will give you informations about when registrations and abstracts are to be sent in and when the conference fee has to be sent to us. During the Spring of 2010 we will publish the program and provide you with all the necessary informations. Lund, May 2009 Per Erik Ljung President of IASS You are welcome to contact the organization committe: Per Erik Ljung and Claes-Göran Holmberg, email address iass2010litt.luse