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21st-Century Life Narratives in Transit and Translation: Refugee Tales and Beyond

In his guest lecture within the framework of Professor Doctor Birgit Neumann's seminar "Migration and Refugee Narratives: Self-Translation, Mis-Translation and Non-Translation", Professor Doctor Jan Rupp analyses life-writing as 'site of refuge' and 'hospitable form'.

Abstract

In the face of material and legal constraints for refugees to speak, their life stories are frequently facilitated by new networks of solidarity to protest hostile immigration regimes. These invariably complex constellations of telling – involving refugees, activists, lawyers, translators and go-between writers, among others – are haunted by scepticism over the question of who can speak as/for refugees and display elusive multidirectional linkages with earlier bodies of migrant literature. However, in the absence of rights and representation, life-writing offers an important site of refuge itself, resulting in innovative forms of fictional accommodation, emic and etic narratives, or auto- and heterobiography. Further mapping this growing network of what I call ‘hospitable form’, my talk will survey a broad spectrum of non-fictional to fictional(ized) life-writing, including of the multi-volume Refugee Tales (2016-21). I will then turn to a close reading of Behrouz Boochani’s prize-winning autobiographical account No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (2018), with a particular view to the role of media and translation. I will argue that refugee narratives cover important new ground for life-writing while registering the impact of refugee systems, as an emergent body of work yet to be fully accommodated.

About Professor Doctor Jan Rupp

Having served as an interim professor at the universities of Frankfurt, Giessen, Heidelberg and Wuppertal, Professor Doctor Jan Rupp currently is coordinator of the Research Centre for the Study of Culture at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. Learn more about his research here.

Übersetzer·innen als Verbündete | Macht · Asymmetrien · Teilhabe

German-language event

Dorothea Traupe gibt die diesjährige Keynote für die Summer School des Literaturübersetzen Studiengangs. In ihrer Keynote mit dem Titel "Übersetzer·innen als Verbündete | Macht · Asymmetrien · Teilhabe" wird sie u. a. über ethische Auftragsentscheidungen und das Übersetzen aus "kleinen Sprachen" sprechen.

Dorothea Traupe hat Politikwissenschaft, Englische und Polnische Literaturwissenschaft sowie Literarisches Übersetzen aus dem Englischen an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München studiert. Sie arbeitet als Dozentin, Moderatorin, Prozessbegleiterin mit Schwerpunkt inklusive Kommunikation, Diversität und Barrierefreiheit sowie als Übersetzerin für Englisch, Polnisch und Leichte Sprache. Im Rahmen von DÜF-Gastdozenturen hat sie sich in den letzten beiden Wintersemestern intensiv mit dem Thema „Literaturübersetzen in Einfache/Leichte Sprache“ beschäftigt. Mehr: www.dorotheatraupe.de.

Reading with Dr. Elizabeth Chakrabarty

Within the framework of this year's literary translation summer school, Doctor Elizabeth Chakrabarty reads from her novel "Lessons in Love and Other Crimes".

Doctor Elizabeth Chakrabarty is an interdisciplinary writer using creative and critical writing, besides performance, to explore themes of race, gender and sexuality. Her debut novel Lessons in Love and Other Crimes, inspired by experience of race hate crime, was published in 2021 by the Indigo Press, along with her essay, On Closure and Crime. In 2022 Elizabeth was longlisted for both the Desmond Elliott Prize, and also shortlisted for the LGBTQ Polari First Book Prize, for Lessons in Love and Other Crimes. She was also shortlisted for the Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction 2022, and her story 'That Last Summer' was published in The Dinesh Allirajah Prize for Short Fiction 2022: Crime Stories by Comma Press. She was shortlisted for the Asian Writer Short Story Prize in 2016, and her story 'Eurovision' was published in Dividing Lines (Dahlia, 2017). Her poetry has been published by Visual Verse, and her short creative-critical work includes writing published in Gal-Dem, New Writing Dundee, Wasafiri, and the anthology Imagined Spaces (Saraband, 2020), and in translation, by Glänta and Deus Ex Machina. In 2023 she received the CrimeFest bursary for crime fiction authors of colour, and was the April writer in residence at Passa Porta, Brussels, besides being invited by the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation to give a masterclass for their Gay Writes project. She lives in London.

Narrating/Translating China and the Chinese Experience Abroad

A Conversation with Sinophone Writer Yan Geling and Translator Lawrence Walker

Heine Haus Literaturhaus, Bolkerstraße 53, 40213 Düsseldorf

On 7 June 2024, Yan Geling, one of the most acclaimed Sinophone novelists and screenwriters, along with literary translator Lawrence Walker, will discuss the aesthetics and politics of narrating and translating China and the Chinese experience abroad. Moderated by Dr. Yongli Li and Dr. Hannah Pardey, this event will feature a conversation about their creative processes, readings from a selection of Yan’s writings and Walker’s translations, and a discussion with the audience. The event will be conducted in English.

Yan Geling 嚴歌苓 is one of the most acclaimed novelists and screenwriters in the Chinese language and a well-established writer in English. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the Cultural Revolution, starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe. Ms. Yan published her first novel in 1986 and has been writing constantly ever since. Many of her works have been adapted for film and television, working with famous Chinese directors Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang, Ang Lee, Li Shaohong and Joan Chen. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Ms. Yan holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, Chicago. She has published over 40 books and has won over 30 literary and film awards. Her works have been translated into twenty-one languages. Her literary and film work after March 2020 has been unofficially banned in China after she wrote an essay criticizing the Chinese government’s initial handling of the COVID-19 crisis. She resides in Berlin and is co-owner of New Song Media GmbH, which she and her husband Lawrence Walker founded to publish her work and produce her films.

Lawrence A. (Larry) Walker, born in California, worked as a US diplomat from 1980-1991 and again from 2004-2013, serving Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa and the United States. Between 1991 to 2004 he was managing director of the German American Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco and worked in international business development for a dot-com and a venture capital company. He translated and published Yan Geling’s White Snake and Other Stories with Aunt Lute Books and her short story “The Landlady” in Granta. His translation of her novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi 陆犯焉识 is to be published by Balestier Press. He is the managing director and co-owner with Yan Geling of New Song Media GmbH, founded to publish her work and produce her film projects. He holds a B.S. in Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University; an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois; and a Master’s in Administration and Management from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium, which he attended as a Rotary Ambassador Scholar.

Sponsored by Gesellschaft von Freunden und Förderern der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf e.V. (GFFU), Transcultural Studies and Centre for Translation Studies at HHU.

Moderation: Dr. Hannah Pardey (Centre for Translation Studies, HHU), Dr. Yongli Li (Transcultural Studies, HHU)

Kissed by the Original? Approaches to Literary Translation

01.03.2024

German-language event.

Buchübersetzungen entstehen nicht im luftleeren Raum, sie werden von Menschen gemacht. Wo können Sie dies studieren, wie gelingt Ihnen der Berufseinstieg und wie bilden Sie sich fort? Anlässlich der Mitgliederversammlung des Verbands der Literaturübersetzer:innen (VdÜ) in Düsseldorf kommen Vertreterinnen des Masterstudiengangs Literaturübersetzen und des Centre for Translation Studies mit Berufspraktikerinnen ins Gespräch.

Prof. Dr. Vera Elisabeth Gerling, Prof. Dr. Birgit Neumann (beide HHU)

Larissa Bender, Ricarda Essrich (Berufsübersetzerinnen)

Moderation: Dr. Friederike von Criegern

19:00, Haus der Universität

Translating Selves, Translating Media: Experimental Black Life Writing in Yrsa Daley-Ward's Work

16.01.2024

This lecture by Jennifer Leetsch explored the work of Black British writer and Instagram poet Yrsa Daley-Ward in order to tease out new experimental forms of black life writing in on- and offline media, and to activate critical engagement with questions of authorship and authority, identity and belonging.

Chair: Christina Slopek-Hauff
Read on

Creative Writing Workshop with Author Sumana Roy: "How Do You Create Space?"

27.10.2023

How does writing relate to architecture and how do you create space through writing?

On October 27, Indian author Sumana Roy teaches a workshop on creative writing with the topic "How Do You Create Space?"

To participate, send a short message to ma-litueb(at)hhu.de. Students from all disciplines are welcome.

Plastic Translation: Guest lecture by Professor Ranjan Ghosh

24.10.2023

This talk drew on Ghosh's trans-philosophy, his investment in the philosophy and poetics of _trans_, as a way of developing fresh modes in "critical thinking" and new critical humanities. Through what he calls trans(in)fusion that involves breaking into disciplines, opening up thought-regimes, he tries to introduce a fresh concept in "plastic translation". This is not simply about understanding cross-cultural translation; it directs us to what Ghosh has argued elsewhere as "conceptual translation". This, again, leaves us to negotiate the area of plastic reading. Following on his recent work on plastic theory, as related to trans(in)fusion, this talk will spell out a fresh discourse on how translation connects with plasticity and contributes eventually to the development of plastic humanities.

Professor Ranjan Ghosh is Alexander von Humboldt Visiting Professor at the Institute of English and American Studies/Anglophone Literatures and Literary Translation. He teaches in the Department of English, University of North Bengal. His many books include Thinking Literature across Continents (Duke University Press, 2016, with J Hillis Miller), Philosophy and Poetry: Continental Perspectives ed. (Columbia University Press, 2019), Plastic Tagore (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) and the trilogy that he is completing to establish the discipline of plastic humanities: The Plastic Turn (Cornell University Press, 2022), Plastic Figures (Cornell University Press, 2024, forthcoming) and Plastic Literature (forthcoming).

Reading and Q&A with Sumana Roy

17.10.2023

Heine Haus Literaturhaus, 18:30

Sumana Roy is the author of How I Became a Tree, a work of nonfiction, Missing: A Novel, My Mother's Lover and Other Stories, and two poetry collections, Out of Syllabus and V. I. P: Very Important Plant. She is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Ashoka University. She read from How I Became a Tree and other works.

(Neo-)Baroque Aesthetics in Literature: Verbal-Visual Configurations and Frame-Breakings

13.10.2023

This conference was dedicated to exploring the pronounced visuality that is a formative, yet understudied element of the (Neo-)Baroque aesthetics. The individual contributions examined verbal-visual configurations as an integral part of a locally and temporally specific (Neo-)Baroque aesthetics, while also tracing transcultural and transhistorical forms of (ex-)change.

The conference was generously funded by the DFG and the GFFU; it was part of a larger CHLEL project.

For more information, visit the conference website.

Summer School Literary Translation 2023: Translating Comics, Graphic Novels and Video Games

22. - 24.06.2023

This year's Summer School, organized by the MA Literary Translation, took place from June 22 to June 24 and dealt with theory and practice concerning the topic "Translating Comics, Graphic Novels and Video Games". The Summer School is open to everyone. You can find more information here.

Guest talk by Caryl Phillips: A House is not a Home

19.06.2023

Heine Haus Literaturhaus Düsseldorf
Novelist, playwright and essayist Caryl Phillips spoke about US-American author James Baldwin (1924-1987) and his experience of exile in France. Phillips maintained a friendship with Baldwin from 1983 until his death.

Translation and the Archive: International Symposium

31.05. - 02.06.2023

The symposium "Translation and the Archive: Performance, Practice, Negotiation" explores the interdependency of repositories of memory (archives) and processes of translation. After a PhD workshop and the keynote lecture by Ato Quayson, a programme of readings, performances and talks by international contributors will offer a wide range of cross-disciplinary perspectives.

You can find everything you need to know about the symposium, the guests, and the programme here.

Translating the Archive: Literary Series

31.05.2023

Esther Dischereit read and performed her work Flowers for Otello, which is concerned with right wing extremist crimes in Germany. Oxana Chi and Layla Zami performed I STEP ON AIR, a piece in memory of the Ghanaian-German poet, activist and scholar May Ayim. In his talk A House is not a Home, novelist, playwright and essayist Caryl Phillips spoke about US-American author James Baldwin and his experience of exile in France.

The literary series was part of the international CTS symposium Translation and the Archive.

Find more information on the website.

From Neoliberal Crime in "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" to Transcultural Solidarity in "Queen of the Desert": Guest lecture by Professor Guido Rings

24.04.2023

After his major success as New German Cinema director, e.g. with films like Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Nosferatu the Vampyre, Werner Herzog started very different cinematic experiments in Los Angeles, for which films like Grizzly ManBad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and Queen of the Desert are just a few examples. However, research on his more recent films is limited and there is no in-depth analysis of his cinematic development from the '70s to contemporary work, although his films are clearly linked through their robust critique of neoliberalism and (neo-) colonialism.

In his guest lecture, Professor Rings explored Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Queen of the Desert as key examples from both periods of Herzog’s oeuvre. In particular, he examined the continuities and discontinuities in the neoliberal and (neo-) colonial critique in these two films. Furthermore, he asked which alternatives are being suggested to break with the systemic violence of neoliberalism and (neo-) colonialism, and he analysed in how far the cinematic development correlates with a different take on humanity. Findings include numerous continuities in Herzog's robust critique of human tribalism, but also substantial discontinuities that seem to correlate with different conceptualisations of humanity. 

Guido Rings is Emeritus Professor of Postcolonial Studies, co-director of the Anglia Ruskin Research Centre for Intercultural and Multilingual Studies (ARRCIMS), and co-founder of iMex and German as a Foreign Language, the first internet journals in Europe for their respective fields. Professor Rings has widely published within different areas of intercultural and postcolonial studies. This includes The Cambridge Introduction to Intercultural Communication (CUP 2022, with S. Rasinger), The Cambridge Handbook of Intercultural Communication (CUP 2020, ed. with S. Rasinger), The Other in Contemporary Migrant Cinema (Routledge 2018), La Conquista desbaratada (Iberoamericana 2010), and more than 50 refereed articles.

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