Keynote Lecture: On the Homogenizing Dangers of Easily Translated Literature followed by roundtable discussion and Q&A with experienced literary translators

This event has ended.

Please note the keynote lecture is open to all however, the deadline to apply to participate in the Japanese Translation Workshop has passed.

Professor Snyder’s lecture will be preceded at 9:30am by a talk by manga translator Emily Balistrieri, who will discuss the manga industry in Japan and the unique opportunities and challenges of manga translation.

Abstract

In his keynote lecture, which will be delivered as  part of a Japanese Translation Workshop organized jointly by Cardiff University and Kurodahan Press, Stephen Snyder will discuss recent fictions by the Japanese authors Haruki Murakami and Minae Mizumura to examine how and why some works readily enter the global literary marketplace while others resist this translation “traffic.”  Murakami’s texts are seen as having originated in the practice of translation, which in turn becomes a key factor in their remarkable success across literary cultures.  His recent short story, “Samsa in Love,” embodies and enacts many of the translation principles that have guided Murakami’s career.  Mizumura, on the other hand, has created a series of fictions that seem to resist translation while acknowledging its inevitability.  In A True Novel and her polemical non-fiction, she argues for a narrative practice more closely rooted in local language and culture that is by definition less amenable to translation and export to foreign cultural contexts.  The juxtaposition of these writers suggests opposing but perhaps not mutually exclusive paths forward for fiction in translation.

The lecture will be followed by a roundtable with five experienced Japanese-English literary translators, who will act as mentors for the Japanese Translation Workshop. Translators will  discuss their career trajectories and give advice to novice translators who wish to peruse a career in literary translation. The roundtable will be followed by a Q and A session.

Biography

Stephen Snyder is Dean of Language Schools and Kawashima Professor of Japanese Studies at Middlebury College. He is the author of Fictions of Desire: Narrative Form in the Novels of Nagai Kafū (University of Hawai’i Press, 2000) and has translated works by Yōko Ogawa and Kenzaburō Ōe, among others. His translation of Ogawa’s Hotel Iris (Picador, 2010) was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2011, and his translation of Ogawa’s Revenge (Picador, 2013) was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction prize in 2014.

**The keynote and roundtable sessions are part of a Japan Translation Workshop programme designed to nurture the development of literary translators by providing them with hands-on experience in the commercial literary translation process. Translators are paired with highly experienced mentors who will assist them in refining their translation. Translations produced through this programme will appear in an anthology of fiction, entitled ‘Vampire!’, which will be published by Kurodahan Press in December 2019.

For the list of short stories to be translated during the workshop programme, see https://www.kurodahan.com/wp/e/catalog/9784909473004.html**

Simultaneous Translation

The event will be delivered in the medium of English. You are welcome to ask questions in the medium of Welsh during the QandA session. If you intend to do this, please contact mlang-events@cardiff.ac.uk by Friday 29 March to request simultaneous translation. Please note that 10% or more of those planning to attend will need to request this provision in order for it to be sourced and will be subject to resource availability.

Registration

We apologise that the entire registration page is not available in the medium of Welsh, unfortunately, the platform we use does not offer this service.

* This event has been made possible thanks to the generous funding of the following organisations: The Japan Foundation, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, The Japan Society, and The British Association of Japanese Studies.