Translation Studies reading group: Gudrun Rath's "Zombie History: The Undead in Translation"

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This year’s first translation studies reading group which will discuss Gudrun Rath's text "Zombie History: The Undead in Translation", from the volume on the Dark Side of Translation edited by Federico Italiano (2020).

Within the context of the colonisation of the Caribbean, the zombie—a figure at the crossroads of life and death—has been translated into different forms, assigned different meanings, and appropriated in different ways. This paper focuses on the multiple functions of historical zombie texts from the seventeenth century onwards as encountered in encyclopaedias, anthropological writing and fiction. It traces the ways in which the zombie was used in scholarly discourse published in France and Louisiana in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and how these texts created a variety of significations of the undead. The paper discusses some implications of Wade Davis’ poison hypothesis and examines the use of the zombie as a figure of twentieth century scholarly discourse. The paper finally argues that elements of historical zombie texts continue to live on in filmic representations, and concludes with some considerations on the zombie as a figure of translation.

Participants are encouraged to think of examples of cultural appropriation through translation, in particular with reference to the theories of cannibalism and translation by Haroldo de Campos.

The text is available in open access.

Event format
The event will take place online as a Zoom meeting and will not be recorded.

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 Q&A session. If you intend to do this, please contact mlang-events@cardiff.ac.uk by Wednesday 2 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.

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