Translation as Performance: A Project of Poetry, Art & Migration

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A talk followed by a workshop with guest speaker Dr Manuela Perteghella (curator, translator and independent researcher) as part of the Translation, Adaptation and Performance research theme at the School of Modern Languages.

Abstract:
In the inter-artistic, polylingual project Talking Transformations: Home on the Move translation is understood and experienced as both linguistic and intersemiotic ‘performance’ (Lee 2013: 245).  The project explores notions of ‘home’ and identity – challenged and reshaped by unprecedented migration –  through translation, film art and poetry, all of which underline the fluidity of the concepts of ‘home’, as well as that of ‘identity’. In Britain, poet Deryn Rees-Jones created the poem about ‘home’ from material collected from workshops in Hereford and London. Rafał Gawin wrote the Polish poem, based on material collected at a workshop in Lodz. These poems have then been sent into a linguistic and artistic ‘migration’, where these texts were translated into different languages and into film art. Poetry and artwork has travelled to and from the countries most important to EU migration into and out of the UK: Poland and Romania, and France and Spain. TalkingTransformations culminates in two public exhibitions in the UK in 2018: at the Poetry Library, Southbank, London (June-August 2018) and at the Ledbury Poetry Festival (July 2018).

After a short talk, during which the conceptual framework of the project will be discussed, participants will be shown the visual, filmic translations and will be able to take part in a re-translation workshop of Deryn Rees-Jones’ poem ‘Home’, using the filmic translations as point of departure. The workshop will enable participants to include different languages (their native tongue and their other languages, as well as the languages of others) into their translation, and to explore the artistic and performative processes that translation can engender. The re-translation workshop highlights the non-linearity and plurality of the translation project and allows the audience to contribute to this artistic project.

Lee, Tong-King. 2013. ‘Performing multimodality: literary translation, intersemioticity and technology’, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. Vol. 21, no. 2, 241-256.

Biography:
Dr Manuela Perteghella is a curator, translator and independent researcher. She has published research in the field of literary and theatre translation, promoting the theory of translation as creative practice (Translation and Creativity, Continuum 2006; One Poem in Search of a Translator, Peter Lang 2008; Staging and Performing Translation, Palgrave 2011). She has taught translation at UK universities, and worked for theatre companies, including the Gate Theatre, London & the National Theatre, London. Manuela blogs on The Creative Literary Studio on the art of ‘text-making’ and is the co-curator of TransARTation! a touring and virtual exhibition of inter-art translation, with objects, performance art, multimedia art, and site specific work.