Translation and Relocation: Literary Encounters East and West

Dear Colleagues,

In Comparative Literature, the increasingly contested field of “World Literature”, and Translation Studies, the notion of the “untranslatability” of literature has gained purchase in recent years, due in part to the work of Emily Apter and the continual rediscoveries of the work of Walter Benjamin. Literary translation is conceived of, in one view, as impossible, and in another view as an activity (even an art form) with infinite possibilities for the translator but minimal responsibilities toward that which is being translated.

In a larger sense, to “translate” a text (after the sense of the Latin translatio) is to relocate it, to move it from one context to another, almost in the sense of the German Aufheben—to leave behind and bring along. In this sense, scholarly translations of poetry and prose from one language into another are analogous (though not identical) to artistic projects in which authors who work in different languages, times, and contexts, relocate and rewrite/rework/reform/reinhabit each other’s texts.

But in the final analysis, translatio exists in two forms which are, though related, crucially different. The translator and the relocator have two different purviews: one to (re)present a text as best as one can in a different language, time, and context; the other to (re)turn to the themes, images, aspirations, conflicts, desires, and expressions of a different language, time, and place, and render them new again. The scholar who translates Chinese poetry into English, and the poet who relocates Latin poetry into Arabic are each pursuing important, though crucially different tasks.

This Special Issue of the journal Humanities invites contributions that address one, or the other, or both of these fundamental forms of translatio: the translation and the relocation of poetry and prose from one context to another, including contexts of language, time, culture, and issues of identity and embodiment.

Deadline for Proposal Submissions: 1 December 2019

Deadline for completed papers, if selected (5000–10,000 words): 1 July 2020

Submit a 250–500-word proposal for an original contribution and a 100-word biography (include selected publications) by 1 December 2019; please email both the Guest Editor (michael.bryson@csun.edu), and the journal (humanities@mdpi.com), and reference the title of the Special Issue (Translation and Relocation: Literary Encounters East and West) in your subject line.

Prof. Dr. Michael Bryson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.