Wednesday 2 March 2022, 4–5.30pm (GMT), Online
Literature is often assumed to be monolingual: publishing rights are sold on the basis of linguistic territories, and translated books are assumed to move from one “original” language to another. Yet a wide range of contemporary literary works mix and meld two or more languages, incorporating translation into their composition. How are these multilingual works translated, and what are the cultural and political implications of doing so? In this talk, literary translator Ellen Jones will present her book Literature in Motion: Translating Multilingualism Across the Americas(Columbia University Press, 2022), which examines the connection between translation and multilingualism and considers its significance for the theory, practice, and publishing of literature in translation. She will present examples from contemporary writers and translators in different parts of the American continent who work back and forth across varieties of European and Indigenous languages, as well as from her own translation practice.
Ellen Jones is a literary translator with a PhD from Queen Mary University of London. Her recent translations from Spanish include Ave Barrera’s The Forgery (2022, co-translated with Robin Myers), Bruno Lloret’s Nancy (2020) and Rodrigo Fuentes’s Trout, Belly Up (2019). Her book Literature in Motion: Translating Multilingualism Across the Americas is published by Columbia University Press. Her critical writing has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Guardian, and elsewhere. You can find her at www.ellencjones.com.
Please register in advance for this free event via Eventbrite.