Lunch | Lisa Dillman | Translation and Subjectivity

Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture

Translation is often thought of as a transparent, objective act in which words from a source language are rendered into a target language, thereby carrying a message into new linguistic territory. Theorists, practitioners and lay readers argue tirelessly over the success or failure of various translations and their degree of (in-)fidelity. In this talk, I would like to begin from the premise that an instrumentalist view of translation will by default always evaluate target texts through a rhetoric of loss (Venuti). More useful is an a priori appreciation of translation as a creative, authorial act. To this end, I will explore connotation and subjectivity in literary translation, with several examples from contemporary Hispanophone literature.

Intro Music: Small Acts of Devotion feat. Ashkay-Naresh