University of Ottawa, School of Translation and Interpretation
\nNovember 10-11, 2017<\/p>\n
Minor-ness has been imagined in various ways: from unspeakability in Giorgio Agamben\u2019s Homo Sacer (1998) or Julia Kristeva\u2019s notion of the abject (1982) and from carnival in Mikhail Bakhtin\u2019s concept of grotesque body (1993) or Georges Bataille\u2019s notion of excess (1991), to the potentially revolutionary Body without Organs that embarks on various lines of flight (Deleuze and Guattari 1988) in order to escape sameness and embrace difference. In all its forms, the minor has the potential to be truly free: in becoming, in already being constructed and still being constructed, as a way to acknowledge interstices and particularity, ethnic diversity, and cultural heterogeneity.<\/p>\n
In \u2018minor\u2019 contexts, translation is the underpinning condition for difference, preserving identity, and serving local concerns\u2014which have often been neglected for the benefit of a more general image of the global ethos. In recent years, there have been claims that Translation Studies is becoming wonderfully aware of its Eurocentric \/ Western roots and biases (Gentzler 2008, Tymoczko 2007, Trivedi 2006) and that efforts are being made towards a more democratic view on the role translators and Translation Studies scholars from all cultures play in defining the field. However, various terms such as Eurocentrism or Westernization are still actively used in TS and so are a number of biased comparative paradigms that acknowledge and endorse the precedence of a centre. Various small European countries are still happily pigeonholed as \u2018minor\u2019 nations that follow in the footsteps of \u2018major\u2019 cultures like France and England, while other small countries all over the world, for which translation plays a paramount role, are largely unaccounted for.<\/p>\n
First, our conference aims to contribute to the internationalization of the field of Translation Studies by presenting scholarly work which focuses on theories and practices originating in \u2018minor\u2019 contexts (which translate more) and in lesser-translated languages. Second, we invite contributions which address new translation practices and new ways of defining translation in more visible cultures, which have long been associated with certain more hegemonic traditions. Last but not least, we welcome research work that places translation at the nexus between humanities and science and shows how technology helps redefining translation beyond the prevailing geographical paradigm.<\/p>\n
The conference themes will revolve around, but will not be limited to, the following topics:<\/p>\n
Theoretical understandings of minor-ness;
\nNew paradigms for \u2018minor\u2019 and minority cultures in Translation Studies;
\nNarratives of marginality and identity: small nations in translation;
\nNomadism and transnationalism: translators redefining themselves;
\nRestoring the balance: lesser-translated languages in TS;
\nPractices of the peripheries: translators at work in \u2018minor\u2019 contexts;
\nActivist translation: the voice of the few;
\nBilingualism, multilingualism, and diglossia;
\nMinoritization of \u2018major\u2019 languages through heteroglossia;
\n\u2018Minor\u2019 practices in translation;
\nTranslation and cultural analytics;
\nOvercoming minor-ness through the digital revolution.<\/p>\n
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