[CFP] History and Translation: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Inaugural conference of the History and Translation Network
25-28 May 2022, Tallinn
In the last decade there has been a marked growth in interest in historical research on translation and interpreting and the theoretical and methodological issues it raises. This is evident not only in the work of translation and interpreting scholars, but also in the increasing attention paid by historical disciplines such as cultural and global history to translation phenomena, and in the widespread use of translation as a metaphor or paradigm in research areas such as comparative literature, semiotics, anthropology and, more recently, memory studies – just to mention a few.
What these approaches share is the idea that acts of translation and interpretation play a crucial role in the making of history, and the historical context is essential to our understanding of these acts. Translation history thus becomes the history of the role of pivotal individuals, and of practices of intercultural mediation. It does not limit itself to comparative stylistics or the ways in which texts are transposed from foreign languages, but studies the broader cultural transfer brought about in and by translation, paying particular attention to the ways in which language itself is inscribed in history, and engages with subjects of discourse, power, and asymmetrical relations. Translation history is in this respect an essential part of (intercultural) history.
The inaugural conference of the recently founded History and Translation Network (historyandtranslation.net) invites contributions in which translation is both a constitutive category of historical analysis and a historically specific practice. We wish to address history from a transnational and comparative perspective through the lens of translation, bringing together scholars from a wide range of disciplinary and institutional backgrounds, such as: translation and interpreting studies, history, literary studies, cultural studies, sociology, comparative studies, philology and languages, anthropology, religion, international relations, philosophy, archive studies, museum studies, etc.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Hilary Footitt (University of Reading) Hephzibah Israel (University of Edinburgh) Ronnie Hsia (Pennsylvania State University)
IMPORTANT DATES:
Preliminary panel proposal: 31 August 2021
Acceptance of preliminary panel proposal: 30 September
Full panel proposal: 31 October
Individual paper proposal: 31 October
Acceptance of individual paper proposals and full panel proposals: 10 December
Registration: 1 February – 30 April 2022
Please send all proposals via email to: htn2022conference@tlu.ee