Translation: Theory, Contexts and Praxes- A National Student Seminar

"Without translation, we would be living in provinces bordering on silence."~George Steiner

Translation is something which seems to be apparently very simple but actually has a vast area to cover. Translation is not just replacement of words in one language with those in another. It deals with even many cultural aspects of human society.

To observe the vastness of translation studies, the English Literary Society, Department of English, Zakir Husain Delhi College(Evening) organised a one-day national student seminar on 'Translation: Theory, Contexts and Praxes' on 3rd of March, 2020. The event was a grand success with help of the students, the professors and of course, the participants from various colleges and universities.

The final countdown begins! See you tomorrow.

Only two days to go!
Credits: Himanshu

Only 3 days to go!

Graphic Credits: Himanshu

See you soon!

3rd March, mark the date!

Courtesy: Himanshu Kanojia

See you, then!



Graphic credits: P. Hangminlun Zou

We look forward to seeing you.



Graphic credit: Sudesh Chaudhary

3rd March; mark the date!

The English Literary Society of Zakir Husain Delhi College (Evening), University of Delhi presents 'Translation: Theory, Contexts and Praxes- A National Student Seminar'.

PC: Avesh Khan

Call for Papers:

National Student Seminar
English Literary Society
Zakir Husain Delhi College (Eve),University of Delhi

Greetings!

The English Literary Society, Zakir Husain Delhi College (Eve), University of Delhi, Delhi, India, is organising a One Day National Student Seminar on "TRANSLATION: THEORY, CONTEXTS AND PRAXES" on March 3, 2020.

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what
I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
-Lewis Carroll

The nexus of meaning making is a constant process, entangled with, and adapting to our socio-political, psychological, emotional, religious and even economic ambits. With novel textual spaces steadily emerging along the horizons of our civilizational matrix, our globalised cultural consciousness seeks to interact with these spaces through an unremitting transaction of translation. The shifting of the linguistic and cultural core of the modern times into new normatives like the ‘Glocal’, as well as the expansion of the semantic dynamics of how one negotiates with the concept of textuality, makes it important to re-examine the shift in the very nature of the process of translation along with a foray into how this shift restructures the traditionally accepted dynamics of interaction between the original and translated.

Being both, process and result, Translation as a paradigm operates at the cusp of the past and the future, its moment of beginning coinciding with the moment of end for a text as we know it. Regenerative as well as violent, creative and yet canonical, marginal but also mainstream, the oeuvre of translation is a multifaceted, multilingual and multidimensional assemblage. From our religious, cultural and social identities to something as basic as our sense of self, everything is received by the human mind as translation of something else. From impression to expression, translation operationally channels the very system of semantic cognition. What is, will be retold, will be recreated, will be revived and therein it will be inevitable translated. With a process that then is relentless, almost involuntary and so intrinsic, it becomes an interesting task to observe and analyse the virile field of context, audience, language and medium, moving beyond the simplistic paradigm of bargaining for absolute equivalence into more complex, and relatively unexplored facets of translation.

The discipline of Translation Studies has witnessed intrepid growth over the past few decades. Globalisation, migration, merging economic spaces, as well as the arrival of the millennial wanderluster on the block, have all contributed humongously to the translation and interpreting industry. José Saramago opined that “Writers make national literature, while translators make universal literature”. An extremely potent source of dissemination of knowledge, ideas and information across geographical boundaries and cultural barriers, Translation often beacons an understanding in the process of change across cultures. The translator embraces the intercultural encounters and draws on various wide notions of translation by interacting with disciplines as varied as linguistics, philosophy, sociology, media studies, gender studies, comparative literature, postcolonial literature,and so many others. This seminar aims at highlighting how such diverse encounters shape the various approaches to the discipline of Translation Studies and might provide a contrastive way of analysing our contemporary issues, especially in terms of rethinking the ideas of textuality, community, religion, nation, identity, language, and culture. This also brings into question the performatory ethics of the translator and the issue of what
Mona Baker referred to as 'untranslatability' in the present-day context of identity crises.

Recent years have also witnessed the eruption of translation modalities in the age of internet. Rise of social media and groundbreaking digital technologies like Over the Top streaming platforms concomitant with the changing nature of modes of production and channels of communication, the dynamics of information processing has metamorphosed, available for purview in multilingual audio tracks, news translation, translation of advertisements, dubbing and subtitling of movies, songs, web series as well as more mechanical production of translated data in forms of micro narratives produced out of google translate.

What does it mean to translate, and to be translated, in these times when texts are
amorphous and transient and meaning is forever postponed? How does one negotiate the contexts of translation in times of multicultural globalised sensibilities? What are the challenges of translation in the era of memes, micro fictions and social media influencers? How does this plethora of socio-cultural praxes deconstructs and simultaneously reimagines the discipline of Translation Studies? The Seminar aims to
evaluate and brainstorm along these axes of thought and seeks to open up potent avenues of academic dialogue and discussion.

Possible topics might include but are not limited to:
• Theories of Translation
• Translation and Religion
• Folklore, mythology and Translation
• Text and Violence: Translation as the monstrous
• Colonialism, Imperialism and Translations of narratives of Power
• Gender in Translation
• Translation as a tool of subversion and appropriation
• Technology and Translation
• Interpretation, subtitling and dubbing: Audiovisual Translation
• Culture, territory and social stigma: Translating Oppression
• Translating images, icons and signs
• Translation and Pedagogy: Text books and Multilingual Teaching
• Translation and Language learning
• Society and Translation: Social change, Socio-cultural Documentation, Research
• Wanderlust: Translation and modern forms of Travel writing
• Translation and History: Museums, Artefacts, texts and contexts
• Literary Adaptations and Recreations
• Discourses and contexts of Translation
• Translation and Social Media
• The Body as a Text: Translating Experiences

Abstracts of 300 words are invited from Undergraduate/Postgraduate/MPhil students registered in recognised universities.

The Registration amount will be Rs. 500/-

The participants can send their registration fees through Cheque/DD/NEFT in favour of the Principal, Zakir Husain Delhi College (Evening). The details of NEFT will be shared with the selected participants only through the acceptance mail.

Last date for sending in the abstracts is February 20, 2020.

Participants are required to send their abstracts and register their details on [email protected].

Selection of abstracts will be notified by February 22.

No TA/DA will be paid to any participant.

In case of a joint presentation, both the participants need to register separately.

Best Paper will be awarded in the following categories:
Category 1: Undergraduate students
Category 2: PG and MPhil students

For more details, please contact:
Dr. Hari Prasad
09350316781
Dr. Sanjib Kumar Baishya
099118 88598