Staging Wor(l)ds, Embodiments: Performance and Translation
Open Seminar and Lecture Series: “Staging Worl(d)s, Embodiments: Performance and Translation.”
In theatre and literary studies, as well as in the process of staging a production, the text itself is analyzed prior to the work on stage. Translations and stagings can influence the reception of the source text, they can impact the ‚original‘ Who is the author, who is the artist in this context? What kind of shifts in meaning occur in the context of translating and staging a text?
The open seminar „Staging Wor(l)ds, Embodiments: Performance and Translation“ offered a wide range of opportunities to discuss these and many more questions of performativity, translation, and of linguistic, medial and cultural transfer. In the summer term 2020, a lecture series took place in the context of the seminar which offered theoretical approaches as well as perspectives of practitioners working in the field. The series was generously supported by the HHU’s format “Bürgeruniversität in der Lehre.” Lecture series and seminar were open to the public after registration.
The lecture series resumed during the winter term 20/21 and the summer term 21. This created a long-term dialogue between the students and non-university participants, experts and practitioners resulting in a significant learning curve for everyone involved.
Project coordination: Dr. Eva Ulrike Pirker
Research Assistant: Kathrin Hettrich (MA programme Literary Translation)
Programme summer term 2021:
02 July 2021, 18:30 Mother Tongues Becoming Bold – Lecture and discussion with Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Venue: Heine Haus Literaturhaus Düsseldorf. It is possible to visit the event via a livestream: https://youtu.be/B6CgTJvuFKQ
In cooperation with: MA Literary Translation (HHU), CTS_dus, stimmen afrikas / Allerweltshaus Köln e.V.
supported by: Bürgeruniversität in der Lehre, Kunststiftung NRW, amongst others
More information about the translation project Blick in die Zukunft – Gegen das Vergessen
22 June 2021, 16:00 Guest lecture by Dr. Anna Kasten (Panthea, Berlin) about the German surtitling of Life and Times of Michael K
Dr. Anna Kasten works for the surtitling company Panthea and was invited to speak at the Institute for English and American Studies. Anna Kasten talked about her work on the German surtitling of Life and Times of Michael K (Baxter Theatre, Cape Town) in her digital guest lecture on 22nd June 2021 from 16:00 - 18:00 hrs. Surtitling is one of the complex translational processes that accompanies the staging of a play. After an introduction to the theory and practice of surtitling, she described the specific challenges she encountered while working on the South African stage play.
22 May 2021, 18:30 Sabine Ruflair „Das Musical als Gegenstand der Literaturübersetzung: Musicalbuch, Musicalproduktion und Markt“
In her digital guest lecture “Das Musical als Gegenstand der Literaturübersetzung: Musicalbuch, Musicalproduktion und Markt” (25 May, 18:30) Ruflair provided insight into the complex development processes involved in the creation of musical libretto translations, and into their place in the German and international musical market.
Event archive:
04 December 2020, 10:30 Sabine Ruflair
Vom Tanz mit den Takten - Ausgewählte Aspekte der Übersetzung von Musical-Literatur.
Susana Mogollón Guarín, student of the MA programme "Literary Translation" has published a German-language interview with Sabine Ruflair in the online magazine TraLaLit.
29 April 2020, 12:30 David Maß (Berlin)
Vom Skript zur Übertitelung: Übersetzungsdienstleistungen in performativen Kontexten
13 May 2020, 12:30 Jan Wilm (Frankfurt/Main)
Thoughts on J. M. Coetzee – Found on Old Hard Disks
03 June 2020, 12:30 David Johnston (University of Belfast)
Translating the Dead for the Living Stage: Solidarity and the Afterlife
David Maß has been able to turn his passion into a profession: He has dedicated almost 20 years to the professionalization of surtitles for the performing arts. Together with his partner Anna Kasten at Panthea, he makes performances accessible to people with language barriers or disabilities. They are committed toquality, innovation and humanity. More information on their activities can be found at www.panthea.com.
Jan Wilm is a novelist and translator. He has a PhD in English from the Goethe University Frankfurt. He is the German translator of Maggie Nelson’s works, among other writers. He is a contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In 2016, his book The Slow Philosophy of J.M. Coetzee was published. His novel Winterjahrbuch was published last year.
David Johnston is Professor of Translation in the Centre for Translation and Interpreting at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published extensively on the relationship between theory, practice and ethics in the translation process, and has presented his work to audiences in twenty-five countries worldwide. He is also a multi-award winning translator for the stage, described in the journal Comedia Performance as ‘the most innovative translator of Spanish Golden Age drama in the twenty-first century’. He is an elected member of the Academia Europaea.