As the Oxford term draws to a close, we’d like to remind our OCCT community that OCCT Review is always looking for reviewers. OCCT Review is a journal reviewing new books and trends in comparative and translation studies. It aims to produce reviews quickly and to provoke debate. The reviews are written mainly by postgraduate students and early career academics. Feel free to contact Dr Eleni Philippou or Dr Dennis Duncan, the editors, on Comparative.Criticism@st-annes.ox.ac.uk about books you’re interested in reviewing. Reviewers receive a free copy of the reviewed book. Reviews should be between 500-1000 words, and are posted on the OCCT website.
In Week 7 the Discussion Group at St Anne's College discussed the topic of Intermediality and Translation. Over the course of the term we had a number of fascinating events. Look at our Living Library http://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/living-library to get a sense of some of the things we’ve been up to! We had wonderful poetry-related events, and seminars on eclectic World literatures!
EVENTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
1. THE 59th NATIONAL POSTGRADUATE COLLOQUIUM IN GERMAN STUDIES
Thursday, 7 and Friday, 8 April 2016
Venue: Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London School of Advanced Study,
Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Keynote Lecture:
Benedict Schofield (King’s College London): ‘But Shakespeare is German!’: National Authorship and Transnational Appropriation
Panels/speakers:
1. Authorship and Writing: Pardaad Chamsaz (Bristol/British Library), Ian Ellison (Leeds)
2. Laterunners: Sharon Baker (IMLR, London), Joanna Raisbeck (Somerville College, Oxford)
3. War and Enlightenment: Catherine Angerson (Birkbeck College, London), Morgan Golf-French (University College London); Ellen Pilsworth (University College London)
4. Contemporary Germany: Joseph Cronin (Queen Mary, University of London), Sophie Payne (Reading)
2016 Sylvia Naish Research Student Lecture:
Simone Schröder (Bath): Imagining Global Connectedness in Alexander von Humboldt’s Ansichten der Natur
Advance registration for the Colloquium required by 30 March 2016. The programme and registration form can be found here and here.
2. The George Steiner Lecture in Comparative Literature
"Untranslatability and the World Literature Debates"
delivered by Professor Emily Apter of NYU
Arts Two Lecture Theatre
Mile End Campus
Queen Mary University of London
17th March 2016 at 6:30pm.
Abstract: Following the publication of my book Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability in 2013, diverse responses emerged to the book's critique of the political stakes of institutionalized World Literature or Weltliteratur refurbished for a globalized literary studies. Many agreed that World Literature bolsters a neoliberal pluralism in the humanities curriculum (as well as international publishing), and questioned World Lit's endorsement of translatability as a sign of global currency. But some were skeptical towards the idea that untranslatability or "non-translation studies" could provide a political counter-force. In this talk I will clarify how I define untranslatability and argue that untranslatables can do political work:
1) addressing the ambitions, limitations, and compromise-formations of World Literature;
2) activating terms through a kind of political philology;
3) taking stock of the heteronomy and non-belongingness of language within languages;
4) situating non-translation, non-equivalence, and incommensurability against economies of general equivalence;
5) generating new principles of a cosmopolitan right to untranslatability in situations of checkpointing and mass migration.
Tickets are free but should be reserved in advance.
3. Funding Opportunities for Masters Study at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2016-17
The School of Advanced Study is offering a number of studentships for Masters degree courses offered by its Institutes in 2016-17, for example, the IMLR’s new Masters in Modern Languages. The bursaries will cover tuition fees and maintenance (£14,057 in 2015-16) and will be awarded on the basis of academic excellence.
In addition two studentships, funded by the John Coffin Fund for Promising Students, will be available for students who have demonstrably excelled in their undergraduate degrees. These will provide £12,500 to cover tuition fees and contribute towards maintenance costs.
For further details of these schemes and other funding opportunities, visit the School’s website.
Dr Eleni Philippou
Comparative Criticism and Translation
