Translation and the Periodical (International Conference, Ghent University)

Translation and the Periodical - International Conference

Ghent University, Belgium

Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication

September 13-15, 2023

Keynote Speakers

Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar (Glendon College York University, Canada/ Boğaziçi University, Turkey)
Evanghelia Stead (Versailles Saint-Quentin University, France)

Postgraduate Workshop on Translation Studies & Periodical Studies

A day-long postgraduate workshop on translation studies and periodical studies will be held at Ghent University on the 13th of September 2023. The workshop is open to Master students and PhD candidates who wish to share their work with their peers and receive feedback and support from experts in the two fields. Sessions will focus on: 1) theoretical and methodological approaches; 2) concrete case studies and potential limitations.

To participate in the workshop, please send a brief description of your current project and indicate your research interests via email before the 20th of April 2023: brecht.degroote@ugent.be and christina.bezari@ugent.be

Conference Call for Papers

In recent years, periodicals have increasingly drawn the attention of Translation Studies (Fólica et al. 2020); reciprocally, Periodical Studies have been moving towards a transnational turn (Ernst 2022; Van Remoortel 2022). These disciplinary moves are (amongst others) informed by the development of digital methods and techniques, as well as vast digitization efforts of the archive, that have gathered speed over the past two decades (Bode 2018) and which enable the extraction, processing and analysis of the enormous amounts of information contained in periodicals. Translations constitute a significant tranche of the information periodicals publish, permitting uniquely detailed and quantitatively grounded insight into the dynamic processes that subtended transnational traffic between literatures and cultures. Notwithstanding the clear promise of research at the intersection of translation and periodical studies, and the burgeoning scholarly work that has begun to explore this middle ground, there remains a significant hiatus: there is yet strikingly little material that offers theories, methods, or instructively representative cases. On an empirical level, well-established high-brow periodicals have been the main focus of research, whereas the more popular low and middle-brow periodicals are yet to receive proper place on the research agenda.  More concretely, serial publishing practices (so-called feuilletons) and the interactions between translated and non-translated content within periodicals demand much closer attention.

The key question which this conference seeks to ponder is whether periodical translation can be argued to have particular qualities that differentiate the practice from other forms of translation, notably for print books, much as periodical writing can be distinguished from book writing. The discursive techniques of periodical translation, and its key role in the mediation of culture and the dynamic exploration of the present that has long been argued to be central to the specificity of the periodical, are likely to be key touchstones in responding to this question. The international conference ‘Translation and the Periodical’ aims to push forward decisively the developing conversations on cultural translation in periodicals. Its target is to bring scholars from various disciplines together and to activate and advance significantly on extant qualitative (cfr. Guzmán et al. 2019; Pym 2007) and quantitative work (cfr. Caristia 2020). The objective is to be a hub of knowledge and expertise in this field as it continues to grow, in particular in those periodicals that have so far largely remained out of the focus of scholarship.

The organizing committee aims to cover a broad scope of subjects and a variety of methodological perspectives in order to reflect current work on translation in periodicals, and both to inform and enhance conversations and debates to come.

• theoretical contributions, defining translation in periodicals as a praxis and sharpening terminology
• methodological contributions, e.g. focusing on Digital Humanities tools for Translation Studies research
• quantifying approaches (distant reading) that establish the ratio of translated content vs. non-translated content
• transnational networks and periodicals
• the limits of the transnational paradigm
• translation as cultural mediation in periodicals
• visual analyses of translation in periodicals
• in/visibility of translation and translators in periodicals
• migrant/diaspora periodicals and their orientation towards the hosting culture vis-à-vis preserving their domestic heritage
• translation in children’s magazines
• comparative approaches to translation in newspapers and periodical journals
• archival examinations of editorial practices
• sociology of translation, identifying the translators and other actors involved in periodical publishing
• translators’ periodicals, and -in a wider frame- translation discourse in periodicals
• translational and localization practices of comics
• transnational periodicals and their role as furnishers of content for local or regional periodicals
• syndicated fiction
• readers’ responses to translation (readers’ letters etc.)

Submission guidelines

Abstract deadline: April 20, 2023 provisional title and abstract (max. 250 words, excluding references), as well as up to 5 keywords and a short bionote (max. 150 words)
E-mail: ghentconference2023@ugent.be

Submissions welcome for:
-individual presentations (20 min.)
-thematic panels (3 participants, 20 min. each)

Notification of acceptance: May 1, 2023

Scientific committee
Laurence Brogniez (Université Libre de Bruxelles) - Clément Dessy (Université Libre de Bruxelles) - Anne O’Connor (Galway University) – Beatrijs Vanacker (KU Leuven) - Luc Van Doorslaer (University of Tartu/KU Leuven)

Organizing committee
Dominic Bentley-Hussey, Christina Bezari, Jo De Brie, Brecht de Groote, Miguel Ángel Guerra Blázquez, Francis Mus, Anna Namestnikov, Gaëtan Regniers, Piet Van Poucke

References
Ardis, A. (2013, January 1-4). Towards a Theory of Periodical Studies. MLA Convention, Boston.

Bettina R. Lerner. (2009). A French lazarillo: Translation and popular literature in nineteenth-century France. Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 38(1), 9–23. https://doi.org/10.1353/ncf.0.0113

Bode, K. (2018). A world of fiction: Digital Collections and the future of literary history. University of Michigan Press.

Caristia, S. (2020). At the intersection of quantitative and qualitative. Propositions for a weighted analysis of translations in periodicals. In: L. Fólica, D. Roig-Sanz & S. Caristia (eds.), Literary Translation in Periodicals (pp. 175-202). Benjamins.

Cronin, M. (2013). Translation in the Digital age. Routledge.

de Groote, B. (2022). Translation as Cultural Technique: Constructing a Translation History of Media. Target. https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20180.deg

Ernst, J. & O. Scheiding (2022). Periodical Studies as a Transepistemic Field. In: J. Ernst, D. von Hoff & O. Scheiding (eds.), Periodical Studies Today. Multidisciplinary Analyses (pp. 1-24). Brill.

Fólica, L., Roig-Sanz, D. & Caristia, S. (eds.) (2020). Literary Translation in Periodicals: Methodological Challenges for a Transnational Approach. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Gambier, Y., & Van Doorslaer, L. (2016). Border crossings: Translation studies and other disciplines. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Guzmán, M. C. et al. (2019). Translation and/in Periodical Publications (special issue). Translation and Interpreting Studies, 14(2), 169–173. https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/18762700/14/2

Littau, K. (2011). First steps towards a media history of translation. Translation Studies, 4(3), 261–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2011.589651

Mus, F. (2020). Translation, monolingualism and multilingualism as symptoms of literary internationalisation after the First World War. In: L. Fólica, D. Roig-Sanz & S. Caristia (eds.), Literary Translation in Periodicals (pp. 47-67). Benjamins.

O’Connor, A. (2019). Translation in nineteenth-century periodicals. Materialities and modalities of communication. Translation and Interpreting Studies, 14(2), 243–264. https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.00040.oco

Özmen, C. (2019). Beyond the book: The periodical as an ‘excavation site’ for translation studies. TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Translation and Cultural Studies, 11(1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.21992/tc29447

Pym, A. (2007). Cross-Cultural Networking: Translators in the French-german network of petites revues at the end of the nineteenth century. Meta. Translator’s Journal, 52(4), 744–762. https://doi.org/10.7202/017695ar

Schäffner, C. (2013). Rethinking transediting. Meta, 57(4), 866–883. https://doi.org/10.7202/1021222ar

Tahir Gürçağlar, Ş. (2019). Periodical Codes and Translation. Translation and Interpreting Studies, 14(2), 174–197. https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.00037.tah

van Doorslaer, L. (2011). The Relative Neglect of Newspapers in Translation Studies Research. In L. Chalvin, e.a. (Ed.), Between Cultures and Texts: Itineraries in Translation History (pp. 45–54). Peter Lang.

Van Remoortel, M. (2022). How to Avoid Making False Friends: Taking the Multilingual Turn in Periodical Studies. Journal of European Periodical Studies 7/1: 57-58.
https://doi.org/10.21825/jeps.84969