The international conference The Author and “his” Translator intends to offer researchers from all fields of humanities and social sciences an opportunity to question the functioning of contemporary cultural field from the point of view of the place that translators are bound to occupy within it. In order to allow for an in-depth examination of this subject, the programme of this scientific event will include various forms of work: in addition to individual papers and thematic panels proposed by several researchers, the conference will comprise a series of talks with a writer and his/her translator, round tables with publishers and directors of foreign literature collections, workshops devoted to the key points of the conference.

University of Tours (France), June 12th -13th 2023

Argument

Until quite recently translation was a quite uncodified activity: not only was it hardly subject to rigorous regulation of its practice, which gave rise to free interpretations of the source texts, but, what is more, the act of translating did not automatically establish a dissymmetrical relationship between a sovereign demiurge Author and his humble servant, the interpreter. As a matter of fact, national book markets developed in a rather autarkic way, each one within its own legal framework, which it did not pretend to make respect abroad. This relatively autonomous evolution of national book markets was accompanied by an absence of a rigid hierarchy between the various producers of cultural goods. The translators as well as the authors of original texts made part of the Republic of Letters, so that the publishers preparing the first edition of Charles Baudelaire’s complete works did not hesitate to include his translations alongside with the writer’s original texts. The accelerated globalisation of the print market at the turn of the 20^th century brought with it the need to control the international distribution of books and thus to standardise the practices of their production and merchandising in foreign countries. As an essential element in the international circulation of books, translation was soon obliged to face the consequences of this new socio-economic situation. The supranational legislation on copyright, which was gradually established under the aegis of the League of Nations, seems to have put an end at the same time to the freedom of translation and the equal status of the translator.

The international conference The Author and “his” Translator calls on researchers from a wide range of disciplines (literary and cultural studies, history, sociology, law, economics, linguistics, etc.) who would like to contribute to investigating this evolution by reconstructing the emergence of this publishing field structure in order to reach a better understanding of the processes of harmonisation of national book markets, which determine contemporary literary translation practices and international distribution of literary texts. Four aspects of this subject seem to deserve our special attention:

1. analogies between the process of codification of the translation profession (diplomas and certifications in translation studies, formalisation of translators’ contracts, emergence of professional networks, prizes and awards for the best translators, etc.) and the one of consolidation of the body of laws on copyright and intellectual property: Does a comparison of the chronology of these two processes reveal a parallel evolution? To what extent do the stabilisation and tightening of copyright regulation contribute to a more thorough control over the production and circulation of texts? Does the subordination of translators’ work to the principle of respect for the integrity of the original text add to a standardisation of cultural production?
2. relationship between the history of translation and literary/cultural history: Would it be possible to establish connections between romantic aesthetics of sacralisation of the writers and artists and the subordinate position of other actors of book chain, such as literary translators? Can we suggest that the progressive gain in autonomy of the literary field, described by Pierre Bourdieu in The Rules of Art, had its dark side? While a small group of renowned creators were spared from the necessity to deal with economic and legal constraints of text production, considered as irrelative to their art, were not those ones simply externalised, transferred to the “secondary” book-trade roles, namely translators, proof-readers, editors, publishers and booksellers? What function did the disagreement between writers and their translators (the cases of Nabokov or Becket are undoubtedly amongst the most notorious in this respect) play in redefining their respective positions within literary field and in shaping relationship between writers and literary translators as an asymmetrical and unequal one?
3. typology of collaborations between the writer and the literary translator throughout history. Looking into the diversity of forms of interaction between writer and translator reveals an impressive diversity of practices: benevolent laissez-faire of the author, long and detailed epistolary discussions about the dilemmas of translation, reciprocal translation by the two peers, collaborative translation, choice of self-translation and refusal to cede copyright for non-authorial translations or even legal proceedings against the authors of translations judged to be unfaithful. The ways we conceive and carry out the translation of literary texts are undoubtedly in large part historically and culturally determined. What do our ways of translating a living author say about us? What changes has this modus operandi undergone during our literary and cultural history? The encounters between some contemporary writers and their translators, which we are planning as part of this conference, could enable us to shed further light on the importance that our societies give to the dialogue between cultures and nations.
4. translation and book market: Could the translator’s subordinate position in publishing industry, which Pierre Assouline highlights in the report commissioned by the CNL[1], be due to the ways of organising book production and trade in cultural goods in the globalised economy? For example, we could ask ourselves whether the demand for quality of translation, guaranteed by the fact of setting standards and codifying the act of translation, does not participate in the taylorisation of the translators’ work aiming to increase total output by the means of outlining specific tasks and minimising the time spent on the production of every single piece. In a similar way, it would be possible to ask whether the emphasis on the figure of the Writer and the subsequent minimisation of the creative part of the translator’s work are not the manifestations of the economy of stardom, which according to Françoise Benhamou constitutes an archetypal model of the contemporary cultural industry.

The international conference The Author and “his” Translator intends to offer researchers from all fields of humanities and social sciences an opportunity to question the functioning of contemporary cultural field from the point of view of the place that translators are bound to occupy within it. In order to allow for an in-depth examination of this subject, the programme of this scientific event will include various forms of work: in addition to individual papers and thematic panels proposed by several researchers, the conference will comprise a series of talks with a writer and his/her translator, round tables with publishers and directors of foreign literature collections, workshops devoted to the key points of the conference.

Submission guidelines

Proposals containing a title, a paper summary of 300 words and a short biographical statement must be sent to anna.krykun@univ-tours.fr  

before October 3rd 2022.

Notification of admission will be sent at the beginning of November after evaluation of all proposals by the members of the scientific committee.

Note

[1] Centre national du livre, French public body whose ai mis to promote literature and to support the professionals of book chain.