Translation Studies
Research Seminar Series 2020-21
Speaker: Dr Jonathan Evans, University of Glasgow.
Title: The endless translation of the Situationists
Date: October 7, 2020
Time: 4-5 pm
Venue: on Collaborate Learn (through TS Bulletin Board) OR Guest Link: https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/802bc283ac01463b94dfc91b85a0f0a9
Abstract:
The Internationale Situationniste was an international, intermedial avant garde group, made up of artists (Asger Jørn, Alex Trocchi), theorists (Guy Debord, Raoul Vaneigem) and an assortment of other characters, which was committed to artistic and social revolution. The SI’s influence was clearly felt in the events of May 1968 in France and around the world. This paper focuses on how their ideas have been translated and disseminated into and through English. Challenging the notion of translation as one source text being translated by a single target text, the paper draws from retranslation theory and ideas of rewriting and spreadability to argue that translation is processual and generates multiple target texts, sometimes across multiple media and often in fragmentary form (i.e. as quotes or short extracts rather than as full, unitary texts). After an overview of the ways in which the writings and texts of the SI have been translated and disseminated since the 1960s, it focuses in on the changing translations of two books from 1967: Debord’s Société du spectacle (Society of the Spectacle) and Vaneigem’s Traité de savoir vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations (Revolution of Everyday Life), exploring how the textual decisions in different versions reflect changing approaches to the texts.
Bio note:
Jonathan Evans is Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He is the author ofThe Many Voices of Lydia Davis(Edinburgh UP, 2016) and co-editor ofThe Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics(2018). He is Deputy Editor ofJournal of Specialised Translationand Review Editor ofTranslation and Literature. His research interests lie in the circulation and translation of non-hegemonic ideas and media.