Books Across Borders: Recognizing the Critical Role of Literary Translation in a Global Culture Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of The Independent in London, and seventy literary translators, writers, agents, publishers, critics, scholars, and cultural authorities from around the world gathered at Schloss Leopoldskron to shed new light on the unsung art of literary translation and on the vital role translators play in making literature accessible to international audiences.
In an interview with Salzburg’s communications director Tina Micklethwait, Tonkin speaks about the importance of discovering the various places around the world in which good fiction exists. Readers, he argues, can gain a set of experiences from fiction in translation they would never get from authors in their native languages. (Click the player below to listen to the interview with Boyd Tonkin).
Some of the main themes that emerged during the week’s deliberations included ways to create greater demand for translation through various audience-building efforts driven by book fairs, libraries, schools, prizes, the media, and the web; the importance of English as a "platform language" to dramatically increase the chances of a book being translated into other, less common languages; strategies to counter the "invisibility" of the translator, often working in isolation, and empower him/her to be a visible advocate for literature in translation; ways to use the new media as a tool for marketing, making translations more available, and reaching new audiences; and, finally, how to influence the Academy (at all educational levels) to include translation as a critical component in curricula, including better translation training, global reading lists, and a change in the widely held view that translation is an activity inferior to original scholarly research.
Summary For the Summary of the Session and Working Group Recommendations click here
Session Report For the complete Session Report and Participants List click here.
Keynote Presentation: The session’s keynote presentation "The Meaning of Translation" was given by Esther Allen, assistant professor of modern languages at Baruch College at the City University of New York and executive director of the Center for Literary Translation at Columbia University. To read her presentation, please click here (PDF).
Interviews with Session Participants: The following interviews were conducted during the course of Session 461: Traduttore, Traditore? Recognizing and Promoting the Critical Role of Translation in a Global Culture
Esther Allen, assistant professor of modern languages at Baruch College at the City University of New York and executive director of the Center for Literary Translation at Columbia University, Caroline McCormick, the chief executive of International PEN, and Carles Torner, poet and writer in Catalan, and the director of the literature and humanities department at the Institut Ramon Llul in Barcelona share information about a report on the global state of literary translation, "To Be Translated or Not To Be," presented by International PEN and the Institut Ramon Llull of Barcelona.
Gabriela Adamo, executive coordinator of Fundación Typa in Buenos Aires Kate Griffin, international literature officer at Arts Council England in London, and Bas Pauw, program manager of the International Writer’s Program at the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature in Amsterdam describe the roles of their organizations as advocates for literary translation.
Geeta Dharmarajan executive director and founder of KATHA in New Delhi, and Marie Paule Roudil, chief of section of the culture sector at the UNESCO Regional Office in Venice, speak about the importance of protecting endangered and marginalized languages.
Boyd Tonkin, literary editor of The Independent in London, speaks about the need to discover good fiction in every corner of the world.
The Salzburg Global Seminar’s deep appreciation is owed to The Edward T. Cone Foundation, for making Session 461: Traduttore, Traditore? Recognizing and Promoting the Critical Role of Translation in a Global Culture possible, and to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Nippon Foundation for additional funding.
