Bard Translation and Translatability Initiative, Division of Languages and Literature, French Studies Program, Italian Studies Program, and Written Arts Program Present
Words that don’t quite fit: Challenging the Untranslatable
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Campus Center, Weis Cinema
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Ann Goldstein, translator
Jenny McPhee, NYU
Daniel Mendelsohn, Bard College
Mark Polizzotti, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jenny McPhee, NYU
Daniel Mendelsohn, Bard College
Mark Polizzotti, Metropolitan Museum of Art
What happens when translation falters and languages cannot be reconciled? What is irremediably “foreign” in a foreign language, culture, literature and art? How to transform this challenge into a creative resource?
We ask these probing questions to four of the most prominent literary translators of today, to learn from their experiences and struggles, as well as their successes.
Ann Goldstein is a translator from the Italian language, best known for her celebrated translations of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet. Former editor of The New Yorker, her many translations include works from Alba de Cespedes, Elsa Morante, Giacomo Leopardi, Jhumpa Lahiri. She also edited the three-volume publication of The Complete Works of Primo Levi (2015).
Jenny McPhee teaches in the Master’s in Translation and Interpreting program at NYU and in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton. Author of several novels, her translations from the Italian include works by the authors Anna Banti, Natalia Ginzburg, Primo Levi, Elsa Morante, Anna Maria Ortese, Curzio Malaparte, and Pope John Paul II.
Daniel Mendelsohn is the Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities at Bard College. An internationally bestselling author, critic, essayist, and translator, his notable works include An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic (2017), and The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million (2006). His translation of Homer’s Odyssey will be published next year.
Mark Polizzotti is a publisher and editor-in-chief at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He has translated more than 50 books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Marguerite Duras and André Breton, and written 11 books, the latest of which is Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto (2018).
Moderated by Marina van Zuylen (Bard) and Franco Baldasso (Bard).
We ask these probing questions to four of the most prominent literary translators of today, to learn from their experiences and struggles, as well as their successes.
Ann Goldstein is a translator from the Italian language, best known for her celebrated translations of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet. Former editor of The New Yorker, her many translations include works from Alba de Cespedes, Elsa Morante, Giacomo Leopardi, Jhumpa Lahiri. She also edited the three-volume publication of The Complete Works of Primo Levi (2015).
Jenny McPhee teaches in the Master’s in Translation and Interpreting program at NYU and in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton. Author of several novels, her translations from the Italian include works by the authors Anna Banti, Natalia Ginzburg, Primo Levi, Elsa Morante, Anna Maria Ortese, Curzio Malaparte, and Pope John Paul II.
Daniel Mendelsohn is the Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities at Bard College. An internationally bestselling author, critic, essayist, and translator, his notable works include An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic (2017), and The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million (2006). His translation of Homer’s Odyssey will be published next year.
Mark Polizzotti is a publisher and editor-in-chief at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He has translated more than 50 books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Marguerite Duras and André Breton, and written 11 books, the latest of which is Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto (2018).
Moderated by Marina van Zuylen (Bard) and Franco Baldasso (Bard).
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Campus Center, Weis Cinema
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