According to André Lefevere, translations and interpretations of literary works can become distorted because they are never neutral acts. In his theory of rewriting, Lefevere argues that translators, critics, anthologists, and publishers reshape literary texts (or source texts) for specific target audiences according to the ideological, political, and cultural values of their own societies. Such rewritings, therefore, may elide (or “distort”) source texts written by World Literature authors.

Clarice Lispector, for example, is among Brazil’s most translated and discussed modern writers. Her short stores, some of them in fact translated by American modernist poet Elizabeth Bishop, and novels have made significant impact among scholars and readers alike. Her works have been described by critics as “strangely humanistic and heartfelt” and capable of harnessing its “obliqueness” to produce an exploration of the nature of writing.” In addition, her works display a “contemplation of class inequality,” race, gender and women’s experiences, social injustice, among others. But what happens to Lispector’s (or any other author) works when translated for a disparate audience? 

This seminar investigates how literary works may be altered, reinterpreted, or even distorted when it is translated into other languages and cultural contexts. How are the works of World Literature authors impacted by such distortions? Can the target audience of a translated work ever experience a text’s distinction the same way as its native audience, or does translation inevitably produce a different literary experience?

This seminar invites papers that examine what happens to literary works in translation, what translators and translated texts intend to offer their target audiences, and/or how their work adapts texts into frameworks of meaning not available to original readers.