News

Translation as a mirror: Rethinking Euro-Mediterranean cultural exchanges

Wednesday 26th September, 2012
Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, Comédie-Française
Paris

9.00 am to 5.30 pm

Transeuropéennes and the Anna Lindh Foundation published in June 2012 an unprecedented document, the Mapping of Translation in the Euro-Mediterranean Region. It was conducted with over fifteen partners from the Mediterranean region. Resulting from a two-year long collective work, the Mapping of translation holds up a mirror to the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: in the light of translation, what is the reality of our exchanges?

In order to debate the report publicly and to think about future actions, this conference is being held on the occasion of the European Day of Languages. 

Organised by Transeuropéennes, the Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France, the Comédie-Française, the Festival d’Avignon 2014, in partnership with the Anna Lindh Foundation, the Institut français and the Maison Antoine Vitez, the conference invites authors, translators, publishers, directors of libraries, literary critics, heads of funding programs, researchers, academics, to discuss weaknesses in the chain of translation, of possible complementarities and alliances, the effects of hegemony and conditions for the equality of exchanges, and of aesthetic and representative stakes.

The Mapping of Translation (to read about its launch in Brussels earlier this year click here) brings a radically new approach to the subject, since it takes into account the whole chain of translation, that is to say all the actors involved in the process of translation: authors, translators, publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary critics and funding programs. It is nourished by qualitative and quantitative analysis (with hitherto non-existent statistical data).

It clarifies the crucial role of the translation of knowledge in human and social sciences, literature and theatre in the development of an interculturality, whilst bringing to light the numerous difficulties it poses in economic, cultural and political terms.

Besides these observations, the  Mapping of Translation offers a political vision of translation in the sense of the construction of common need and prepares the ground for a Euro-Mediterranean programme of a structural nature.

PROGRAMME

8.45 Greeting to conference participants

9.15 – 10.15 Opening and presentation of the Mapping of Translation in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

• General Administrator of the Comédie-Française, Muriel Mayette

• Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, Andreu Claret

• General Delegate to the French language and the languages of France, Xavier North

Presentation of the Mapping of Translation in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

Ghislaine Glasson Deschaumes, Director of Transeuropéennes, researcher at the ISP.

Theatrical readings

Coffee break

10.30 – 12.30 Production and visibility of the translated book : what alliances ?

Moderator: Franck Mermier, senior research fellow, LAU/EHESS

Mohammed Diouri, director of Toubkal Publishing (Casablanca) (to be confirmed)

Elisabeth Bartuli, translator, editorial advisor, Mesogea Publishers (Venice/Palermo)

Hakan Özkan, translator, academic (Istanbul/Göttingen)

Albert Dichy, literary director of the IMEC, president of Transeuropéennes/ASTEC

Marius Tukaj, Index Translationum, UNESCO

Jörn Cambreleng, Collège international des traducteurs, Arles

Farouk Mardam Bey, publisher, Actes Sud

Lunch

14.00 – 15.30 Knowledge and debate over ideas and the challenge of translation

Moderator: Michèle Gendreau-Massaloux, former Rector, Head of the Training and Higher education department, Union for the Mediterranean

Gema Martin Muñoz, professor of sociology, Madrid, former director of Casa Arabe

Gisèle Sapiro, senior research fellow at the CNRS and research director at the EHESS

Isabelle Nyffenegger, department of the creation, Centre national du livre, Paris

Timur Muhidine, translator, publisher, lecturer at the INALCO

Mustapha Laarissa, professor of philosophy, University of Marrakech

Theatrical readings

15.30 – 16.50 Translation: aesthetics and representations

Moderator: Laurent Mulheisen, Comédie-Française and Maison Antoine Vitez

Olivier Py, author and director, Paris

Ahmed El Attar, author and stage director, Cairo

Serra Yilmaz, actress, director, Istanbul

Yael Lerer, publisher, Al Andalus (Tel Aviv/Paris)

16.50 – 17.10  Great Witness

Barbara Cassin, philosopher and philologist, senior research fellow at the CNRS

17h10 – 17h30 Conclusions

Xavier Darcos, President, Institut français

Serge Telle, Ambassador in charge of the Union for the Mediterranean

For information and registration email  atk@transeuropeennes.eu