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Call for Papers Theme: Translation, Comparatism and the Global South Type: XVI International Conference Institution: Forum on Contemporary Theory Department of Studies in English, University of Mysore Location: Mysore (India) Date: 15.–18.12.2013 Deadline: 30.8.2013 __________________________________________________ The sixteenth International Conference of the Forum on Contemporary Theory will be held in Mysore from the 15th to the 18th of December 2013 at Hotel Regaalis in collaboration with the Department of Studies in English, University of Mysore. Thematic Introduction To do academic crosscultural work is to encounter translation and comparatism. Cultures meet, interact and contend with one another through processes of translation; and comparison — the foundation of comparatism as a method — provides a convenient means through which to study disparate cultures in relationship to one another. Translation and comparatism are related to each other intimately. Translation practices are often germane to comparative work; translation (whether in oral form in the field in anthropology or in written form at the desk in literary study) has routinely made available materials on which comparative methods can be brought to bear by scholars. From another perspective, translation itself can be seen as a comparative act, for translation typically proceeds through painstakingly precise acts of comparison. Translation, understood at its broadest as the transference of meaning from one semiotic system into another, is in this light the comparative search for cognate elements across linguistic and other kinds of semiotic boundaries. With specific regard to the Global South (otherwise known as the Third World or the postcolonial world) translation and comparatism have played crucial and constitutive roles. They have functioned in myriad ways, sometimes set to work in the history of the Global South as weapons of control and at other times marshaled as tools of resistance and solidarity. Colonialism and anti-colonial resistance, as crosscultural phenomena, equally relied on translation and comparative practices ranging from the anonymous and oral to the celebrated and highly literary. Similarly, both translation and comparatism remain crucial to the culture and politics of the Global South today. Like translation under colonial conditions, postcolonial translation can be both intra- and inter-national. A multilingual country like India subsists on daily acts of translation; translation is also the quotidian lived reality of the United Nations. Similar claims can be made for comparative methods of study. Translation Translation is most often taken to indicate the transference of meaning between different natural languages—such as French and German in Walter Benjamin’s well-known essay “The Task of the Translator” or Bengali and English as in the example of Rabindranath Tagore’s translation of his own work in Gitanjali. However, translation may also be broadened to include other forms of transference of meaning between disparate semiotic systems, as in the example of the adaptation of Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani’s novella Men in the Sun into the Egyptian film The Dupes. In its different guises, translation within the academy is implicated in a variety of disciplines ranging from anthropology to comparative philosophy. Outside the academy, translation is found in the public life of multilingual nations as well as in international diplomacy and business; whether in the publication of government documents in several languages in Singapore or the training of call center workers in the Philippines, translation plays a vital role. As countless examples demonstrate, sometimes translation processes are utopian and oriented towards an ethic of hospitality; at other times, they are violent and appropriative. Comparatism If translation is the lived reality of the Global South, academic scrutiny of it relies all too often on comparative methods of analysis. While at its simplest comparatism is the comparison of any two cultures, social contexts or linguistic traditions, the philosophical bases as well as disciplinary configurations of academic regimes of comparison are far more complicated. From a sociological point of view, what justifies the comparative study of the politics of religion in Nigeria and Egypt? Or, what ground of comparison permits the juxtapositioning of a novel from Trinidad with one from South Africa? Such deceptively simple questions are at issue in several disciplines focused on the Global South from history to political science. From these apparently simple questions emerge more complex ones: Is comparison conceivable without an underlying universalist foundation? How is it possible to engage in an act of cross-cultural comparison without subjecting one side to the dominant ideas of the other? What are the practical and institutional limits to comparative academic work? These vexatious ethical questions, hidden behind the simple act of comparison, are at the heart of the modern project of comparatism. Call for Papers The aim of the XVI Conference is to bring together scholars from a variety of intellectual and disciplinary backgrounds to reflect on the uses and abuses of translation and comparative methods in the context of the history, cultures and politics of the Global South. In the context of the pasts, presents and futures of the Global South, the conference invites approaches to “translation” from the point of view of theory (as the subject of metadiscursive rumination), of trope (as a rich metaphor for a variety of processes and experiences of transformation), and of practice (as the painstaking transference of a text from one language to another or, more generally, from one semiotic system to another). The conference envisages presentations and panels approaching “comparatism” historically as well as theoretically. Translation and comparatism are intimately linked topics. As noted above, an act of translation is an act of comparison; and comparatism all too often depends on translation. The conference endeavors to direct sustained attention to translation, comparatism and crosscultural dialogue through social analyses, historical accounts, readings of texts, presentation of fieldwork, philosophical inquiries, and other such disciplinary and transdisciplinary sharing of work. The following, in addition to suggestions embedded in the narrative above, is an illustrative list of possible areas of interest: - translation and the history of colonialism and anticolonial resistance - film, literature and translation - the limits of comparative methods - Western and non-Western philosophical bases of translation and comparative methods - disciplinary configurations, translation and comparatism - case studies of translation practices in different disciplines - nations, nationalism and translation - translation studies as a field - comparative studies of neoliberal policies - performance and translation - vernacular knowledges and comparatism - folklore and translation These themes are meant only as prompts to scholars interested in participating in the conference. They are not meant to be an exhaustive list. We invite a variety of engagements with the broad themes of the conference, especially as they enable conversations across the humanities and the social sciences. We also encourage submissions from scholars working with non-English language materials. Submissions 500-word abstract or proposal is due by August 30, 2013. The abstract should have a title for the presentation along with the name and institutional affiliation of the presenter and should be mailed as an email attachment to S. Shankar, the Convener of the Conference ([email protected]). Complete papers should be limited to 12 pages (approximately 20 minutes of reading time). A longer version may be submitted for possible publication in the Journal of Contemporary Thought or in the conference volume brought out by the Forum. The completed paper should reach the Convener of the Forum on Contemporary Theory ([email protected]) by November 15, 2013. Keynote Speakers Simon Gikandi Robert Schirmer Professor of English at Princeton University Arjun Appadurai Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University Contact: Prafulla C. Kar Forum on Contemporary Theory C-304 Siddhi Vinayak Complex Faramji Road Baroda 390 007, Gujarat India Tel: +91 (0)265 2320870 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.fctworld.org/16th%20international_conference.htm __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
