Translating Memories of Violent Pasts: Memory Studies and Translation Studies in Dialogue(Creative, Social and Transnational Perspectives on Translation)

This collection brings together work from Memory Studies and Translation Studies to explore the role of interlingual and intercultural translation for unpacking transcultural memory dynamics, focusing on memories of violent pasts across different literary genres. The book explores the potential of a research agenda that links narrower definitions of translation with broader notions of transfer, transmission, and relocation across temporal and cultural borders, investigating the nuanced theoretical and conceptual dimensions at the intersection of memory and translation. The volume explores memories of violent pasts – legacies of war, genocide, dictatorship, and exile across different genres and media, including testimony, autobiography, novels, and graphic novels. The collection engages in central questions at the interface of Memory Studies and Translation Studies, including whether traumatic historical experiences that resist representation can be translated, what happens when texts that negotiate such memories are translated into other languages and cultures, and what role translation strategies, translators, and agents of translations play in memory across borders. The volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars in Translation Studies, Memory Studies, and Comparative Literature.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction: Translating Memories of Violent Pasts Claudia Jünke and Désirée Schyns Thoughts on Translation and Memory Susan Bassnett Mnemonic Translation and the Politics of Visibility Lucy Bond ‘As if carved in stone’: Primo Levi and the (In)Stability of Memory in Translation Mary Wardle From ‘Living on’ to ‘Still Alive’ and ‘Lost on the Way’: Exile, Memory, and Intersectionality as a Translation ‘of One’s Own’ in Ruth Klüger’s Autobiographical Texts Marie-Pierre Harder Modiano’s Dark Light of Remembrance in Translation: Paratextual Mediation of La place de l’étoile in German, Dutch, and English Désirée Schyns The Editorial Framing of Polish and Spanish Translations of Jorge Semprún’s Novel Le mort qu’il faut and the Contexts of their Reception Małgorzata Gaszyńska-Magiera Robert Schopflocher’s Self-Translation in Argentinian Exile: Reflections on German-Jewish Cultural Memory and Collective Identity Philippe Humblé and Arvi Sepp Translatio inferni: Roberto Bolaño’s Memory of the Nazis in America Nora Zapf Translating Genocide? The Case of the Witness Esther Mujawayo Vera Elisabeth Gerling Translating Wounds in the Contemporary Memoir – The Genocide in Rwanda and its Aftermath in Clemantine Wamariya’s The Girl Who Smiled Beads (2018) Katarzyna Macedulska Translation, Trauma, and Memory in Petit pays (Gaël Faye) Anneleen Spiessens Collaborative Translation and the Remediation of Intergenerational Memory in Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi Tamara Barakat The Graphic Memoir in a Translational Perspective: Childhood Memories of War in Zeina Abirached’s Mourir partir revenir: Le jeu des hirondelles (2007) and Je me souviens Beyrouth (2008) Claudia Jünke Bridging Communities Affected by Past Conflict: Translation and the Processes of Memory Cecilia Rossi List of Contributors

About the Author :
Claudia Jünke is Professor of Spanish and French Literatures and Cultures at the Department of Romance Studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Her research is centred on modern and contemporary literatures in Spain, France, and Latin America, with a focus on memory, narrative, subjectivity, and intermediality. Désirée Schyns is Associate Professor of Translation Studies and Translation at Ghent University, Belgium. She is the author of La mémoire littéraire de la guerre d’Algérie dans la fiction algérienne francophone and has published widely on translation of francophone literature. Her literary translations into Dutch include works by Hélène Cixous and Marcel Proust.

Review :
Memory travels in translation. Translation is an act of memory. Translating Memories of Violent Pasts stages a rich conversation between experts from memory studies and translation studies. Their essays not only throw light on where two vibrant research fields meet, but also demonstrate compellingly the stakes of memory translation in our age of violence and trauma. An enlightening read! Astrid Erll, Goethe University Frankfurt