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Translating Sounds in Proust


  • Université Paris Ouest, Salle des Conférences 200 Avenue de la République Nanterre, IDF, 92001 France (map)

Translation is inherent to Proust’s idea of literary creation, and his work develops a rhythmical, musical conception of literary language as foreign in and of itself. What then happens when Proust’s work is translated, and, more specifically, how does the practice of translation shed light on his understanding of the relationship between sound and language, between phonè and writing? Bringing together critics and translators, this conference draws on the English-language translations of Proust’s work in order to explore the way sound plays out in his work, disrupting the lines that separate the “original” or source text from its echo in translation. This, in turn, interrogates the distinctions in his work between silence, noise, music and language, and between experience, representation and memory. 

PROGRAMME

Thursday 25 June 
Salle des colloques, bâtiment B, Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense

2:30 pm Conference opening address

I. Chair: Emily Eells

2:45 Françoise Asso, Université de Lille III
Traduire "Zut, zut, zut, zut"

3:15 Margaret Gray, Indiana University, Bloomington
Mémoire(s) d’outre-texte: les voix-off du discours proustien

Coffee break

II. Chair: Cornelius Crowley

4:30 Christopher Prendergast, University of Cambridge, editor, In Search of Lost Time (Penguin 2002)
Bells Across the Water: The Place of Sound in the Recherche

5:00 Stéphane Heuet, Illustrator
Proust: Traduire le son en image

Friday 26 June
Institut d’Etudes Avancées, Hôtel de Lauzun, 17 quai d’Anjou, Paris (75004)

III. Chair: Christine Berthin

9:30 Daniel Karlin, Bristol University
Translating "les cris de Paris" in Proust’s La Prisonnière

10:30 Lydia Davis, translator, Du côté de chez Swann (Penguin 2002), Author 
Hammers and Hoofbeats 

Coffee break

IV. Chair: Naomi Toth

12:00 James Grieve, translator, Du côté de chez Swann (Canberra, 1982), À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (Penguin, 2002), Visiting Fellow, Australian National University
Voix proustiennes à l’anglaise : l’idiolecte des personnages de la Recherche selon treize traducteurs

Lunch break

V. Chair: Adam Watt

2:30 William C. Carter, translator, Du côté de chez Swann, University of Alabama at Birmingham
"Le Devoir et la tâche" : Proust, Moncrieff et nous (paper read by Elyane Dezon-Jones)

3:00 Translators’ round table with Lydia Davis, James Grieve, Ian Patterson (Cambridge University), translator, Le Temps retrouvé (Penguin 2002), and Christopher Prendergast

CALL FOR ARTICLES

Papers will appear in a publication (in French) following the conference. Please note that we welcome submissions of additional articles on this question for inclusion in the final volume. Abstracts should be sent to Emily Eells (emily.eells@u-paris10.fr).

REGISTRATION

There is no fee for attending the conference, however participants must register beforehand by sending an email to Emily Eells and Naomi Toth (emily.eells@u-paris10.frntoth@u-paris10.fr)

Earlier Event: June 3
Journée ProusTime
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