Workshop's identity and key information
- Full title: Translation as Cultural Practice: the intersection of language, history and the creative arts
- Organizer: CHS Greece
- Dates: September 12–13, 2020 (2 two-hour sessions, over weekend; exact dates announced with the call for applications)
- Location: Nafplio, Greece
- Open to: All (up to 20 participants per cycle)
- Workshop Coordinator: Margaret Wesseling (translator, playwright)
- Program Coordination: Matina Goga (CHS Greece, matina.goga@chs.harvard.edu)
- Held: Annually
- Application deadlines: Opened early February, closed on March 1, 2020 (announced with the call for applications)
- Languages of the workshop: Greek, English
About the workshop
Overview
This workshop is primarily addressed to interested students and graduates of relevant specialties, translators, writers, as well as the general public. It includes a theoretical and a practical part. Participants collaborate with the coordinator, exchange views and delve deeper into different kinds of translation (technical, professional, literary), issues in translation, and translation as cultural communication. The scope of the workshop is to examine translation in its historical and cultural context.
The workshop consists of two parts.
- Part I: The coordinator focuses on several anecdotal accounts of the lives of translators at different times and in different countries, which is aimed to lead into a broader discussion of the influence of translation on culture. The coordinator also presents a detailed discussion of one particular set of translations and talks about issues associated with the process of translation, including audience, vocabulary subgroup, and target language register.
- Part II: Participants are invited to encounter some of the issues of translation in the form of group exercises. The scope of the workshop is to point out the significance of translation, which is essential for culture, and to engage the audience in a discussion of its ethics.
Participation
Participation in the workshop is offered free of charge. When the application period is open all interested participants are invited to submit a sample of their writing, along with their contact information, and a brief description of their aspirations from the workshop and motivations to apply.
The workshop will accept up to 20 participants. If the number of applicants is higher, the actual participants will be selected by the coordinator, based on their application.