Dominic Glynn | Université Paris Saclay (original) (raw)
Books by Dominic Glynn
Lignes de fuite « met en page » trois voix cherchant à analyser, à questionner et à remodeler leu... more Lignes de fuite « met en page » trois voix cherchant à analyser, à questionner et à remodeler leurs souvenirs, afin de procéder à une réecriture du passé. Ces textes proposent des lignes de fuite à partir d'interrogations contemporaines : comment les traumatismes personnels sont-ils archivés ? Comment envisager notre capacité à oublier le passé ? Quel est notre devoir de mémoire ? Si des éléments de réponse sont proposés à travers ces fictions monologuées, on ne réussira pas à tirer au clair la part d'obscurité.
Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine are among the most important directors in recent theatre history.
Doctoral Thesis by Dominic Glynn
There is consensus in academic circles that the directors Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine have ... more There is consensus in academic circles that the directors Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine have similar approaches to theatre practice and occupy the same position in the landscape of theatre production in France. Yet there have not been any in-depth studies that unpack the similarities and differences between the two practitioners. Considering their stature on the national French and international stages, such a gap of scholarship needed to be filled. By examining the specificities of their practices via the analysis of their two most emblematic productions, the Mahabharata and Les Atrides, this thesis hopes to provide an appraisal of their practices at a time when they are moving away from theatre. More specifically, this thesis looks at how the two directors transferred ancient archetypal and mythological narratives to the contemporary French stage. It considers how they used successful, parallel methodologies to adapt and render present an Ancient Sanskrit epic on the one hand (Brook), and Ancient Greek drama on the other (Mnouchkine). I uncover in their work the matrix for adaptation, located in the discourse of storytelling and in the post-Brechtian concept of estrangement, that I label ‘décalage’. Moreover, the thesis hopes to provide an appraisal of the supremacy of directors on the French stage in the nineteen eighties and advocates for the cultural necessity of theatre as an art form, at a time of crisis in France.
Articles by Dominic Glynn
The export of traditional Chinese medicinal products (TCMs) poses several problems directly linke... more The export of traditional Chinese medicinal products (TCMs) poses several problems directly linked to translation. The products themselves and their active ingredients lack notoriety outside Asia. Moreover, claims about the therapeutic virtues of the medicines may not consistently be reproduced as different jurisdictions will not allow them. This article studies the packaging of TCMs sold in the United States of America (USA) using Vinay and Darbelnet’s (1995) terminology to identify different methods to translate the product name, its active ingredients, and function claims. The article evaluates how translation choices are conditioned by the ratio of translated text to source text on bilingual Chinese and English packaging. It also reflects on how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) legal requirements affect what may or not figure on the packaging. Finally, it discusses the value of the different approaches to translation considering these constraints.
Babel, 2022
This articles examines issues of translation in Dung Kai-cheung’s novel Dituji: Yige xiangxiang d... more This articles examines issues of translation in Dung Kai-cheung’s novel Dituji: Yige xiangxiang de chengshi de kaoguxue 地圖集：一個想像的城市的考古學 [Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City]. In the first instance, it provides structural analysis of the contraints shaping the translation of the writer’s work from Chinese to English. It moves on to comment on the imbrication of Hong Kong’s history of translation in the puns and other word games, as well as in the narrative thread. Lastly, it compares different partial English translations of significant passages to (re)map the linguistic and cultural transfer of this major work of contemporary Hong Kong literature.
Francosphères, 2021
This article comments on the notion of 'constraint' by analysing the specific difficulties in the... more This article comments on the notion of 'constraint' by analysing the specific difficulties in the translation of a martial arts ('wuxia') novel into French and English. The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳, she diao ying xiong zhuan) is the first part of the 'Condor Trilogy' (射鵰三部曲, she diao san bu qu), the masterpiece of Chinese writer Jin Yong (金庸). Little known in the West, the novel was recently translated by Anna Holmwood and Wang Jiann-Yuh. This article studies the strategies adopted by each translator to render the cultural specificities of the source context in the target culture. By so doing, it contributes to theoretical debates concerning transfers between two distant literary and cultural systems.
Francosphères, 2021
This article examines transformations in the literary translation environment in the People's Rep... more This article examines transformations in the literary translation environment in the People's Republic of China (PRC) specifically in relation to Frenchlanguage theatre. After an initial survey of literary translation in the PRC from its foundation to the present, the article studies how French-language plays have been translated and adapted for publication. In particular, it considers how French theatre has occupied a favoured position in the Chinese translation literary system over the past four decades. It then focuses on three emblematic cases, those of Molière, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Samuel Beckett. Regarding the latter, two Chinese translations of En attendant Godot/Waiting for Godot will be examined to determine how contextual factors affected translation choices. In this way, the article seeks both to contribute to current discussions on 'translatability' and to consider the reception of canonical French-language writers in the Chinese literary system.
Sage Open, 2021
This article analyses different methodological approaches adopted by theoretical articles publish... more This article analyses different methodological approaches adopted by theoretical articles published in translation studies journals. To account for the range of perspectives, a small corpus comprising articles from three journals listed in both the Thomson and Reuters Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) was studied. The article discusses how the methods used could gain in rigor from being formalized. It begins by defining translation theory before outlining a corpus of articles to be studied. It then moves onto describing and discussing four methodologies to provide recommendations for conducting future research in translation theory.
Across Language and Cultures, 2021
Non-translation has not been adequately theorized despite its relevance to conceptualizing how te... more Non-translation has not been adequately theorized despite its relevance to conceptualizing how texts circulate across linguistic and cultural borders. This article outlines a theory which defines non-translation in three ways: first, in terms of systemic resistance to translation; second, as a set of procedures forming part of an overarching translation strategy; third, as the result of discourse that conceals the process of translation for various purposes. It describes the characteristics of ideological, economic, poetological resistance to translation, categorising environments as hostile or hospitable depending on the extent to which translation is prevented from happening. Moving beyond a binary opposition between translation and its negative, the article then considers how partial non-translation might be used as a procedure to facilitate the translation of the rest of a text. Finally, the ways in which translational actions are concealed or negated, and thus rendered non-translations, are examined. The overarching aim of the article is to contribute a workable theory of nontranslation that will serve as the basis for future studies of translation as a practice, process and product.
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2020
Theater translation is an emerging area of research. However, to date, there has been no detailed... more Theater translation is an emerging area of research. However, to date, there has been no detailed consideration of the type of methodologies required to conduct such research. This article examines methods and practices in both theater and translation studies in order to discuss their applicability to study theater translation specifically. It categorizes existing research into output-oriented and process-oriented elaborating the specificities of each. The methods include comparative analysis of the translated texts with their source texts and production reviews. This article also outlines ethical issues in conducting research into theater translation.
Francosphères, 2020
Cet article propose une lecture de Samuel Beckett au prisme de l'oeuvre du metteur en scène Peter... more Cet article propose une lecture de Samuel Beckett au prisme de l'oeuvre du metteur en scène Peter Brook. Plus précisément, il étudie la manière dont Brook appréhende Beckett, dans ses écrits théoriques et à travers ses réalisa-tions scéniques. Il en ressort une grande admiration pour l'homme, qu'il aura eu l'occasion de croiser à de maintes reprises, mais surtout, pour sa dramaturgie; dont la particularité réside, selon lui, dans sa capacité à se délester de tout contenu superflu pour ne retenir que l'essentiel. Toutefois, dans ses mises en scène d'Oh les beaux jours (1995), Glückliche Tage (2003) et Fragments (2006, 2015), cette admiration ne se traduit pas par un respect forcené des indications de jeu, mais plutôt par ce que l'on nommera, en empruntant le concept à la traductologie, « une fidélité abusive », qui consiste à trouver de nouvelles modalités afin de mieux exprimer les enjeux du texte.
Perspectives, 2020
In recent years, ‘translatability’, or rather, ‘untranslatability’ has been a much-discussed topi... more In recent years, ‘translatability’, or rather, ‘untranslatability’ has been a much-discussed topic in translation studies. However, the state of its theorisation has remained relatively rudimentary, focusing in large part on assertions that specific texts, or textual features cannot be translated on the basis of certain cultural, ideological, or linguistic idiosyncrasies. In theatre and performance studies, the closely comparable notion of ‘unperformability’ exists, which describes texts, passages, or elements of plays which cannot be performed for one technical, ideological, practical reason or another. Yet, unperformability has not been extensively theorised and the treatment of these closely related notions differs radically in each respective research field. The aim of this article is to ask whether, by comparing, and ultimately synthesising the two notions, theoretical definition can be added. Such definition, it is argued, would allow thinking about ‘translatability’ and ‘performability’ as complementary notions that acknowledge the creative workarounds employed as a matter of course in translations and performances.
French Cultural Studies, 2019
Le projet « Literature under Constraint » est né de l’hypothèse très générale qu’il est arrivé qu... more Le projet « Literature under Constraint » est né de l’hypothèse très générale qu’il est arrivé quelque chose à la littérature française contemporaine, abstraction faite des jugements de valeur qu’on peut y porter, et que ce quelque chose peut être appréhendé grâce à la notion de contrainte. Pour ce faire, une perspective multidisciplinaire, maniant à la fois les outils propres à l’analyse littéraire (explication de texte, stylistique, génétique textuelle, etc.) et les apports récents des sciences sociales (inscription de la littérature dans l’ensemble des contextes sociaux qui la conditionnent), nous semble la mieux placée pour dégager la spécificité de la production littéraire des quarante dernières années.
It has become something of a cliché to say that avant-garde literature died in France in the earl... more It has become something of a cliché to say that avant-garde literature died in France in the early 1980s. Yet, while it is evident that the beginning of the decade marked a turn in literary history, it is also clear that experimental writing practices have emerged since then, and that any assertion of the death of (post)modernism must therefore be relativized. This article considers the work of one writer, Olivier Cadiot, who entered the literary scene with fracas in 1988 with the publication of L'Art poétic'. Over a period of roughly thirty years, Cadiot has questioned what it means to read and write literature through producing a body of imaginative and theoretically dense cross-genre works. In so doing, he has asserted the creative and intellectual vibrancy of contemporary literary practices in the face of discourse which identifies French literature as being in a state of decline.
Published in New Zealand Journal of French Studies Vol 36
Lignes de fuite « met en page » trois voix cherchant à analyser, à questionner et à remodeler leu... more Lignes de fuite « met en page » trois voix cherchant à analyser, à questionner et à remodeler leurs souvenirs, afin de procéder à une réecriture du passé. Ces textes proposent des lignes de fuite à partir d'interrogations contemporaines : comment les traumatismes personnels sont-ils archivés ? Comment envisager notre capacité à oublier le passé ? Quel est notre devoir de mémoire ? Si des éléments de réponse sont proposés à travers ces fictions monologuées, on ne réussira pas à tirer au clair la part d'obscurité.
Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine are among the most important directors in recent theatre history.
There is consensus in academic circles that the directors Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine have ... more There is consensus in academic circles that the directors Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine have similar approaches to theatre practice and occupy the same position in the landscape of theatre production in France. Yet there have not been any in-depth studies that unpack the similarities and differences between the two practitioners. Considering their stature on the national French and international stages, such a gap of scholarship needed to be filled. By examining the specificities of their practices via the analysis of their two most emblematic productions, the Mahabharata and Les Atrides, this thesis hopes to provide an appraisal of their practices at a time when they are moving away from theatre. More specifically, this thesis looks at how the two directors transferred ancient archetypal and mythological narratives to the contemporary French stage. It considers how they used successful, parallel methodologies to adapt and render present an Ancient Sanskrit epic on the one hand (Brook), and Ancient Greek drama on the other (Mnouchkine). I uncover in their work the matrix for adaptation, located in the discourse of storytelling and in the post-Brechtian concept of estrangement, that I label ‘décalage’. Moreover, the thesis hopes to provide an appraisal of the supremacy of directors on the French stage in the nineteen eighties and advocates for the cultural necessity of theatre as an art form, at a time of crisis in France.
The export of traditional Chinese medicinal products (TCMs) poses several problems directly linke... more The export of traditional Chinese medicinal products (TCMs) poses several problems directly linked to translation. The products themselves and their active ingredients lack notoriety outside Asia. Moreover, claims about the therapeutic virtues of the medicines may not consistently be reproduced as different jurisdictions will not allow them. This article studies the packaging of TCMs sold in the United States of America (USA) using Vinay and Darbelnet’s (1995) terminology to identify different methods to translate the product name, its active ingredients, and function claims. The article evaluates how translation choices are conditioned by the ratio of translated text to source text on bilingual Chinese and English packaging. It also reflects on how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) legal requirements affect what may or not figure on the packaging. Finally, it discusses the value of the different approaches to translation considering these constraints.
Babel, 2022
This articles examines issues of translation in Dung Kai-cheung’s novel Dituji: Yige xiangxiang d... more This articles examines issues of translation in Dung Kai-cheung’s novel Dituji: Yige xiangxiang de chengshi de kaoguxue 地圖集：一個想像的城市的考古學 [Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City]. In the first instance, it provides structural analysis of the contraints shaping the translation of the writer’s work from Chinese to English. It moves on to comment on the imbrication of Hong Kong’s history of translation in the puns and other word games, as well as in the narrative thread. Lastly, it compares different partial English translations of significant passages to (re)map the linguistic and cultural transfer of this major work of contemporary Hong Kong literature.
Francosphères, 2021
This article comments on the notion of 'constraint' by analysing the specific difficulties in the... more This article comments on the notion of 'constraint' by analysing the specific difficulties in the translation of a martial arts ('wuxia') novel into French and English. The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳, she diao ying xiong zhuan) is the first part of the 'Condor Trilogy' (射鵰三部曲, she diao san bu qu), the masterpiece of Chinese writer Jin Yong (金庸). Little known in the West, the novel was recently translated by Anna Holmwood and Wang Jiann-Yuh. This article studies the strategies adopted by each translator to render the cultural specificities of the source context in the target culture. By so doing, it contributes to theoretical debates concerning transfers between two distant literary and cultural systems.
Francosphères, 2021
This article examines transformations in the literary translation environment in the People's Rep... more This article examines transformations in the literary translation environment in the People's Republic of China (PRC) specifically in relation to Frenchlanguage theatre. After an initial survey of literary translation in the PRC from its foundation to the present, the article studies how French-language plays have been translated and adapted for publication. In particular, it considers how French theatre has occupied a favoured position in the Chinese translation literary system over the past four decades. It then focuses on three emblematic cases, those of Molière, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Samuel Beckett. Regarding the latter, two Chinese translations of En attendant Godot/Waiting for Godot will be examined to determine how contextual factors affected translation choices. In this way, the article seeks both to contribute to current discussions on 'translatability' and to consider the reception of canonical French-language writers in the Chinese literary system.
Sage Open, 2021
This article analyses different methodological approaches adopted by theoretical articles publish... more This article analyses different methodological approaches adopted by theoretical articles published in translation studies journals. To account for the range of perspectives, a small corpus comprising articles from three journals listed in both the Thomson and Reuters Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) was studied. The article discusses how the methods used could gain in rigor from being formalized. It begins by defining translation theory before outlining a corpus of articles to be studied. It then moves onto describing and discussing four methodologies to provide recommendations for conducting future research in translation theory.
Across Language and Cultures, 2021
Non-translation has not been adequately theorized despite its relevance to conceptualizing how te... more Non-translation has not been adequately theorized despite its relevance to conceptualizing how texts circulate across linguistic and cultural borders. This article outlines a theory which defines non-translation in three ways: first, in terms of systemic resistance to translation; second, as a set of procedures forming part of an overarching translation strategy; third, as the result of discourse that conceals the process of translation for various purposes. It describes the characteristics of ideological, economic, poetological resistance to translation, categorising environments as hostile or hospitable depending on the extent to which translation is prevented from happening. Moving beyond a binary opposition between translation and its negative, the article then considers how partial non-translation might be used as a procedure to facilitate the translation of the rest of a text. Finally, the ways in which translational actions are concealed or negated, and thus rendered non-translations, are examined. The overarching aim of the article is to contribute a workable theory of nontranslation that will serve as the basis for future studies of translation as a practice, process and product.
International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2020
Theater translation is an emerging area of research. However, to date, there has been no detailed... more Theater translation is an emerging area of research. However, to date, there has been no detailed consideration of the type of methodologies required to conduct such research. This article examines methods and practices in both theater and translation studies in order to discuss their applicability to study theater translation specifically. It categorizes existing research into output-oriented and process-oriented elaborating the specificities of each. The methods include comparative analysis of the translated texts with their source texts and production reviews. This article also outlines ethical issues in conducting research into theater translation.
Francosphères, 2020
Cet article propose une lecture de Samuel Beckett au prisme de l'oeuvre du metteur en scène Peter... more Cet article propose une lecture de Samuel Beckett au prisme de l'oeuvre du metteur en scène Peter Brook. Plus précisément, il étudie la manière dont Brook appréhende Beckett, dans ses écrits théoriques et à travers ses réalisa-tions scéniques. Il en ressort une grande admiration pour l'homme, qu'il aura eu l'occasion de croiser à de maintes reprises, mais surtout, pour sa dramaturgie; dont la particularité réside, selon lui, dans sa capacité à se délester de tout contenu superflu pour ne retenir que l'essentiel. Toutefois, dans ses mises en scène d'Oh les beaux jours (1995), Glückliche Tage (2003) et Fragments (2006, 2015), cette admiration ne se traduit pas par un respect forcené des indications de jeu, mais plutôt par ce que l'on nommera, en empruntant le concept à la traductologie, « une fidélité abusive », qui consiste à trouver de nouvelles modalités afin de mieux exprimer les enjeux du texte.
Perspectives, 2020
In recent years, ‘translatability’, or rather, ‘untranslatability’ has been a much-discussed topi... more In recent years, ‘translatability’, or rather, ‘untranslatability’ has been a much-discussed topic in translation studies. However, the state of its theorisation has remained relatively rudimentary, focusing in large part on assertions that specific texts, or textual features cannot be translated on the basis of certain cultural, ideological, or linguistic idiosyncrasies. In theatre and performance studies, the closely comparable notion of ‘unperformability’ exists, which describes texts, passages, or elements of plays which cannot be performed for one technical, ideological, practical reason or another. Yet, unperformability has not been extensively theorised and the treatment of these closely related notions differs radically in each respective research field. The aim of this article is to ask whether, by comparing, and ultimately synthesising the two notions, theoretical definition can be added. Such definition, it is argued, would allow thinking about ‘translatability’ and ‘performability’ as complementary notions that acknowledge the creative workarounds employed as a matter of course in translations and performances.
French Cultural Studies, 2019
Le projet « Literature under Constraint » est né de l’hypothèse très générale qu’il est arrivé qu... more Le projet « Literature under Constraint » est né de l’hypothèse très générale qu’il est arrivé quelque chose à la littérature française contemporaine, abstraction faite des jugements de valeur qu’on peut y porter, et que ce quelque chose peut être appréhendé grâce à la notion de contrainte. Pour ce faire, une perspective multidisciplinaire, maniant à la fois les outils propres à l’analyse littéraire (explication de texte, stylistique, génétique textuelle, etc.) et les apports récents des sciences sociales (inscription de la littérature dans l’ensemble des contextes sociaux qui la conditionnent), nous semble la mieux placée pour dégager la spécificité de la production littéraire des quarante dernières années.
It has become something of a cliché to say that avant-garde literature died in France in the earl... more It has become something of a cliché to say that avant-garde literature died in France in the early 1980s. Yet, while it is evident that the beginning of the decade marked a turn in literary history, it is also clear that experimental writing practices have emerged since then, and that any assertion of the death of (post)modernism must therefore be relativized. This article considers the work of one writer, Olivier Cadiot, who entered the literary scene with fracas in 1988 with the publication of L'Art poétic'. Over a period of roughly thirty years, Cadiot has questioned what it means to read and write literature through producing a body of imaginative and theoretically dense cross-genre works. In so doing, he has asserted the creative and intellectual vibrancy of contemporary literary practices in the face of discourse which identifies French literature as being in a state of decline.
Published in New Zealand Journal of French Studies Vol 36
French Studies Bulletin, 2015
Dominic Glynn urges academics who are just starting out to shout their research from the rooftops
French speakers have been scratching their heads in recent weeks over the alleged death of the ci... more French speakers have been scratching their heads in recent weeks over the alleged death of the circumflex. The news went viral that the accent, used in words such as goût (taste) or île (island), was no longer necessary in many French spellings. It even sparked a new sister hashtag to last year’s #jesuischarlie on Twitter: #jesuiscirconflexe.
Dr Dominic Glynn, a lecturer in French studies at the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IML... more Dr Dominic Glynn, a lecturer in French studies at the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR), says it is not until atrocities are committed in your back garden that you really engage with them.
‘What’s a translation?’ might appear to be a straightforward question, but Dr James Hadley, early... more ‘What’s a translation?’ might appear to be a straightforward question, but Dr James Hadley, early career researcher in translation/translingual studies and French lecturer Dr Dominic Glynn, say this not the case.
Paul de Kock is not a writer that many people -including those with degrees in French studies -ha... more Paul de Kock is not a writer that many people -including those with degrees in French studies -have heard of today. He rarely (if ever) features on undergraduate reading lists alongside the likes of Dumas, Hugo or Zola. Yet back in his day, de Kock was very big business for booksellers not only in France but also abroad.
We often take translations at face value, but what happens when a translation deliberately subver... more We often take translations at face value, but what happens when a translation deliberately subverts our expectations and does something unusual? From song lyrics translated by machine, to subtitles that have been botched, intentionally or otherwise, this presentation challenges our faith in translation. Mischievous (Mis)translations raises questions about accuracy, the limits of acceptable (re)interpretation, and what it really means to translate.
Cambridge English dictionary (online)
If I could borrow the time travelling capabilities of the magus in Olivier Cadiot's Un mage en ét... more If I could borrow the time travelling capabilities of the magus in Olivier Cadiot's Un mage en été (literally: A Magus in Summer) I should like to take my reader back to the Avignon theatre festival in 2010. As in other years, audiences and actors alike were frazzled by the scorching summer sun in the Rhône valley during the day, and left shivering by the cold breath of the mistral wind at night. As in other years, the intelligentsia and cultural mafia left Paris to set up camp in the former papal city for the month of July before disappearing on vacation in August. As in other years, the festival provided theatre venues with an opportunity to shop around for productions by renowned French and European directors. When then should I wish to set down my figurative Tardis at this particular festival? The reason is that one of the two associate artists of the festival that year, writer Olivier Cadiot, had never written anything for the stage apart from the unpublished Soeurs et frères (Brothers and Sisters). However, at the 2010 Avignon festival, two productions by director Ludovic Lagarde featuring adaptations of Cadiot's work were on offer, Un nid pour quoi faire (A Nest What For) and Un mage en été. That a writer should have been invited as associate artist at Avignon fits uneasily with commonplace labelling of French theatre from the immediate post-WW2 period to the present-day, as a 'director's theatre' (to borrow the title of one of David Bradby's works).
Declarations of practical, political, technical, or ideological impossibility may seem at first g... more Declarations of practical, political, technical, or ideological impossibility may seem at first glance like dead-ends. However, they can subsequently act as provocations to consider the problem in question more creatively. For example, in 2012 Mo Yan stated that censorship is as necessary as airport security but argued that writing literature is about transcending politics. The concept of untranslatability is old in translation studies, but continues to gather substantial interest. Barbara Cassin's Dictionary of untranslatables (2014) has become a bestseller, and there is a thriving discussion among theoreticians about the supposed impossibility of translating certain terms or even texts between languages. As for practice, it has informed, contradicted and ignored theoretical debates. For instance, Schopenhauer attempted to translate Kant despite having previously declared his work untranslatable, and for experimental groups such as the Outranspo, the notion of untranslatability constitutes a challenge to provide a translation. In performance studies, on the other hand, the notion of unperformability has not been adequately theorised. This is despite plays being frequently labelled unperformable by theatre professionals with regards technical constraints or a perceived lack of interest for live audiences. There has also been considerable work on the fear and repression of performance practices, from Jack Goody's seminal Representations and Contradictions (1997) to the Observatoire de la vie littéraire's ongoing project on the hatred of theatre. The aim of this conference is twofold. First, it seeks to uncover the relationship between untranslatability and unperformability, to establish correlations between the two terms and underlying paradigms. Second, it aims to subvert the notions in the two respective fields, by suggesting that what is, in fact, denoted by them is simply unrealised potential. Proposals are invited that consider various aspects of untranslatability and unperformability, and which seek to explore the creative possibilities that each term offers. Papers are welcome on themes including but not limited to: Submission of Abstracts Proposals for single papers should include the following elements: Applicant's name, institutional affiliation and contact information, an abstract of 250 to 300 words, a short biographical note of no more than 100 words. Accepted papers will be allocated a 30 minute slot in the programme, which includes no more than 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for questions. The conference also encourages proposals for complete panels (of 3 or 4 speakers). Such proposals should include the names, e-mail and postal addresses of all speakers, and those of the proposed session chair, who should not be one of the speakers. As well as a 250-300-word abstract for each speaker, proposals should contain a brief outline of the rationale and motivation of the proposed panel (no more than one printed page). One individual involved should be clearly designated as the proposer with overall responsibility for the proposed session. Please send proposals for single papers and complete panels by e-mail by to the conference organisers, James Hadley (hadleyj@tcd.ie) and Dominic Glynn (dominic.glynn@sas.ac.uk).
Interested individuals are encouraged to apply, irrespective of their country of origin and ethni... more Interested individuals are encouraged to apply, irrespective of their country of origin and ethnic background. They should demonstrate academic excellence, research ability and potential, cultural diversity, leadership ability and societal responsibility, and communication and interpersonal skills. The minimum academic qualification for the PhD programme is a first-class honours degree (or its equivalent) or a CGPA over 85 (out of 100). Applicants whose first language is not English must have a minimum TOEFL score of 79 (internet-based, with a minimum of 15 for Reading, 15 for Listening, 17 for Writing, and 18 for Speaking) or an overall band score of 6.5 in IELTS (with a minimum of 6 for each of the sub-categories including Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking). A research proposal setting out the aims, outlines and methods of the proposed research should be submitted. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by a selection panel either face to face or via Skype.
Information about how to apply for PhD fellowship at the City University of Hong Kong, department... more Information about how to apply for PhD fellowship at the City University of Hong Kong, department of Linguistics and Translation
Journée d'étude « Aux frontières du réel : Littérature et réalité au XXIe siècle » 8 juin 2018, U... more Journée d'étude « Aux frontières du réel : Littérature et réalité au XXIe siècle » 8 juin 2018, University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP), Paris Argumentaire De la théorie antique des niveaux stylistiques au réalisme français du XIX e siècle, l'interprétation du réel à travers la représentation littéraire est une thématique ancienne des études sur la littérature (Auerbach 1946, trad. fr. 1968). Plusieurs indices portent à croire que la question a fait l'objet d'une attention renouvelée depuis le début des années 1980. Philippe Hamon répond à la question des manières dont la littérature nous fait croire qu'elle copie la réalité, en analysant les moyens de créer l'illusion encodées par diverses poétiques (Hamon 1982, p. 128). Barthes rappelle que faire du vrai en matière littéraire implique la maîtrise d'une palette de techniques mimétiques producteurs « d'effets du réel » (Barthes 1982), ayant pour fonction de garantir l'authenticité au sein du système textuel. Le discours réaliste obéit donc à des « contraintes spécifiques » (Hamon 1982, p. 127), malgré le fait que l'esthétique réaliste cherche à se faire passer pour un art sans art, « en complète transparence » (Dubois 2000, p. 31). Ainsi, ce qui passe pour le comble de la fidélité réaliste se retourne en comble de l'artifice. La vraisemblance produite par ces effets de style – on notera avec A. Compagnon le flottement terminologique, signe de la relation problématique entretenue entre le texte et la réalité (Compagnon, 1998, p. 112) – permettrait au lecteur d'entrer dans un double-jeu d'immersion et de prise de distance par rapport à la fiction qui se déploie (Schaeffer 1999). C'est justement cet espace liminaire entre les réalités externe et interne du texte que la production littéraire contemporaine en langue française tente d'investir. Pour Cécile de Bary, la définition du « pacte autobiographique » par Philippe Lejeune (1975) marque un moment essentiel dans la théorisation de « l'interaction que le texte engage », par sa prise en compte d'un pacte de lecture, et ainsi de la réception (de Bary, 2013, p. 8-9). Tout aussi essentiel, le genre de l'autofiction, initié par Serge Doubrovsky en réponse à la théorisation de Lejeune, et qui prit véritablement son essor dans les années 1990, repose sur un propos contradictoire : c'est moi et ce n'est pas moi qui écrit (Genette 1991, p. 87). Une telle évolution s'est accompagnée de la récurrence des termes « brouille » et « brouillage » dans le discours critique, symptomatique de l'association presque inévitable de la fiction avec la réalité (Lavocat 2016). En se fixant pour objectif d'analyser le rapport entretenu entre littérature et réalité dans la production en langue française des quarante dernières années, la deuxième journée du programme de recherche « Littérature sous contraintes/ Literature under Constraint » (L.U.C.) examinera l'articulation d'un projet littéraire à la proposition au lecteur d'un pacte de lecture d'un nouveau genre, indexé au « réel ». Dans une perspective multidisciplinaire, nous croiserons différentes approches issues des études littéraires et des sciences sociales pour étudier les contraintes spécifiques qu'une telle articulation implique. L'un des axes principaux de la journée portera sur les projets dédiés à l'écriture de l'époque actuelle (Viart et Rubino 2013), au premier rang desquels les littératures dites de « terrain », que ce dernier soit historique ou social (Dominique Viart). L'intérêt pour le réel peut aussi se manifester par le recours à différentes techniques de prélèvement, de collage et d'assemblage, c'est-à-dire par la place centrale qu'il accorde au document, soit pour l'utiliser soit pour s'en démarquer (Alison James, Paul Aron).
Une autre manière de voir les choses consisterait donc à dire que la littérature a connu ces dern... more Une autre manière de voir les choses consisterait donc à dire que la littérature a connu ces dernières années des évolutions touchant à la fois, et de façon liée, son contenu et les cadres sociaux dans lesquels elle s'exerce. Pour penser ces évolutions et mettre en lumière cette intrication du littéraire et du social, la notion de contrainte, sous ses multiples acceptions de nécessité, de dépendance, de frein, mais aussi de règle définissant un projet esthétique, semble particulièrement opératoire. C'est à travers son prisme que cette première journée d'étude du projet « Literature under Constraint » (LUC) propose de cerner les principales évolutions ayant touché le monde des lettres françaises et francophones depuis les années 1980, d'abord dans sa production, mais également dans ses modes de fonctionnement ainsi que dans ses relations avec d'autres espaces sociaux.
What has happened to French literature over the last 40 years? The first study day of the AHRC Li... more What has happened to French literature over the last 40 years? The first study day of the AHRC Literature under Constraint project looks at shifts in the creative and publishing landscapes in France and francophone countries from 1980 to the present day. We'll be studying the role of intermediaries (agents, publishers, distributors, journalists) on the production of literature and we'll examine how the emergence of digital landscapes has been a game-changer and think about what literature means in the 21st Century.
Conference in Dublin 19-20 May
Dans quelle mesure les modalités de représentation des pièces de Samuel Beckett, en France et au ... more Dans quelle mesure les modalités de représentation des pièces de Samuel Beckett, en France et au Royaume-Uni, ont-elles contribué à dessiner dans ces deux pays un visage différent de l'auteur ? C'est à cette question que ces journées d'étude tenteront de répondre, en examinant aussi bien les usages en matière de mise en en scène, que la formation des comédiens et leurs pratiques, ou encore le fonctionnement des théâtres, leurs moyens matériels et financiers, et la sociologie des publics qui leur sont attachés.
La littérature est un si petit sujet que périodiquement on la croit disparue. Dans un ouvrage trè... more La littérature est un si petit sujet que périodiquement on la croit disparue. Dans un ouvrage très récent sur la littérature récente, un écrivain français, O. Cadiot (2017), lance cette pique ironique aux critiques (universitaires pour une bonne partie d'entre eux), qui, depuis le début des années 2000, se sont faits les chantres de la mort programmée de la Littérature (française, du moins). En effet, à en croire les titres pessimistes de ces ouvrages (Maingueneau, 2006 ; Marx, 2005, 2015 ; Millet, 2007 ; Nunez, 2006), nous tenons le cap au pire, la Fin de la littérature n'est pas loin. Pourtant, comme l'implique le choix de l'adverbe « périodiquement », cette disparition (crue, assumée, ardemment désirée) est récurrente. Car l'histoire de la « littérature » est ponctuée par une succession de crises, conséquence directe des luttes pour la domination du champ littéraire : 'ma fin est mon commencement' (Gefen, 2009). Autrement dit, la littérature doit mourir afin de mieux revivre. Cette généralité prend toutefois un relief particulier dans le contexte « décliniste » qui a saisi l'espace intellectuel français depuis une quinzaine d'années (Finkielkraut, 2001 ; Camus, 2008 ; 2011). Notre projet repose sur le parti-pris de considérer l'ensemble de cette production critique sous un angle clairement symptômal (Didi-Huberman, 2002) : soit le signe qu'il est arrivé quelque chose à la littérature française contemporaine, abstraction faite des jugements de valeur qu'on peut y porter. Cette hypothèse très générale induit une démarche comparatiste dont l'ambition est de contribuer à dégager la spécificité de la production des quarante dernières années. Son originalité consiste à poser d'emblée que seule une perspective multidisciplinaire, maniant à la fois les outils propres à l'analyse littéraire (explication de texte, stylistique, génétique textuelle, etc.) et les apports récents des sciences sociales (inscription de la littérature dans l'ensemble des contextes sociaux qui la conditionnent), est la mieux placée pour y parvenir. A la recherche de la littérature (perdue) La recherche en sciences sociales, en s'inspirant des distinctions faites par Jean-Claude Passeron au sujet du mot « culture » (Passeron, 2006, p. 493 et sq.), peut répondre à la question de Jean-Paul Sartre, « Qu'est-ce que la littérature » (1948), sous au moins trois angles : la littérature est « forme de vie », la littérature est objet de discours, la littérature est production d'oeuvres. L'hypothèse que ce projet souhaite explorer à partir du cas de la littérature francophone contemporaine est que, dans ces trois acceptions du terme, la notion de « contrainte » est à la fois centrale et ambivalente. La littérature comme « forme de vie » concerne directement l'activité de celles et ceux qui écrivent. De nombreuses études récentes sur la « condition littéraire » ont montré que celle-ci est soumise à des contraintes de tous ordres, la première d'entre elles étant la nécessité d'avoir des moyens d'existence, soit une « double vie », constituée d'un pan littéraire et d'un pan « professionnel », dont l'influence sur le premier a largement été étudiée (Heinich, 2000 ; Roussin, 2005 ; Lahire, 2006 ; Sapiro et Rabot, 2017). Cette thématique des contraintes de la vie « ordinaire » (professionnelle, familiale) a également retenu l'attention de certains auteurs, tel Pierre Bergounioux, qui y consacre de longs développements dans ses Carnets de notes (Bergounioux, 2006). La littérature comme objet de discours se rapporte aux diverses représentations de la littérature engagée par ses principaux protagonistes, les auteurs, mais également l'ensemble du « monde » (au sens de Becker, 1982, 2010) que constitue la littérature, et qui inclut également éditeurs, critiques, etc. Au plan le plus concret, on retrouve cette dimension dans les politiques des maisons d'édition, notamment en ce qui concerne la sélection des manuscrits (Simonin et Fouché, 1999) – au point de se demander s'il existe un style Minuit (Bertrand, Germoni et Jauer, dir., 2014). On la retrouve également au sein de la critique (Sapiro, 2006), des prix littéraires (Ducas, 2013), et plus largement des espaces contribuant à la définition du périmètre littéraire et aux hiérarchies qui le structurent (par exemple les bibliothèques, Rabot, 2015, les librairies et les plateformes de ventes en ligne, Benhamou et al., 2012). L'ensemble de ces études montre bien à quel point l'établissement de ces représentations de ce qu'est ou doit être la littérature, est soumis à des tensions résultant de la concurrence au sein des champs littéraire et éditorial, mais aussi économiques, médiatiques, voire politiques, qui conditionne autant qu'il légitime le développement de la littérature, et dont les signes les plus patents sont le dépérissement de la notion d'avant-garde (Viart 2005, Bessière
Journal of Romance Studies, 2019
Punctum.International journal of semiotics, Dec 31, 2022
French Studies, Oct 1, 2008
Peter Lang eBooks, 2015
Our prices are recommended retail prices and are exclusive of shipping costs. We reserve the righ... more Our prices are recommended retail prices and are exclusive of shipping costs. We reserve the right to alter prices. We supply to libraries at a discount of 5%. * incl. VAT-only applies to Germany and EU customers without VAT Reg No ** incl. VAT-only applies to Austria
Artois Presses Université eBooks, 2018
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jul 1, 2019
This article will deal with the applicability of Itamar Even-Zohar's polysystem theory as a frame... more This article will deal with the applicability of Itamar Even-Zohar's polysystem theory as a framework for analyzing modern Chinese translated literature after the end of the nineteenth century from the perspectives of selected works and the position and behavior of translated literatures. Beginning with a brief overview of translated literature in Chinese history, this article will subsequently discuss both the applicability and limitations of polysystem theory to Chinese literature. It will argue that polysystem theory has its limitations on accounting for the whole picture of modern Chinese translations, and further development is still needed to make it an adequate framework for translation research.
Artois Presses Université eBooks, 2018
Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, Jun 29, 2021
Comment rendre hommage à Alain Viala, à la fécondité de ses travaux, à l’inventivité de son œuvre... more Comment rendre hommage à Alain Viala, à la fécondité de ses travaux, à l’inventivité de son œuvre sans le transformer en académicien empaillé ? Puisqu’un de ses buts est de décloisonner les genres et d’éviter les prêts-à-penser, on pouvait tout risquer. Des contributeurs enthousiastes ont donné à leur hommage des formes choisies, entre le poème, le témoignage affectueux et la réflexion érudite s’inscrivant dans le prolongement des concepts qu’il a imposés en histoire, sociologie et théorie de la littérature. L’ensemble est ponctué de quelques textes d’Alain Viala, qui dessinent un parcours, menant des postures d’écrivains qui font la dynamique centrale du champ littéraire jusqu’aux bizarreries qui occupent les marges de ce champ. Ce trajet suit le fil des opérations critiques qui ont marqué de manière décisive la pratique des études littéraires : historiciser la littérature, mettre à jour les mécanismes de la valeur, exhiber les tensions et leur fécondité, traverser les frontières, s’engager… Le trajet d’une révolution qui refuse (l’histoire littéraire des grands hommes), revendique (une méthode), désordonne et brouille pour créer du nouveau.Ouvrage publié avec le concours du centre de recherche Textes et Cultures – Université d’Artois (EA 4028), du centre de recherche FIRL (EA174) – Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, de The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages – Universitéd’Oxford, de l’Université d’Artois et d’Arras Université
Modern Humanities Research Association eBooks, Sep 13, 2022
Francosphères, 2020
Jouer Beckett/Performing Beckett, edited by Dominic Glynn and Jean-Michel Gouvard, Francopshères,... more Jouer Beckett/Performing Beckett, edited by Dominic Glynn and Jean-Michel Gouvard, Francopshères, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2020. Free access : https://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/franc/9/1
French Cultural Studies, 2019
Le projet « Literature under Constraint » est né de l’hypothèse très générale qu’il est arrivé qu... more Le projet « Literature under Constraint » est né de l’hypothèse très générale qu’il est arrivé quelque chose à la littérature française contemporaine, abstraction faite des jugements de valeur qu’on peut y porter, et que ce quelque chose peut être appréhendé grâce à la notion de contrainte. Pour ce faire, une perspective multidisciplinaire, maniant à la fois les outils propres à l’analyse littéraire (explication de texte, stylistique, génétique textuelle, etc.) et les apports récents des sciences sociales (inscription de la littérature dans l’ensemble des contextes sociaux qui la conditionnent), nous semble la mieux placée pour dégager la spécificité de la production littéraire des quarante dernières années.
Irish Journal of French Studies, 2014
Jean Duvignaud noted that there was something incredibly odd about the idea of meeting up in a da... more Jean Duvignaud noted that there was something incredibly odd about the idea of meeting up in a dark room to watch a group of people play out a text written several centuries ago. 1 Yet, despite the fact that 'jouer les classiques […] ne va pas de soi', 2 every week in France and in Western Europe at least, there are new productions of plays by Shakespeare, Calderon, Corneille or Chekhov. Staging material taken from the annals of literary and theatre history requires the balancing of opposing forces, particularly since these curious cultural productions are deemed both to reflector rather to diffract 3the thinking of a particular time period and place, and to present universal qualities, which allow them to be understood today. Thus, does one choose to present such a work as close to the audience (in modern dress, for instance) or as far-removed, distant? How does one create a delicate balance between telling the story and providing a novel interpretation? For, as Patrice Pavis explains in La Mise en scène contemporaine: origines, tendances, perspectives, 'mettre en scène, c'est […] reconnaître la dramaturgie de l'oeuvre et trouver les moyens scéniques à la fois de l'illustrer et accessoirement de la découvrir d'un oeil nouveau.' 4 Imaginative and profound (re)interpretations of canonical works address these issues head on. Since his move to Paris in 1970, director Peter Brook has provided many strong interpretations of keystone
Francosphères: Volume 10, Issue 2
This article examines transformations in the literary translation environment in the People’s Rep... more This article examines transformations in the literary translation environment in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) specifically in relation to French-language theatre. After an initial survey of literary translation in the PRC from its foundation to the present, the article studies how French-language plays have been translated and adapted for publication. In particular, it considers how French theatre has occupied a favoured position in the Chinese translation literary system over the past four decades. It then focuses on three emblematic cases, those of Molière, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Samuel Beckett. Regarding the latter, two Chinese translations of En attendant Godot/Waiting for Godot will be examined to determine how contextual factors affected translation choices. In this way, the article seeks both to contribute to current discussions on ‘translatability’ and to consider the reception of canonical French-language writers in the Chinese literary system.
Australian Journal of French Studies, 2021