Op 10 september 2015 organiseert de Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, België) een studiedag over schrijvers-vertalers onder de titel: “TRANSLAUTHORS”. Interrogating Writing from Translation. Intertwined Perspectives on Literature and Cultural Exchange from the XVIth to the XXIst Century / « TRANSLAUTHORS ». Questions de traduction à l’écriture. Regards croisés sur la littérature et les échanges culturels entre le XVIème et le XXIème siècles.

International Conference
Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)
10th of September 2015

This conference will address the author-translator relationship in the literary field, both from a diachronic and synchronic perspective. Investigating this question of the roles played by authors and translators by means of a comparative approach seems particularly relevant, especially in the context of a crisis or shift in meaning of both these notions. During the Renaissance, the thin margins between the categories of author and translator became apparent in the tensions opposing the ideal of a unique translator advocated by theoretical treatises on translation in this period and a more collaborative translation practice. This will eventually bring about a redefinition of the perceived identities of both translator and author, until their stricter definition on legal terms.

Whilst in recent years and across several disciplines, scholarly interest has focused on authorial posture, the image of the writer and the documents of the self, the authorial category is more and more looked into by translation studies, as they grant the translator a new visibility (i.e. as author). Moreover, the contemporary literary production makes the notion of single authorship more shifting, or indeed uncertain. Within the literary institution, the authorial entity has to come to terms with other decision-making actors when publishing a new book. Together with other mediators, the translator also takes an active part in the construction of the work and therefore orientates its reception. In fine, a growing diversity of the respective roles of author and translator is outlined when the author him/herself acts as translator. How do one author’s writing and translation practices interact? If the author-as-translator model is well-known for the Renaissance period (among others through aemulatio and imitatio), it seems that this paradigm is neither acknowledged by contemporary authors, nor established for contemporary readers. It is precisely this figure of the author-as-translator, and these respective roles that we would like to explore during this conference.