http://www.britishcouncil.org/greece...gonopoulos.htmDAVID CONNOLLY: ON TRANSLATING ΕNGONOPOULOS
Bolivar, a Greek Poem by Nikos Engonopoulos and the problem of culturally-specific references
In collaboration with PALSO Northern Greece we invite you to a public presentation by award-winning translator David Connolly.
Translation in general is concerned not just with transfer between languages but also with transfer between cultures and with transfer for a different cultural readership. It therefore follows that, apart from the semantic and stylistic factors involved in the translation process, culturally-specific references constitute one of the most difficult factors to account for in the process of transfer for a different linguistic and cultural readership.
In this presentation, taking as a starting point Engonopoulos’ poem Bolivar and the problems involved in translating it into English, David Connolly will discuss with the public possible strategies for dealing with the problems arising from culturally-specific references.
David Connolly was born in Sheffield, England, and is of Irish descent. He studied Ancient Greek at the University of Lancaster, Medieval and Modern Greek Literature at Trinity College, Oxford, and received his doctoral degree for a thesis on the theory and practice of Literary Translation from the University of East Anglia.
A naturalized Greek, he has lived and worked in Greece since 1979 and has taught translation at undergraduate and post-graduate level for many years at a number of university institutions in Greece. He is currently Professor of Translation Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
He has written extensively on the theory and practice of literary translation and on Greek Literature in general, and has published over thirty books of translations featuring works by major Greek poets and novelists. His translations have received awards in Greece, the UK, and the USA.
When: Wednesday 26 August 2009, 11:30 a.m.
Where: Makedonia Palace Hotel, 2 M. Alexandrou Avenue, Thessaloniki