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What Makes a Translation Award-Worthy?

by Program in Translation and Intercultural Communications

Lecture Humanities Social Sciences

Tue, Nov 19, 2024

12 PM – 1:20 PM EST (GMT-5)

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Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room 144

Princeton, NJ 08544,

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This talk takes us inside the translation jury workshop to look at some of the issues juries face in singling out top contenders: What constitutes “quality” in translation? Are there objective criteria for judging translational quality that transcend “it’s all a matter of taste”? Is it important, or even desirable, to compare a translation to its source text? How key are “gotcha” moments (aka cherry picking) in evaluating translations? Do verbal pyrotechnics win out over “quiet” language? Should longlists and shortlists demonstrate balance and diversity (of national literatures/gender/genre/large and small presses, etc.)? Who gets to serve on these juries? Do jurors actually read every page of every work submitted? What are the goals of awarding translation prizes beyond honoring individual translators—showcasing outstanding works of literature, encouraging readership of world literature, bringing less translated literatures into the spotlight, and/or drawing attention to the art and craft of translation itself? The talk will display selected passages from award-winning texts that made jurors swoon.
Food Provided

Where

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room 144

Princeton, NJ 08544,

Speakers

Shelley Frisch's profile photo

Shelley Frisch

Shelley Frisch taught at Columbia University and Haverford College, where she chaired the German Department, before turning to translation full-time in the 1990s.  Her translations from German, which include biographies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Marlene Dietrich/Leni Riefenstahl (dual biography), and Franz Kafka, have been awarded numerous translation prizes.  Among her recent translations are a volume of Billy Wilder’s early journalism; an overview of Early German Romanticism; an annotated collection of Kafka’s aphorisms; and a study of the origins of Critical Theory.  She is currently translating a biography of Hannah Arendt for Penguin.  Shelley Frisch has served on and chaired translation juries (PEN America, Gutekunst, Geisteswissenschaften International, National Translation Award in Prose, National Book Critics Circle’s Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize, and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize) for close to twenty years.

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Program in Translation and Intercultural Communications | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Program in Translation and Intercultural Communications (OWNER)

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