Translation and Traveling Texts: East Asian National Literatures in an Age Without Borders

FAIN: EH-293616-23

Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ 85281-3670)
William C. Hedberg (Project Director: January 2023 to present)
Robert James Tuck (Co Project Director: February 2023 to present)

A two-week residential institute for 25 higher education faculty members to explore issues of translation and cultural contact in East Asian literatures from the seventeenth century to today.

This two-week Institute focuses on literary and cultural contact between China, Japan, and Korea from the 17th century to the present and considers new ways of researching and teaching transnational flows of texts and information at the university level. Participants use the lens of translation to examine a range of issues in East Asian literary studies including the history of scripts and reading practices, the formation of literary canons, and the development of national identity in the modern era. Participants will discuss a diverse array of scholarship on the theory, practice, and ethics of translation, and they will take part in hands-on activities that apply the insights gained from these readings to a variety of poetry, prose, and film. This interdisciplinary Institute identifies a globally central but oft-overlooked history of East Asian translation, and it fosters dialogue with scholars and teachers of comparative literature and other national literatures.