Translation Workshop: macht.sprache. Sprint
We warmly invite you to join us for a workshop on possible ways of dealing with politically sensitive language in translation.
Date and time: Saturday, September 3, 14:00-18:00
Place: Literarisches Colloquium, Am Sandwerder 5, 14109 Berlin (closest S-Bahn station: Wannsee)
The event is free, please register via email (info@ts-cw.de) and bring a laptop/tablet with you if you can.
Discrimination works in and through language. This is challenging in single languages and poses even more problems in translation.
The workshop will present some of the key findings that have emerged from our experiences developing the macht.sprache. project: on discrimination in (machine) translation, and on what digital aids like our Text Checker and Google Translate extension can and can’t do. Invited speaker Marion Kraft, translator of works by Audre Lorde, Amanda Gorman and Emma Dabiri, amongst others, will share some of her experiences of and with translation in a Q & A panel.
The inputs will aim to stimulate an intensive exchange between participants – translators (literary and otherwise, professional and novice) working with English and German, and anyone who is interested in joining. For the discussion, we invite you to bring translation examples, maybe even from your own work. We look forward to diverse perspectives and creative solutions in thinking together about how to approach politically sensitive terms in translations.
Together we will then directly incorporate the results of our discussions into the macht.sprache. translation tool. This free tool is intended to support translators in dealing with language in a politically sensitive way, and the actively collaborative co-creation of the database during the workshop makes macht.sprache. even more useful for practical translation work. It also means that you can return to the discussions after the workshop.
Finally, we’ll enjoy some live poetry: Berlin-based writer avrina prabala-joslin will perform some of her work.
There will also be drinks and snacks. We hope to see you there!
Bios of Speakers:
Marion Kraft is a Germanist and Americanist with a doctorate in literature, and a writer and editor. One focus of her work is Black feminist theory and literature. As a translator, she translated works by Audre, Emma Dabiri and Amanda Gorman. She lives in Berlin. www.marion-kraft.de
avrina prabala-joslin / அவ்ரீனா பிரபலா-ஜாஸ்லின் (1992, Tamil Nadu) writes fiction and poetry on places, beings and times. Obsessed with memories that pervade and evade, often of childhood, avrina’s writing is an ebb and flow characteristic of her desire for the sea. avrina’s tamil being, frustrated with the english of avrina’s mouth, now writes on his own as Chella Thambi. His words though are still in avrina’s, as he is too. In addition to winning the Short Fiction / University of Essex International Short Story Prize 2021 judged by writer Irenosen Okojie, avrina’s works have been shortlisted for the Indiana Review Fiction Prize 2021, Radical Art Review Contest 2021, the Berlin Writing Prize 2019 and longlisted for the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize 2021. avrina has read her works at/for the Literaturhaus Berlin, the poesie festival Berlin, Performing Arts Festival Berlin, English Theatre Berlin, Lovecrumbs Edinburgh, Present Literary Journal UK, Mapping Memory, Fiction Canteen Berlin, etc. Website: www.avrinajos.net.
Accessibility: The location is wheelchair accessible through the side entrance.
The event is supported by the Deutscher Übersetzerfonds.