[Humanist] 22.590 events: textual scholarship

[Humanist Discussion Group]

                 Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 22, No. 590.
         Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
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        Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 11:59:42 +0000
        From: Barbara Bordalejo <b.bordalejo at BHAM.AC.UK>
        Subject: CFP ESTS 2009, Brussels (deadline May 31st)


Call for Papers

The European Society for Textual Scholarship
Sixth International Conference

‘Texts beyond Borders: Multilingualism and Textual Scholarship’

Academy for Science and the Arts (KVAB), Brussels, Belgium
November 19-21, 2009

Deadline for proposals: 31 May 2009

Contacts between languages, especially translations, have always  
played a crucial role in the making of European culture, from  
Antiquity until today. Bilingual or multilingual documents, literary  
works created in another language than their creators’ mother tongue,  
translations and translated texts are special textual objects which  
require appropriate editorial treatment. The conference will explore  
how textual scholarship responds to multilingualism in its various  
forms, such as:

1) Scholarly editing and annotating: Using translations as witnesses  
to an “original” text
How do we edit ancient or medieval texts (or parts of texts) that are  
preserved only in translations? How can we handle those cases where  
translations do not appear to be based on direct witnesses to the  
text?...

2) Scholarly editing and annotating: Translations as literary objects
Is the original text the only source used by a translator? How did he  
use earlier translations? How can we trace the sources and tools used  
by a translator? ...

3) Book history, the history of reading and translations
Dissemination of translations; bilingual editions; the role of Bible  
translations in the history of philology; translations which become  
more popular than the original; texts which circulate first or more  
widely in translation than in their original form (e.g. Flemish  
performances of Michel de Ghelderode’s theatre prior to the French  
original); annotations and marginalia in languages other than the  
reader’s native tongue: how do readers respond to works not written  
in their own language? …

4) Authorship and translations
Revisions of translations by the author himself may contain precious  
interpretative information. Translations may seem less authoritative  
than other texts and editors might therefore be tempted to emend  
translations on a larger scale than in the case of “original” texts. ...

5) Multilingualism and scholarly editing
Do multilingual works of literature need other methods of editing  
than monolingual writings? It might also be necessary to make a  
distinction between different types of multilingual works (self- 
translations, ‘hybrid’ writings, …). Do these different types require  
different editorial treatments? Is it necessary to find adequate  
methods to edit works by authors writing in languages not their own?  
Or works not written in any “natural” language, such as nonsense  
poetry? …

The programme chairs invite the submission of proposals for full  
panels or individual papers devoted to the discussion of current  
research into different aspects of textual work, preferably focusing  
on the topics mentioned above. A selection of papers will be  
published in Variants: The Journal of the European Society for  
Textual Scholarship. Proposals and abstracts (250 words) should be  
submitted electronically to:

Caroline Macé, University of Leuven : Caroline.Mace at arts.kuleuven.be   
and
Dirk Van Hulle, University of Antwerp: dirk.vanhulle at ua.ac.be

Deadline: 31 May 2009

All participants in the ESTS 2009 conference must be members of ESTS.  
For information about membership, please visit the ESTS website  
http://www.textualscholarship.eu/