4th Mercator International Symposium
Mercator-Media

Translation of Culture, Culture of Translation: Languages in Film, Television and Literature
Aberyswyth, Wales
26 - 28 October 2005

IV Mercator International Symposium
"Translation of Culture, Culture of Translation: Languages in Film, Television and Literature"

MERCATOR-MEDIA

Dates Announced for the 4th Mercator International Symposium

The 4th Mercator International Symposium will be held on 26, 27 and 28 October 2005 in Aberystwyth, Wales and will have the theme of "Translation of Culture, Culture of Translation: Languages in Film, Television and Literature".

Language transfer, which includes, for the purposes of this symposium, subtitling and dubbing of both film and television as well as literary translation, is a multi-faceted phenomenon from the point of view of minority languages. It can be used to disseminate cultures which find themselves outside the audiovisual and literary ‘mainstream’ and to maximise audience or reader numbers for minority cultural products. Moreover, translation into minority languages not only increases the volume of available material in a marginalised language, but may have a wider cultural impact and contribute to the development of the language as a dynamic creative medium. On the other hand, the effect of ‘importing’ cultural references on a large scale may not always be viewed positively.

This symposium will seek contributions to this discussion from those active as practitioners and policy-makers in the audiovisual and literary fields (producers, directors, broadcasters, subtitlers and dubbers, scriptwriters, publishers, authors, translators) as well as those concerned with these issues in an academic context. While the emphasis will be on autochthonous minority languages (that is to say the languages of groups long-established on their current territory and using a language other than the primary official language of their state or a language in some sense socially and/or politically marginalised) connections may be made with issues of concern to smaller state languages, migrant languages and cultural production originating from beyond the metropolitan mainstream. We shall welcome contributions which make those connections. Key areas of discussion will include (but need not be limited to):

• The politics of translation
• The effects of ‘global’ culture
• Cultural policy and translation
• Language transfer and cultural transfer
• Translation and language planning
• International partnerships
• Digital technology and the internet
• Sign languages in the audiovisual media
• Learners and fluent speakers as audiences/readers
• Children as audience/readers

Abstracts of approximately 500 words or suggestions for panel discussions should be sent (as Word files or as plain text within the e-mail) to george.jones@aber.ac.uk by 30 July 2005. Although the official deadline for abstracts has now passed, we still have room to consider a few more proposals if they are sent before the end of July.

Written abstracts/proposals submitted for consideration will be accepted in Welsh, English, German or French. Abstracts in other languages can be considered subject to prior agreement with the organising committee.

Full details of registration and programme will shortly appear on the Mercator-Media website http://www.aber.ac.uk/mercator.

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