What Are the Challenges when Translating Race and Ethnicity in Performing Arts? Part 1

Inspired by the ALTA44 conference topic, “Inflection Points,” this roundtable looks to examine the challenges that may arise when translating racial and ethnic differences in the performing arts, and within our current global social-political environment.

Here are some of the questions that may be addressed: How can one translate a distinct jargon spoken or associated with a specific race or ethnicity? How can the colloquial language of the original be preserved in the target language? How do translators mitigate the level of discomfort that may arise in the audience? How can the untranslatable be abridged from one culture and language to the other? In addition, what kind of ethical decisions can be made for a performance? Format: The organizers will ask the participants to share a short excerpt of a translation that illustrates and/or problematizes the roundtable’s topic a week prior to the conference. The organizers will also circulate these excerpts among the participants before the roundtable meets.

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Organizers

Dr. Ana Méndez-Oliver is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Syracuse University. She specializes in the role of translation as a tool of assimilation and resistance. Since 2010, she has been the principal Spanish translator at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. In addition, she was part of the jury committee for the 2021 PEN America Translation Award. Dr. Genevieve Waite is Assistant Teaching Professor of French and French Language Coordinator at Syracuse University. She specializes in contemporary translingual francophone literature, translation theory, self-translation, linguistics, and multilingualism. She is the author of Pas à pas: méthode d’anglais (2009), Ma Méthode d’anglais (2016), and several peer-reviewed articles.

Participants

Neil Blackadder is an established translator from German and French, whose play translations have been produced in London, New York, and other cities, and widely published and presented in staged readings. His translations of poetry and prose have appeared in Two Lines, Chelsea, Tongue, and elsewhere. He is the Translations Editor for Another Chicago Magazine. Since 2010, H.J. Gardner (Hillary) has been translating contemporary Catalan theatre for Sala Beckett-Obrador Internacional de Dramatúrgia in Barcelona, sharing works by Esteve Soler, Marta Buchaca, and others. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and completed her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.