Title: DisLocated Readings: Translation and Transnationalism
Abstract: In an attempt to foster new collaborations and departures, the theme of the ASAL mini-conference, 'DisLocated Readings: Translation and Transnationalism', (held 21-22 February 2013 at Monash University, Australia) drew attention to the translational dimension and the transnational currents of Australian literature, past and present. One of the principal aims of the conference was to explore the effects of globalisation on Australian literature in its broadest definition, encompassing life-writing, migrant, refugee and Indigenous fiction, as well as writing in languages other than English. The essays assembled here are truly transnational in focus, considering Australians writing in their own country and in different parts of the world, bi-cultural Australian writers, and the reception of Australian writing in translation. Amongst the essays selected for this special issue of JASAL it was particularly pleasing to note the great interest in this area of research from an upcoming generation of scholars in Australia, as well as from many others based overseas, confirming the multiple forms, directions, and intersections of studies into Australian literature and translation. When considering the submissions, we felt it would be constructive to give prominence to the work of these emerging researchers whose novel approaches are, to a degree, still developing. These readings have the potential to introduce new ways of thinking about Australian literature.The first three essays in the collection consider transformative journeys, and metaphoric, cultural and linguistic translations. The conference intended to bring together scholars, creative writers and professional translators to exchange views on the theme of Australian literature in transition, and its translation and transnational contexts. It is for this reason that we begin this issue with a dialogue between Australian author Alice Pung and her Italian translator, Adele D'Arcangelo. Asking Pung and D'Arcangelo to discuss their journey of writing and translating, as well as the reception of the outcome by non-Anglophone readers, seemed an obvious way of weaving together dis-located ways of reading and understanding the Australian literary context. In this reflective piece, Pung comments on how her writing- which focuses on her experience growing up in multicultural Australia-is so frequently categorised as migrant literature within Australia, whereas the reception of her work in translation has instead highlighted her 'Australianness'. As D'Arcangelo comments, for the Italian reader, the work's Australian setting overcomes the boundaries of language and space, enabling a wider and more eclectic readership to become familiar with Pung's story.A very different migrant experience is explored by Colleen Smee, who looks at the transnational literary journeys of Australian writer Amy Witting and a Lithuanian migrant Elena Jonaitis. Tackling two diverse genres, an autobiographical memoir and a fictional novel, the author recounts how Witting collaborated with Jonaitis, for whom English is a fourth language, empowering her to write her memoir, entitled Elena's Journey. Witting then undertook her own transnational journey to write her novel Maria's War, a book which is underpinned by Jonaitis' life experiences yet remains 'essentially Australian'. Smee's essay alerts us to the need to broaden categories of 'ethnic' Australian writings as including more than migrant narratives. In the third essay, Astuti brings to the fore, issues of gender, religion and conflicting cultures, in an examination of the symbolic narratives of reincarnation in two novels by Asian Australian women writers. Using settings across Australia and Asia, and showing evidence of the writers' portrayals of Occidentalism through their Asian characters, Astuti explores the different ways in which these writers attempt to represent Orientalist stereotypes, via the theme of reincarnation. …
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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