Conference: The role of translators in fiction

The last few years have seen an upsurge in films and literary texts in which translators or the act of translating have a central role. Up to now, academic studies focusing on fictional translators in literature and films have been relatively few. One aim of this "First International Conference on Fictional Translators in Literature and Film" – 15 September until 17 September – is to promote a more systematic approach by bringing together scholars from different disciplines with various research backgrounds and methodologies.

The role of translators in movies and literature is constantly increasing. One reason for this development may be that translators serve as a perfect screen for the projection of social and cultural anxieties associated with various aspects of globalization, i.e. migration, cultural hybridity, mobility, multilingualism, etc. The topic of translation has reached all literary and film genres – from dramatic works and novels to (auto)biographies, from motion pictures to documentary films – and can be found in all fields: in historical novels and films, as well as in science fiction, experimental literature and films, crime stories and comedies. In their works, writers and film directors seem to make the most of the social and political dimensions of translating practice.

Stimulate research

The "Conference on Fictional Translators in Literature and Film" is the first conference to look at this topic from an academic point of view. International experts and scholars from different disciplines, such as translation studies, cultural studies, sociology, literary studies, film studies, hermeneutics and philosophy, can meet to stimulate interdisciplinary research in this area. Questions asked and discussed at the conference include: What is the narrative role of the translator in a literary work or film? How are translator characters and their activity gendered or sexualized in fiction? What may fictional translator characters reveal about the psychology of writing and reading? What may such characters teach us about the ethical concerns involved in the relationships usually established between "originals" and their reproductions? (red)


First International Conference on Fictional Translators in Literature and Film
15 - 17 September 2011
Centre of Translation Studies
Gymnasiumstraße 50, 1190 Wien
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