International Conference

SELF-TRANSLATION: INCLUSION OF DIVERSITY

Bologna, 20-21 September 2023

Conference Overview

The field of self-translation has received increasing attention, which resulted in the broadening of this research area. New approaches enriched what now has become an autonomous branch of Translation Studies, often referred to by scholars as Self-Translation Studies. This conference aims at approaching the phenomenon of self-translation from a fresh perspective, framing it in terms of the dynamics of diversity/identity and inclusion/exclusion. Indeed, as key aspects of translingualism, these socio-cultural elements play a significant role for self-translation.

The conference will privilege case studies and texts from the 20^th and 21^st centuries, i.e. when the phenomenon of migration reached much greater dimensions than in the past. Particularly in this period, the practice of self-translation served as one of the primary means of identity reflection, giving voice to hybrid selves, both migrant or in exile. Self-translation thus represents a peculiar synthesis between exclusion and inclusion, between the self-alienation of those who do not assimilate and the self-amputation of others who abandon the language of origin by losing themselves in translation.