Professor Waïl S Hassan. Program in Comparative and World Literature and the Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Director, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.
Translator of Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language (2008).
Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language by Abdelfattah Kilito; Waïl S. Hassan (Translator Arabic-English)ISBN: 9780815631910
Publication Date: 2008-09-19
It has been said that the difference between a language and a dialect is that a language is a dialect with an army. Both the act of translation and bilingualism are steeped in a tension between surrender and conquest, yielding conscious and unconscious effects on language. Thou Shall Not Speak My Language explores this tension in his address of the dynamics of literary influence and canon formation within the Arabic literary tradition. As one of the Arab world's most original and provocative literary critics, Kilito challenges the reader to reexamine contemporary notions of translation, bilingualism, postcoloniality, and the discipline of comparative literature. Wail S. Hassan's superb translation makes Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language available to an English audience for the first time, capturing the charm and elegance of the original in a chaste and seemingly effortless style.
Waïl S Hassan Translator (Portuguese-Arabic): لغز القاف, from the Portuguese O enigma de Qaf, by Alberto Mussa. Cairo: The National Center for Translation, 2015. Novel.
Patricia Phillips-Batoma. Senior Lecturer. The Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies.
Professor Atoma Batoma, African Studies Librarian. UIUC Library.
Georges Corm. Arab Political Thought. Translated by Patricia Phillips-Batoma and Atoma T. Batoma (French-English). London: Hurst, 2020.
Arab Political Thought by Georges CormISBN: 9781849048163
Publication Date: 2020-02-01
This book demonstrates the vitality of Arab political thought and its major controversies. It shows that the key players involved, far from being constrained by a theological-political straitjacket, have often demonstrated strong critical thinking when tackling religion and philosophy,anthropology and politics.Setting these thinkers and their works within two centuries of upheaval in the Arab world, Georges Corm demonstrates how Arab critical thought has been marginalized by powerful external forces: the military, the academy and the media. In its place has risen a hegemonic Islamist thought, used cannilyby certain Arab regimes and their Western protectors. Closely tracing the successive transformations of modernist Arab nationalism, Arab Political Thought offers a blueprint for understanding the libertarian Arab Spring, as well as the counter-revolutions and external interventions that havefollowed.This invaluable guide comprehensively distils the complexity of Arab intellectualism, which is both critical and profane, and a far cry from the outdated politico-religious image it has acquired.
Professor Robert Tierney. East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies.
Chinen Seishin. The Human Pavilion (1978). Translated by Robert Tierney in S. Rabson, & D. Bhowmich (Eds.), Islands of Protest: Japanese Literature from Okinawa (pp. 231-292). University of Hawaii Press, 2016. (Japanese-English)
Islands of Protest by Davinder L. Bhowmik (Editor); Steve Rabson (Editor, Contribution by); Carolyn Anne Morley (Contribution by); Amy C. Franks (Contribution by); Lin Loh Shi (Contribution by); Aimee Mizuno (Contribution by); Takuma Sminkey (Contribution by); Kyoko Selden (Contribution by); Alisa Freedman (Contribution by); Victoria Young (Contribution by); Masaki Kinjo (Contribution by); Jon Holt (Contribution by); Robert Tierney (Contribution by)ISBN: 9780824839802
Publication Date: 2016-01-31
Literature is an important vehicle to further knowledge of other cultures, and English translations of Okinawan literary works have had a major impact on the field of Okinawan studies. Yet the riches of Okinawa's literature have yet to be adequately mined. Islands of Protest attempts to address this lacuna with this new selection of critically acclaimed modern and contemporary works in English. The anthology includes poetry, fiction, and drama, drawing on Okinawa's distinct culture and subtropical natural environment to convey the emotions and tensions present in everyday life. Tōma Hiroko's poem "Backbone" juxtaposes the natural environment of aquamarine beaches and subtropical flora and fauna with the built environment of America's military bases. Stories by two of Okinawa's most dynamic contemporary authors display wide breadth, from the preservation of island dances and burial practices in Sakiyama Tami's "Island Confinement" and "Come Swaying, Come Swinging" to the bold, disquieting themes of violence and comfort women in Medoruma Shun's "Hope," "Taiwan Woman," and "Tree of Butterflies." The crown jewel of the anthology, Chinen Seishin's play The Human Pavilion, is based on an infamous historical incident in which Okinawans were put on display during a 1903 industrial exhibition in Osaka. In his 1978 masterpiece, Chinen depicts the relentless pressure on Okinawans to become more Japanese. Given the controversial presence of U.S. military forces in Okinawa, this book is particularly timely. Disputes between the United States and Japanese governments over construction of a new marine airbase at Henoko have led to the resignation of Japan's prime minister, the election of an anti-base governor, and repeated protests. Islands of Protest offers a compelling entrée into a complex culture, one marked by wartime decimation, relentless discrimination, and fierce resistance, yet often overshadowed by the clichéd notion of a gentle Okinawa so ceaselessly depicted in Japan's mass media.
Roman Ivashkiv. Senior Lecturer. The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies.
Yuri Izdryk. Smokes. Translated by Roman Ivashkiv and Erin Moure. Sandpoint, Idaho: Lost Horse Press, 2019. (Ukrainian-English)
Professor David Cooper. The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies.
The Queen’s Court and Green Mountain Manuscripts, with Other Forgeries of the Czech Revival. Edited and translated by David Cooper. Ann Arbor : Michigan Slavic Publications, 2018.
"The present volume of MSP's Czech Translations Series brings the first scholarly edition in English of the so-called Manuscripts, Czech literary forgeries of the early nineteenth century whose creation and reception represent one of the more remarkable episodes of Romantic forgery. The rich documentation here includes a selection of reviews and polemical articles that the Manuscripts provoked, showing their long term cultural significance and impact, including the central role they played in the development of Czech national consciousness. The annotated translation enables contemporary readers to experience their aesthetic force and perceive the qualities that linked Czech culture to the broad stream of European cultural developments"-- Provided by publisher.
Professor David Cooper (Slavic Languages and Literatures) has won the 2019 AATSEEL Prize for Best Scholarly Translation, for his recent book The Queen's Court and Green Mountain Manuscripts.
Professor Brian Walters. The Department of Classics and the Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies.
His translation of Lucan’s Civil War (Hackett) was published in 2015.
Cover.
Civil War by Lucan; Brian Walters (Translator); W. R. Johnson (Introduction by)ISBN: 9781603849968
Publication Date: 2015-08-21
Written in the reign of Nero--the emperor against whom Lucan was implicated in a conspiracy and by whom he was compelled to commit suicide at the age of 25--the poet's dark, ambiguous, unfinished masterpiece focuses on the disintegration of the Roman body politic and the war between Julius Caesar and Pompey that ultimately lead to the end of the Roman republic. While aiming for a poem both as rugged as Lucan's--with its mix of history and fantasy, of high and low registers, of common and uncommon turns of phrase, of narrative and declamation--and as reader-friendly as possible, Brian Walters owns that he has "nowhere tried to simplify the rhetorical excesses that are the essence of Lucan's poem, the real meat and bone of the Civil War ." A brilliant Introduction by W. R. Johnson discusses the poem's relationship to Nero and monarchy; its invocations of both the gods and chaos; the real hero of the Civil War ; and the poem's end and narrative styles. Synopses of individual books; suggestions for further reading; a glossary of names, places, and Roman institutions; and a map are also included.
Professor Jon Solomon. The Department of Classics.
His translation of Genealogy of the Pagan Gods (volume 2 books VI-X) was published in 2017.
Cover.
Genealogy of the Pagan Gods, Volume 1 by Giovanni Boccaccio; Jon Solomon (Edited and Translated by)ISBN: 9780674057104
Publication Date: 2011-05-31
Giovanni Boccaccio's Genealogy of the Pagan Gods is an ambitious work of humanistic scholarship whose goal is to plunder ancient and medieval literary sources so as to create a massive synthesis of Greek and Roman mythology. The work also contains a famous defense of the value of studying ancient pagan poetry in a Christian world. The complete work in fifteen books contains a meticulously organized genealogical tree identifying approximately 950 Greco-Roman mythological figures. The scope is enormous: 723 chapters include over a thousand citations from two hundred Greek, Roman, medieval, and Trecento authors. Throughout the Genealogy, Boccaccio deploys an array of allegorical, historical, and philological critiques of the ancient myths and their iconography. Much more than a mere compilation of pagan myths, the Genealogy incorporates hundreds of excerpts from and comments on ancient poetry, illustrative of the new spirit of philological and cultural inquiry emerging in the early Renaissance. It is at once the most ambitious work of literary scholarship of the early Renaissance and a demonstration to contemporaries of the moral and cultural value of studying ancient poetry. This is the first volume of a projected three-volume set of Boccaccio's complete Genealogy.
Translations from the French by Armine Kotin Mortimer, Professor Emerita, Department of French and Italian.
Mysterious Mozart by Philippe Sollers.
Cover.
Mysterious Mozart by Philippe Sollers; Armine Kotin Mortimer (Translator)ISBN: 9780252035463
Publication Date: 2010-06-28
Both a beguiling portrait of the artist and an idiosyncratic self-portrait of the author, Mysterious Mozart is Philippe Sollers's alternately oblique and searingly direct interpretation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's oeuvre and lasting mystique, audaciously reformulated for the postmodern age.With a mix of slang, abstractions, quotations, first- and third-person narratives, and blunt opinion, French writer and critic Philippe Sollers taps into Mozart's playful correspondence and the lesser-known pieces of his enormous repertoire to analyze the popularity and public perceptions of his music. Detailing Mozart's drive to continue producing masterpieces even when saddled with debt and riddled with illness and anxiety, Sollers powerfully and meticulously analyzes Mozart's seven last great operas using a psychoanalytical approach to the characters' relationships.As Sollers explores themes of constancy, prodigy, freedom, and religion, he offers up bits of his own history, revealing his affinity for the creative geniuses of the eighteenth century and a yearning to bring that era's utopian freedom to life in contemporary times. What emerges is an inimitable portrait of a man and a musician whose greatest gift is a quirky companionability, a warm and mysterious appeal that distinguishes Mozart from other great composers and is brilliantly echoed by Sollers's artful tangle of narrative.
Casanova the Irresistible by Philippe Sollers.
Cover.
Casanova the Irresistible by Phillippe Sollers; Armine Kotin Mortimer (Introduction by)ISBN: 9780252098154
Publication Date: 2016-03-15
His is a name synonymous with seduction. His was a life lived without limits. Giacomo Casanova left behind thousands of pages detailing his years among Europe's notable and noble. In Casanova the Irresistible, Philippe Sollers--prolific intellectual and revered visionary of the French avant-garde--proffers a lively reading of and guide to the famed libertine's sprawling memoir. Armine Kotin Mortimer's translation of Sollers's reading tracks the alluring Venetian through the whole of his astounding and disreputable life. Eschewing myth, Sollers dares to present the plain realities of a man "simple, direct, courageous, cultivated, seductive, funny. A philosopher in action." The lovers are here, and the ruses and adventures. But Sollers also rescues Casanova the writer, a gifted composer of words who reigns as a titan of eighteenth-century literature. As always, Sollers seeks to shame society for its failure to recognize its failings. By admiring those of Casanova's admirable qualities present in himself, Sollers spurns bourgeois hypocrisy and cliché to affirm a jocund philosophy of life devoted to the twinned pursuits of pleasure and joy. A masterful translation that captures Sollers's idiosyncratic style, Casanova the Irresistible escorts readers on a journey into the heads and hearts of two singular personalities.
The Enchanted Clock by Julia Kristeva.
Cover.
The Enchanted Clock by Julia Kristeva; Armine Kotin Mortimer (Translator)ISBN: 9780231542739
Publication Date: 2018-07-31
Julia Kristeva's intricate, multifaceted novel The Enchanted Clock is built around a golden astronomical clock in the Palace of Versailles. Part detective mystery, part historical fiction, and full of ruminations on memory, love, and the transcendence of linear time, it is one of the most illuminating works of one of France's great thinkers.
Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language by 
Arab Political Thought by 
Islands of Protest by 
Civil War by 
Genealogy of the Pagan Gods, Volume 1 by 
Mysterious Mozart by 
Casanova the Irresistible by 
The Enchanted Clock by 
