Roundtable Discussion: Translation in Creativity

Abstract

This Forum, appearing in each issue of the Journal of Literary Multilingualism, aims to continue the conversation started in the very first issue, where we collected articles which assessed and debated the field of literary multilingualism studies. The Forum is a space for shorter, more informal reflections on the field and its future: position papers, dialogues between scholars, roundtable discussions, responses to articles within the journal, and responses to recent multilingualism conferences or events. We welcome proposals for contributions, particularly from marginalized perspectives or on neglected aspects of literary multilingualism. Please contact us directly to discuss ideas. For this Forum, we present a roundtable discussion, organized and moderated by Eugenia Kelbert, in which Vesna Goldsworthy, Matthew Reynolds, and Douglas Robinson share some of their ideas around the relationship between translation and multilingual writing, particularly in relation to their intersecting roles as writers, translators, and academics. The study of literary multilingualism exists within the context of recent attempts, by several scholars in comparative literature, to make sense of multilingual and/or global literary practices. From the translation zone (Apter) to born-translated (Walkowitz) or untranslatable fiction, these attempts have almost invariably involved translation, as a concept if not as a practice. What is, then, the place of translation when it comes to understanding multilingual and translingual writing? How does this theoretical debate relate to the actual practice of literary translation? And what happens to literary style when theorists of translation and translators experiment with multilingual writing or when translingual writers translate? The present discussion explores the hitherto undefined zone of creative interaction between translation and multilingual writing in the hope of contributing to the more conceptual debates from a hands-on perspective. It is based on the roundtable entitled “Stylistic Border Crossings in Multilingual and Translated (Con)texts” that was part of the Stylistic Border Crossings In and Beyond Translation conference held on March 9–10, 2023.1 The conference and the roundtable were organized by Eugenia Kelbert with the British Centre for Literary Translation and the East Centre, University of East Anglia. Each of the three guests wears a combination of multiple hats that bridge theory and practice and include “translingual writer,” “literary translator,” “translation studies scholar,” “writer,” and “literary scholar.” Eugenia Kelbert