Broadening of Poetics 4: Signs of Culture/Signs of Nature. Semiotics and Poetics in Relation to Sustainable Development

Events, Invitations

28 and 29 October 2024

The Institute of Polish Literature of the Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw and the Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences invite you to the International Online Conference Broadening of Poetics 4: Signs of Culture/Signs of Nature Semiotics and Poetics in Relation to Sustainable Development.

Conference organizers:
dr Weronika Lipszyc, dr Anna Tenczyńska, prof. Ewa Szczęsna – The Section of Comparative Studies and the Laboratory of Intersemiotic and Intermedia Research of the Institute of Polish Literature, Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw;
prof. Bogumiła Suwara – The Institute of World Literature at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

The project is carried out as part of cooperation between the Institute of Polish Literature of the Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw and the Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Conference programme HERE.

 

World Literature Studies 3/2024: Translation, Censorship, and Marginalized Voices

News

eds. Ivana Hostová ‒ Mária Kusá

This issue with a focus on translation studies explores the intersection of translation with power, censorship, and marginalized identities. The articles investigate how translation can reinforce or resist oppressive structures, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. Themes include the curation of cultural exports, censorship in literary translation, and the political economy of reception. The issue also highlights the role of translators in shaping theoretical works, and advocates for the decolonization of knowledge and greater inclusivity in global cultural production.

The journal was published within the project VEGA 2/0092/23 Translation and translating in the history and present of the Slovak cultural space. Transformations of forms, status and functions: texts, personalities, institutions.

World Literature Studies is an open access and print scholarly journal published quarterly by Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0. Subscriptions: Slovak Academic Press, s. r. o., Bazová 2, 821 08 Bratislava, sap@sappress.sk. Annual subscription: 24 €

Articles:

IVANA HOSTOVÁ ‒ MÁRIA KUSÁ
Translation, censorship, and marginalized voices: Challenging power and
economic barriers
IRYNA ODREKHIVSKA
Decolonial analytics in translation history: Ukrainian literature in the contested
space of English translation
NATALIIA RUDNYTSKA
Soviet ideological and puritanical censorship of Ukrainian literary translations
MARIE KRAPPMANN
Individual decisions in a collectivist ideology: Two Czech translations of I. L. Peretz’s
short story Bontshe shvayg
MERVE ÖZENÇ KASIMOĞLU
Words in time: Inclusive reading and rewriting in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
KATARÍNA BEDNÁROVÁ
Translation as a scholarly dialogue
IVANA HOSTOVÁ
Translated, transgressed, transported: A century of Whitman in Slovakia
JÁN GAVURA
Publishing poetry in translation in Slovakia 2013–2023
IVANA HOSTOVÁ ‒ DANIELE MONTICELLI ‒ OLEKSANDR KALNYCHENKO
‒ MARTIN DJOVČOŠ
Addressing power imbalances in research and translation studies
EVA VEREBOVÁ ‒ EMÍLIA PEREZ
Theater performances and their accessibility in Slovakia: Insights from the Deaf
community

The full content of the issue with links to the individual texts can be found HERE.

The outstanding publication award from SAS for Johannes D. Kaminsky

Miscellaneous, News


Congratulations to our colleague Johannes D. Kaminsky for the outstanding publication award from SAS for his monograph Lives and Deaths of Werther. Interpretation, Translation, and Adaptation in Europe and East Asia (Oxford University Press, 2023). On September 18, he accepted this special award together with the other SAS researchers from the SAS President Prof. Pavol Šajgalík and the Vice-President for research and innovation, Prof. Peter Samuely.

The monograph’s original research contribution is based on the author’s exceptional linguistic competence and an uncommon comparison of European and Asian reception of Goethe’s novel, analysing non-Eurocentric assessment of one of the most famous works of Western literary culture.

Open access HERE. 

Humanities in Translations – Translation in Humanities. Exploring transfer and reception / Sciences humaines en traduction – traduction des sciences humaines. Questions de transfert et de réception

Events, Invitations

The Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences is organizing in
cooperation with the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University Bratislava and CEFRES the International Colloquium Humanities in Translations – Translation in Humanities. Exploring transfer and reception on 15 and 16 May 2025. The colloquium is part of the APVV research project Translation and aspects of reception of social science and humanities texts as cultural and literary transfer in the 20th century. Colloquium languages: French, English.

Call for Papers / Appel à communication

Application Form / Formulaire d’inscription

Video of Zsolt Czigányik´s talk “Utopia in Central Europe”

Zsolt Czigányik is Associate Professor in the English Department at ELTE, Budapest, and the leader of the research group Democracy in East Central European utopianism funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation at Central European University. He is the secretary of the Utopian Studies Society. His research focus is modern utopian and dystopian literature.

Zsolt Czigányik about his talk: Utopia is situated in no-man’s land between literature, social philosophy and the social sciences, where literary and socio-political factors interact. Historian Péter Hanák has argued that Central Europe is a region where reality and utopia have always mingled. In my presentation I reflect on both concepts: how utopian literary works reflect the social and political reality, and how this genre that stemmed from Western Europe was received and developed in our region. I intend to outline briefly how I understand the concept of utopia and the changing concept of Central Europe in its liminal position between East and West. Based on my studies in English and Hungarian utopian literature, I present our ongoing project as the leader of the Democracy in East Central European utopianism research group that aims to outline the specific features of Central European utopias, such as their national character.

See the video of Zsolt Czigányik´s lecture in English HERE.

Guest lecture: The Body Aesthetics in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons: From the Unity of Form and Spirit to the Humanization of Literary Theory

Events, Invitations

Shunqing Cao & Liu Shishi
(Sichuan University, China)

11 September 2024 (Wednesday) at 10:00 CET
Institute of World Literature SAS

This talk aims to explore how the body concept in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (hereafter Wen Xin Diao Long) represents a unique perspective in Chinese literary theory, linking literary works with human physiological structures such as form, spirit, blood, qi, and organs, forming a “heterogeneous isomorphism” in poetics. According to Liu Xie, literary works possess a unique “form” and “spirit”, akin to the human body. This viewpoint is deeply influenced by traditional Chinese “philosophy of experience”, where the style and substance of poetry correspond to the physical features of the human body. Through this analogy, literary creation is not only a mental activity but also an extension of bodily behavior, achieving a fusion of emotion and style, which resonates with the idea that the body is a unity of flesh and spirit. This lecture points out that the body concept plays a central role in ancient Chinese literary criticism, Continue reading Guest lecture: The Body Aesthetics in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons: From the Unity of Form and Spirit to the Humanization of Literary Theory →

Guest lecture: On the Comparison of Zhuangzi and Platoʼs Views on the Body

Miscellaneous

Peina Zhuang
(Sichuan University, China)

11 September 2024 (Wednesday) at 11:00 CET
Institute of World Literature SAS

As two of the most romantic figures in the history of Eastern and Western philosophy, the philosophical ideals of Zhuangzi and Plato exhibit remarkable similarities. They coexisted during pivotal eras, enduring turmoil and transformation and witnessing the prosperity and collisions of civilizations. Both staunch idealists, they established romantic sanctuaries of the spirit for posterity, crafting poetic philosophical concepts. In their views on the body, they similarly regard it as a synthesis of physiology and spirit. Furthermore, they both express a profound affinity for the spirituality of the body, even dedicating their lives to the pursuit of spiritual freedom and beauty. However, upon closer examination, it becomes evident that Zhuangzi and Plato hold fundamentally different perspectives on the body. While both emphasize the composite nature of the body and pursue an aesthetic of spiritual transcendence beyond physiology, their concepts diverge significantly in their definitions of spirit (soul) and form (body), as well as in their understanding of the destination of spirit (soul) and form (body). This lecture will conduct a meticulous analysis of primary classical texts, combined with relevant literature from both Eastern and Western sources, to compare and contrast Zhuangzi and Platoʼs perspectives on body culture and the practical implications arising thereof.

Peina Zhuang is associate professor and Ph.D supervisor of comparative literature at Sichuan University. Her research interests include comparative literature, intercultural studies, and translation studies.

World Literature Studies 2/2024: The Interdiscursive Communication between Literature and Bioethics

News

eds. Bogumiła Suwara ‒ Jana Tomašovičová

The interdiscursive communication between literature and bioethics has gone through significant changes under the influence of dynamic bio-scientific advancements. The articles in this issue document the shift from the traditional portrayal of the doctor-patient relationship to new themes inspired by contemporary bioethical challenges, including regenerative medicine, gene editing, cloning, human enhancement, and euthanasia, thus demonstrating the reciprocal transfer of literary and bioethical discourses. Through the emergence of this new interdiscursive space, literary and artistic representations are enriching the rationalist ethical rhetoric and normative argumentation with many humanistic aspects, including a narrative approach to ethics, specifically bioethics.

Articles:

BOGUMIŁA SUWARA ‒ JANA TOMAŠOVIČOVÁ
The interdiscursive communication between literature and bioethics
SAJJAD GHEYTASI
Unveiling the subversive potential: Challenging dominant ideological discourses
in selected literary texts
IVAN LACKO
Dignity, healing, and virtue: Bioethical concerns in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never let me go
TOMÁŠ KÁROLY
The bioethics of coexistence with robots today and in the sci-fi future
ADAM ŠKROVAN
Bioethics and genetic engineering in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake
MARIUSZ PISARSKI
Ripperdocs and game makers: Bioethics in the dystopian future of (post)cyberpunk
fiction
PETER SÝKORA
Bioethics of the human body in Michael Crichton’s Next and Rebecca Skloot’s
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
JANA TOMAŠOVIČOVÁ
Význam naratívneho prístupu v bioetike
BOGUMIŁA SUWARA
Rozmanitosť života, a najmä jeho konečnosti, na príklade vybraných diel
CLAUS-MICHAEL ORT
Text – poznanie – prax: Za možnosť literárnej vedy vychádzať z vedomostnej sociológie

The full content of the issue with links to the individual texts can be found HERE.

Lecture: Marianna Deganutti: Border Writing as a Language Contact Literary Case

Uncategorized

Marianna Deganutti

22 May 2024 (Wednesday) at 14:00 CET
Institute of World Literature SAS + online

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81202958446?pwd=YLvL2bPN54jk6IBHgkdBJt3XkQ1qci.1
Meeting ID: 812 0295 8446
Passcode: 364610

 

In this lecture I will present my 2023 book “Literary Multilingualism in the Borderlands.The Challenge of Trieste” (Routledge). The book focuses on literary multilingualism and specifically on the challenging condition of writing in Trieste, a key European borderland located at the intersection between the Latin, Germanic and Slav civilizations.

This is part of the IMPULZ project “Translation and Cross-Lingual Stylistic Transfer: Towards a Theory of Language Contact in Literature (E. Kelbert Rudan).

World Literature Studies 1/2024: Derrida and Literature

News

eds. Marcel Forgáč ‒ Milan Kendra ‒ Alžbeta Kuchtová

This journal issue, devoted to Derrida’s thinking about literature, addresses a number of questions raised by deconstruction with regard to literariness. In the terms set by deconstruction, the study of the relationship between Derrida and literature leads to an interdisciplinary textual analysis. The studies gathered here therefore deal with issues such as the death of the author, autobiographical writing, the marginality or singularity of literature (and in literature), as well as the difference between philosophy and literature or the transgressiveness of literature. At the same time, they reflect on the problems of democracy, politics, law, ethics or economics, which in Derrida’s approach are associated with the effects of literature.

Articles:

MILAN KENDRA ‒ ALŽBETA KUCHTOVÁ
Derrida and Literature
MARCEL FORGÁČ
Hry záhybov: Habermas, Derrida, Mukařovský
JACQUELINE HAMRIT
Derrida et la littérature : une relation passionnelle
JUAN EVARISTO VALLS BOIX
This strange institution called performativity: Jacques Derrida, the anarchy of literature,
and the counterinstitution of democracy
DARIN TENEV
Derrida and the potentiality of literature: Notes on Derrida’ s “The Law of Genre”
MANUEL RAMOS DO Ó
La question de la littérature chez Jacques Derrida : le droit fondamental et l’ ouverture
du parergon
ERNESTO FEUERHAKE
L’ unique et le texte. Derrida, Valéry, entre autres
SALIM HAFFAS
La mort de l’ auteur entre Barthes, Derrida et Foucault
MIROSLAV KOTÁSEK
How many deaths? Auto-bio-graphy as death-writing

The full content of the issue with links to the individual texts can be found HERE.