Guest lecture – Reading Multilingual Fiction: Yann Martel’s Self as a Multilingual Mosaic

Invitations, Events

Rainier Grutman
(University of Ottawa, Canada)

15 October 2025 (Wednesday) at 14:00 CET
Institute of World Literature SAS + online

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88989926723?pwd=1jSUGLTGHHe9aHxedFYCuQIBhy673Q.1
Meeting ID: 889 8992 6723
Passcode: 251712

This talk completes and complicates traditional mimetic (‘realist’) readings or multilingual fiction by highlighting the aesthetic effects of heterolingualism and the structuring role of languages in terms of plot. Using Yann Martel’s Self (1996) as case study, it shows how overt use of French, Spanish, Czech, and Hungarian forces readers of this English-Canadian novel to confront its multilingual poetics. Czech and Hungarian are perhaps especially relevant in Bratislava: the former partner language of Slovak appears only briefly, but Hungarian occupies entire pages of dialogue. These linguistic fragments are left untranslated, furthermore, thus pushing readers beyond their linguistic comfort zones. Ultimately, they connect to the narrator’s two central love interests (a girl from Prague and a member of Slovakia’s historic Magyar minority), with Hungarian discreetly preparing the explosive and tragic finale of a novel that is as much about words as it is about the world.

A Full Professor at the University of Ottawa (Canada), Rainier Grutman studied Romance philology, Comparative Literature and Translation Studies at Namur, Leuven and Madrid universities before earning his Ph.D. in French Studies in Montreal. He has held appointments as visiting faculty in Belgium (Ghent, Leuven), Italy (Bologna) and the United Kingdom (Aston University). In 2022, he was elected to the Academia Europaea. Rainier Grutman started studying bilingual writers and multilingual texts long before they became fashionable research topics, most notably in his book, Des langues qui résonnent (Montreal, 1997; 2nd ed. Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2019.) His latest contributions to this conversation appeared in the inaugural issue of Brill’s Journal of Literary Multilingualism (May 2023), the Forum for Modern Language Studies (Oxford UP, Jan. 2024), and the edited volume, Plurilinguisme et production littéraire transnationale en français depuis le Moyen Age (Geneva: Droz, 2023).

Comparative Literature Event in Seoul

Events, News

Every three years, the International Comparative Literature Association Congress (XXIV ICLA Congress) brings together researchers from around the world who are working in the field of world literature, comparative criticism and transcultural studies. This year, Dongguk University hosted the event in Seoul, Korea, between 18 July and 1 August. The event was attended by roughly 1600 participants and featured renowned keynote speakers, including David Damrosch, Wen-chin Ouyang and Sandra Bermann.

The Institute of World Literature SAS was highly visible thanks to the contributions by Marianna Deganutti, Johannes Kaminski and Eugenia Kelbert Rudan.

Eugenia Kelbert Rudan and Marianna Deganutti have recently established a new ICLA committee, “Language Contact in Literature: Europe”, which was officially launched at the ICLA congress in Seoul. Continue reading Comparative Literature Event in Seoul →

Lada Kolomiyets: The Bright and Dark Sides of Translating Russian Literature in Soviet Ukraine

Miscellaneous

This lecture explores the complex and often contentious dynamics of Ukrainian-Russian coexistence within the so-called “shared cultural space” from the early 1920s to the early 1950s, focusing specifically on the field of literary translation. It examines how Russian literature was translated into Ukrainian, considering both reprints and first-time translations.

Lada Kolomiyets is a DSc (Philology) in Translation Studies, Professor at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. An interdisciplinary researcher in literature, folklore, and translation studies.

The recording of the lecture in English is available HERE.

The first Slovak novel in its first English translation

News, New Books

At the beginning of this year, a unique publication was released in the prestigious Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, edited by our colleague Dobrota Pucherová and Erika Brtáňová from the Institute of Slovak Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The publication, Jozef Ignác Bajza, René, or: A Young Man’s Adventures and Experiences. An edition with commentary of the first Slovak novel, is the very first English translation of the first Slovak novel. Bajza’s novel was translated by David Short, an acclaimed British translator of Czech and Slovak. In addition to the translation, the book includes an introduction, extensive annotations, an illustrated appendix, and two studies that place the work René mláďenca príhodi a skúsenosťi (1783–1785) in the context of the European Enlightenment.

For more detailed information about the book, please click HERE.

A New Book by Comparatist Johannes Kaminski

New Books, Books

In his latest monograph, Dreams in Chinese Fiction: Spiritism, Aestheticism, and Nationalism (Routledge, 2025), Johannes Kaminski examines the modern political concept of the “Chinese Dream” through the lens of dream representations in Chinese literary tradition—from ancient times to the present day. What range of meanings and forms do dreams take in Chinese literary and philosophical texts? And how does the traditional understanding of dreams evolve at the turn of the 20th century?

Find out more about the book HERE.

World Literature Studies 2/2025: Literature, Literary Studies and the Life Sciences

News

eds. Roman Mikuláš ‒ Rolf Parr

The studies on the topic of this issue give rise to a discussion of the extent to which the often postulated dominance of the life sciences affects the position of literary studies (and thus literature) in the current system of disciplines and their discourses and whether literary studies themselves can be understood as a type of life knowledge. From an interdiscursive perspective, the articles point to parallels between the discursive status of literature and that of the life sciences, since both combine specific discourses into new entities. The process of reflection brings up questions: what legitimizes the supposedly dominant position of the life sciences in the 21st century, and what are the prerequisites and forms of a fully-fledged communication between literature, literary studies, and life sciences?

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: 40 €

Articles:
OTTMAR ETTE
Warum die Literaturwissenschaft eine Lebenswissenschaft ist
AMELIE BENDHEIM – DIETER HEIMBÖCKEL
Auf Herz und Nerven. Zur Literaturgeschichte der Ohnmacht
MONIKA SCHMITZ-EMANS
Aussterben. Über Literarisierungen eines liminalen Lebenswissens
ESTERA GŁUSZKO-BOZCOŃ
Zwischen Gesundheitsdiktatur, Ökoterrorismus und individueller Freiheit: Lebenswissenschaften in Juli Zehs Corpus Delicti und Dirk C. Flecks GO! – Die Ökodiktatur
MILUŠE JUŘÍČKOVÁ
Klimatický diskurs v zrcadle současných norských textů
FANG WAN
Towards a Global South posthumanism: The more-than-human world in Han Song’s
Red Ocean and Véronique Tadjo’s In the Company of Men
ROMAN MIKULÁŠ
Vergessen als Gegenstand der Lebenswissenschaften und der Literaturwissenschaft: Dargestellt am Roman Noras Gedächtnis von Dorothea Zeppezauer
JOSEF FULKA
Láska, afekt, text: nad několika textovými motivy v Rousseauově Julii
ALENA KYSELICOVÁ
Teória krátkej prózy v medzinárodnom kontexte

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

Presentation of the journal World Literature Studies 1/2025: “The Global Campus: Academic Fiction in World Literature/Globálny kampus: akademická fikcia vo svetovej literatúre”

Invitations, Events

4 June (Wednesday) 2025 at 14:00 CET
Institute of World Literature SAS + online, in English

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83313789567?pwd=JMbTrF2RBfkH9Q8r1d3XTTHs1TT8LU.1
Meeting ID: 833 1378 9567
Passcode: 829229

In this journal issue, edited by Oksana Blashkiv, an international group of scholars searches for answers regarding the contemporary condition of the university and its representations in Anglophone and non-Anglophone campus fiction in its plurality and diversity. By bringing attention to campus fiction in Ukrainian, Swedish, Spanish, Slovak, Romanian, Polish, Czech, German, Bulgarian, and American literature, the issue sheds light on the global campus providing comparative global/transatlantic and national/local perspectives on the university and the ways it is perceived in different cultural contexts. Simultaneously, the authors delineate a series of idiosyncratic characteristics of the campus/academic novel within a specific national literary tradition, while drawing parallels with the best-known case, the Anglo-American genre. Their articles highlight the diversity of campus fiction, thus widening the discussion about the global campus and enriching it with the topics of national/local history and cultural memory, distinctive perspectives on multilingualism and hybrid identities, and above all, the past and present of the university that defines its future.

The event will be moderated by the issue’s editor Oksana Blashkiv.

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

Humanities in Translations – Translation in the Humanities. Exploring Transfer and Reception

Events, Invitations
Graphic designer: E. Kovačevičová-Fudala

Bratislava, Slovakia
May 14, 2025 – Doctoral seminar   
Institute of World Literature SAS (address: Dúbravská cesta 9, 841 04 Bratislava, Slovakia)
GPS: 48°10’12.8″N 17°04’14.4″E

May 15-16, 2025 – international translation history colloquium in English and French
Room G 239, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, 2nd floor of the Gondova 2 building (address: Gondova 2, 814 99 Bratislava, Slovakia)
GPS: 48.1405, 17.1164

 

 

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87135955016?pwd=ONL7GayAmSJ4Zwb2WXy2p8blFUkatR.1
Meeting ID: 871 3595 5016
Passcode: 070921

Interpreting into Slovak will be provided. Visitors are welcome to attend the colloquium free of charge and without registration. To attend the colloquium online, please use the link.

The colloquium is co-organized by the Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, and CEFRES – French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences – Prague. This event is supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the Contract no. APVV-21-0198.

Download ∇∇∇∇

BOOK OF ABSTRACTS_LIVRET DES RÉSUMÉS

 

The colloquium brings together translation and humanities scholars from all around the world, experts starting out in the field as well as established prominent figures to explore the circumstances of non-literary transfers and translations (philosophy, sociology, arts, history, linguistics, etc.) and to study the commonalities and differences between Western and Central-Eastern Europe in this respect. The contributions will focus on the following areas of expertise:

  1. histories of humanities translations
  2. translation and transfer of scholarly knowledge and their institutional contexts
  3. concepts, terminology, types of scholarly texts and their argumentation, stylistic conventions
  4. translators and key figures of humanities (case studies)

Apart from a standard conference module with a round table, keynote lecture and sessions, it will also host a doctoral seminar on May 14. Here a specially called up panel of experts consisting of prominent translation and humanities scholars will offer PhD. students greater feedback and an opportunity to discuss their work in detail.

Interpreting into Slovak will be provided. Visitors are welcome to attend the colloquium free of charge and without registration.

The programs and the original Call for Paper in English and French can be found here:

Programme (EN) / Programme (FR) / Programme: Doctoral Seminar

Call for Papers / Appel à communication

International Conference Small Literatures as World Literature

Events
Photo: This image was created by freepik.com AI image generator.

28 – 30 May (Wednesday – Friday) 2025
Institute of World Literature SAS + online, in Slovak and English

Zoom Meeting
International Conference Small Literatures as World Literature (May 28)
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89541726597?pwd=VO7XOwHg8JZiO24JOwaC7prnobduxH.1
Meeting ID: 895 4172 6597
Passcode: 040644

 

 

 

International Conference Small Literatures as World Literature (May 29)
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83177360485?pwd=HuWanlIYTiVA0V62v2aODDb36jzuJ3.1
Meeting ID: 831 7736 0485
Passcode: 774980

International Conference Small Literatures as World Literature (May 30)
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84535880133?pwd=TorC31AaIg0XiOaXne4DP05h9sO6WH.1
Meeting ID: 845 3588 0133
Passcode: 261202

The conference is organized by the Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences as part of the grant project VEGA 2/0127/23 Slovak literature in inter-literary and transcultural contexts.

How can we think about small literatures in the context of world literature? Both terms – “small literature” and “world literature” – are neither self-evident nor agreed upon and already open up a myriad of questions. The conference intends to create space for a productive discussion and polemics about these questions that could open up new ways of thinking about literatures from Central Europe. We are interested in how these literatures communicate with other literatures and create interliterary communities, how they circulate in translation or adapt to the world literary system, how they see their own identity, which literary centres they look to for inspiration or consecration, or whether the term “national literature” is still a useful category. By asking these questions, we want to open up the larger discussion about the relationship between “small literature” and “world literature”, the local and the global, centre and periphery and the national and the postnational. Continue reading International Conference Small Literatures as World Literature →

Presentation: World Literature Studies 4/2024 “Fictional Realities of Eternal Peace”

Invitations, Events

30 April (Wednesday) 2025 at 14:00 CET
Institute of World Literature SAS + online, in English

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84450486196?pwd=AfmjSqmWOz9NjQhhi2hNbd28HWcbX3.1
Meeting ID: 844 5048 6196
Passcode: 061687

In this journal issue, an international group of scholars discusses European, American, and Chinese texts that cover a wide spectrum of imagined peace, ranging from naïve enthusiasm for top-down solutions to dejected elegies for the demise of civil liberties. The utopian appeal of peace, both in a political and spiritual sense, belongs to the powerful drivers of the human imagination. Yet the rhetorics of peace are difficult to untangle from the realities of war; after all, efforts that supposedly serve a higher purpose frequently result in injustice and violence. The issue will be presented by three authors of the studies: Kilian Jörg (Independent Artist and Scholar), Anton Matejička (Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna) and Michael Ka-chi Cheuk (School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University).

The event will be moderated by the issue’s editor Johannes D. Kaminski.

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