Call for contributions: PMLA Special Topic on Translation

Deadline: June 30, 2021

A powerful, flexible instrument of contact and connection across time and space, translation is never inert; it is always a dynamic site of aesthetic and cultural negotiations. The PMLA Editorial Board welcomes essays from any chronological period or language area that examine the art, practice, and discipline of translation. Ideally, essays will break new ground by analyzing particular translations and drawing general conclusions accessible and of interest to the broad PMLA readership.

We seek essays that will address a wide range of questions and issues from varied viewpoints and using diverse methodologies. Essays might consider questions such as the following:

What implications do translations have for literary history?

What are the consequences for canons and curricula if we address literary “originality” as a problematic norm?

How have the ethics of translation changed?

How does translation function across media, between, for example, books and films, and what are the ramifications of intersemiotic processes?

How might we better acknowledge and understand translation as a cultural force?

For submission details and the full CFP, see https://www.mla.org/Publications/Journals/PMLA/Submitting-Manuscripts-to-PMLA, where the CFP is about halfway down the page. If questions then arise, contact the Special Topic coordinator, Anne Coldiron, at aebc@st-andrews.ac.uk or acoldiron@fsu.edu.