Past events
Readings and discussion with Jonathan Galassi
7 May, 1:30 Taylorian Institute, room 3:
Nicola Gardini presents Jonathan Galassi's acclaimed translation of Giacomo Leopardi’s "Canti" (Farrar Straus & Giroux and Penguin). Readings and discussion with Galassi.
JONATHAN GALASSI has worked for Houghton Mifflin Company, Random House, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, where he has served as president since January 2002. Galassi has published three books of poetry ("Left-Handed" has just appeared) and has also translated the work of the Italian poet Eugenio Montale. He was president of the Academy of American Poets from 1994 to 1999.
‘Giving up the Ghost: The Haunting of Modern Culture’
An interdisciplinary New College Symposium Friday 13 April and Saturday 14 April, 2012, at New College, Oxford.
Fee £20, including tea and coffee (£10 students).
Speakers: María del Pilar Blanco, Colin Davis, Mark Fisher, Kirstin Gwyer, Dina Khapaeva, Karen Leeder, Julian Wolfreys, along with the prize-winning writer David Constantine and the painter and visual artist Sarah Sparkes.
Convenors: Professor Karen Leeder and Dr Kirstin Gwyer
Registration: www.new.ox.ac.uk/giving-up-the-ghost
Enquiries: Egle.Jankauskaite@new.ox.ac.uk, 01865 279487
Supported by the Ludwig Fund, New College; Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford, Arts & Humanities Research Council
Lectures to accompany the exhibition 'The Romance of the Middle Ages'
Wednesday 1 February 2012
‘Before Tolkien: Manuscripts, Audiences and Readers of Middle English Romance’
Dr Alison Wiggins (Senior Lecturer in English Language, School of Critical Studies,
University of Glasgow)
Wednesday 15 February 2012
‘The Birth of Romance in England’
Dr Laura Ashe (University Lecturer and Tutor in English Literature, Worcester College, Oxford)
Wednesday 7 March 2012
‘Medieval Romance and the Gift of Storytelling’
Dr Nicholas Perkins (University Lecturer and Tutor in English, St Hugh’s College, Oxford;
Curator of the exhibition)
Friday 23 March 2012
‘Shakespeare and Medieval Romance’
Professor Helen Cooper (Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature,
Magdalene College, Cambridge)
Lecture to accompany the World Book Day Display
Thursday 1 March 2012
‘The Watsons: Jane Austen Practising’
Professor Kathryn Sutherland
(Professor of Bibliography and Textual Criticism,
St. Anne’s College, Oxford)
13.00 – 13.30 convocation house, bodleian library
(entrance in old schools quadrangle)
FREE ADMISSION – ALL WELCOME
Colloquium and Exhibition on the Bicentenary of the Spanish Constitution of 1812 (The Cadiz Constitution)
Taylor Institution
St Giles’, Oxford
Friday 9th March 2012
Programme (pdf)
Brazil Week
5-10 March 2012
A week of Brazil-related cultural events taking place in Oxford. For more information, please contact claire.williams@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk
The updated programme is here:
Latin American Third Cinema and its Legacies
A two-day colloquium at the University of Oxford organised by María Donapetry, Claire Williams and Roberta Gregoli. For the updated programme and to register, click here.
European Humanities Research Centre
The following events are open to everyone.
Convener: Prof. McLaughlin
EHRC/Blackwell’s Classic European Fiction Talks
Prof. Ritchie Robertson and Dr Ben Morgan
22 February 2012: ‘Thomas Mann, Death in Venice: the novella and the film’
7.00 pm to 8.00 pm, Blackwell’s, Broad Street
EHRC Cross-Faculty Seminar
29 February 2012: ‘Staging Power in Early Modern Europe’
Richard Cooper, ‘The Triumphs of Henri II, King of France’
Geraldine Hazbun, ‘The Illegitimate Hero in the comedia of Lope de Vega’
Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘Staging Power in late 17th Century Dresden – The Festivals of August the Strong’
4.00-6.30 pm, in the Taylorian Hall.
EHRC Book Launch
6 March 2012: Nicola Gardini (author of Le parole perdute di Amelia Lynd, Feltrinelli) and Patrick McGuinness (author of The Last Hundred Days, Seren Books) in dialogue discussing their recent novels
5.00 pm, in the Taylorian Hall.
Modern Languages Undergraduate Admissions Talk and Q&A Session
University of Oxford
16 February 2012
The Undergraduate Admissions Office, in conjunction with University of Oxford's departments and colleges, is organising a series of February half-term talks and tours primarily aimed at Year 12 (penultimate year) students from February 13th-17th 2012. The Modern Languages talk and Q&A session will take place on Thursday 16th February from 11am-1pm. The session will be led by academic staff in Modern Languages and there will also be the opportunity to meet current undergraduate students in this subject area.
Places are limited and should be booked via the Undergraduate Admissions website at http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/talks. Those who book will then receive an email confirmation of their place and details of the venue in Oxford. All enquiries regarding this event should be directed to the Admissions Information Centre on +44 (0)1865 288000.
This event is being held as part of the Half-Term Admissions Talks and Tours programme at Oxford. For full details of all the events, including general admissions talks, subject-specific talks and college and department tours, please see http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/talks.
College tours should be booked with the individual colleges using the links given on the above webpage. We recommend that you check which colleges offer the languages courses that you are interested in by following the links from http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/colleges or
http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/mml_apps/languages.php.
Please note that these talks and tours cannot provide the same depth or detail as a University open day and are designed to offer an introduction to Oxford admissions.
Italo Svevo Film Festival
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italo Svevo's birth, a number of films based on the work or on the life of the Triestine writer will be shown at Rewley House during Hilary Term 2012.
This will be a rare opportunity to see works that are very seldom available to the general public. The projections will take place in the Lecture Theatre of Rewley House (Wellington Square), every Wednesday starting at 7.30pm, from 18th January to 7th March, as follows:
1. Wednesday 18 January:
- L’assassinio di Via Belpoggio, directed by Alberto Guiducci, black & white, 2004, 25m, in Italian with English sub-titles.
- La conscience de Svevo, directed by Nathalie Combe and Yann Sinic, colour, 2000, 42m, in French with Italian sub-titles.
- Italo Svevo - Ricordi, directed by Livio Manzin, black & white, 19m, in Italian.
- Guarire dalla cura. Italo Svevo e la medicina, by Riccardo Cepach and Francesco Montenero, colour, 2008, 33m, in Italian.
2. Wednesday 25 January:
- Senilità, directed by Mauro Bolognini, black & white, 1962, 1h 47m, in Italian.
3. Wednesday 1 February:
- La coscienza di Zeno, directed by Luigi Squarzina (theatre) and Daniele D’Anza (TV), with Alberto Lionello, black & white, 1966, 1h 45m, in Italian (Part 1).
4. Wednesday 8 February:
- La coscienza di Zeno, directed by Luigi Squarzina (theatre) and Daniele D’Anza (TV), with Alberto Lionello, black & white, 1966, 1h45, in Italian (Part 2).
5. Wednesday 15 February:
- La coscienza di Zeno, directed by di Sandro Bolchi, with Johnny Dorelli, colour, 1988, 2h55, in Italian.
6. Wednesday 22 February:
- Il seduttore filantropo, directed by Gianni Lepre, colour, 1986, 1h25, in Italian.
7. Wednesday 29 February:
- Un marito, directed by Gianfranco De Bosio, with Aroldo Tieri, colour, 1983, 1h 50m, in Italian.
8. Wednesday 7 March:
- Ein Leben, directed by Eberhard Itzenplitz, colour, 1973, 1h30m, in German.
All welcome, admission free. For further details, email: svevo2011@gmail.com
Conveners: Dr G. Stellardi and Ms M. Deganutti.
Heinrich von Kleist - A Reading
Monday 21st November is the 200th anniversary of Heinrich von Kleist's death by his own hand near the Wannsee outside Berlin. To celebrate Kleist and his work there will be a reading in German and English in the Shulman Auditorium, Queen's, from 4.30 to 6pm.
There is no charge, anyone can drop in at any point, and all are welcome.
This event is part of the World Wide Reading organized by the Heinrich-von-Kleist-Gesellschaft and the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin.
http://www.heinrich-von-kleist.org/wwrd/
European Humanities Research Centre - Joint Seminar: Michaelmas Term 2011
Gender in Medieval Literature
Wednesday, week 6 (16 November 2011), 4.00-6.00 pm
Room 3, Taylor Institution
Sophie Marnette (Balliol)
‘Gender and Genre: Reported Discourse in Lais and Fabliaux’
Manuele Gragnolati (Somerville)
‘Maternal Language and Corporeality in Dante’
Annette Volfing (Oriel)
‘Half Out, Half In: Gender Ambiguity and Pastoral Care in Seuse’s Exemplar’
All welcome, especially graduates
Cristian Aliaga: Your Virtues Are Your Faults – Tus virtudes son tus defectos
Poem-Art Posters
Exploring poetry, translation and the visual arts
CRISTIAN ALIAGA (Argentina) – Poetry
ALEJANDRO MEZZANO (Argentina) – Images
BEN BOLLIG (UK) – Translations
The Artist’s Room, Kendrew Quadrangle
St John's College, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JP
(access via Kendrew Quadrangle Lodge)
Open daily Mon 31 October - Fri 4 November 2011, 2-4pm and 2-7pm on Thursday.
Cristian Aliaga is a poet, journalist and academic based in Patagonia, and is increasingly recognised as one of Argentina’s outstanding contemporary writers. He has published more than a dozen books of poetry, including the bilingual anthology La causa clínica/The Clinical Cause (2011, Manchester Spanish and Portuguese Studies: New Series). As editor of the pioneering newspaper El extremo sur he works as a cultural promoter and publisher in the far south. Since April he has been in the UK as Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds, supported by the Leverhulme Trust’s Visiting Professorship scheme.
Aliaga has worked with the artist and freelance designer Alejandro Mezzano (Rosario, Argentina) and a translator, Ben Bollig (University of Oxford), to turn phrases from his poems into bilingual poetry-posters. These works explore the relationship between different languages and between different media. Mixing design, literature, and translation, these poem-art-posters seek to take poetry off the page of the book and into new spaces.
A bilingual poetry reading by Cristian Aliaga (Spanish and English)
Aliaga will read from his work in Spanish, with English translations read by Bollig.
Thursday 3 November, 5.30pm.
The Barn, Kendrew Quadrangle
St John's College, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JP
(access via Kendrew Quadrangle Lodge)
The organisers are grateful for the support of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford; St Catherine's College, Oxford; St John's College, Oxford; and the Leverhulme Trust.
Humanities Graduate Open Day
11 November 2011
The University of Oxford is holding its first ever Humanities Graduate Open Day. This will be a unique opportunity for prospective students to find out about graduate courses in Humanities subjects at the University.
More information is available at:
You can register here:
Contemporary Literature and Translation
A reading with Austrian author Alois Hotschnig and translator Tess Lewis
Monday 1st week (10th October)
Queen’s College, Memorial Room
5.15pm
All welcome
Critically acclaimed author Alois Hotschnig is touring the UK on the publication of his short story collection Maybe This Time, translated by Tess Lewis.
The event will include readings in English and German, and discussion in English of Hotschnig’s writings and of literary translation.
There will be a drinks reception after the readings, and Tess Lewis will be happy to talk to students about her career in literary translation.
Contact: charlotte.ryland@queens.ox.ac.uk
Invitation to the celebration of the acquisition of Franz Kafka’s letters to his sister Ottla
Made in partnership with the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach
Monday, 24 October 2011
Programme
Sheldonian Theatre
16.00 - Welcome by Dr Sarah Thomas, Bodley’s Librarian
16.15 - Reading of Act I, Scene I from Alan Bennett’s play Kafka’s Dick
16.30 - Kafka’s Writings: Private Confessions or Public Property?
Lecture by Ritchie Robertson, Taylor Professor of the German Language
and Literature, University of Oxford
17.00 - Panel discussion chaired by Katrin Kohl, Professor of German Literature,
University of Oxford
Divinity School
17.45 - Reception in the Divinity School, Bodleian Library
Invitation (pdf)
Bodleian Exhibition - Liebe Ottla
30 September - 30 October
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library celebrates the acquisition of Franz Kafka’s letters to his sister in partnership with the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach. An exhibition of Franz Kafka’s letters to his sister Ottla with highlights from the main Kafka collection.
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/exhibitions
Language, History, and Language History among the Celts and their Neighbours
A Conference in Honour of Professor Thomas Charles-Edwards on the Occasion of his Retirement
Habakkuk Room
Jesus College
Oxford
11th–12th November, 2011
Programme (doc)
Poster (pdf)
Inaugural Lecture by Professor Ritchie Robertson, Taylor Professor of German
Thursday 20 October 2011
5.00pm
Main Hall
Taylor Institution
'Freemasons versus Jesuits: Conspiracy Theories in Enlightenment Germany'
followed by a drinks reception in the Taylorian.
50th National Postgraduate Colloquium in German Studies
Saturday, 29 October 2011
at Jesus College,
University of Oxford
Call for Papers
The National Postgraduate Colloquium in German Studies is a biannual event organised in association with the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies at the University of London. Launched in 1987, it provides an informal and friendly forum for graduate students in all areas of German Studies to present and discuss their current research.
Offers of papers from graduate students working on any aspect of German Studies, including all periods of literature, the arts, social sciences, history, and linguistics are now invited for the 50th meeting, which will take place at Jesus College, Oxford, on Saturday, 29 October 2011. A general knowledge of German culture and language can be assumed, though not a specialized knowledge of individual topics. Presentations, no longer than thirty minutes in length, should be targeted to the occasion and make use of appropriate media. Papers may be given in English or German. Each paper is followed by a ten-minute period for questions and discussion.
If you would like to contribute, please send an abstract of not more than 500 words to the organisers, c/o Jane Lewin. The abstract should include the following information as part of the file:
- Your name, postal address, telephone number, and email address
- The name of the institution at which you are registered
- The media required for your presentation (e.g. OHP, cd/cassette player; slide projector, data projector/laptop [PowerPoint], VHS player)
Offers of papers can also be made by downloading this form (pdf). The completed form should be sent to Jane Lewin, IGRS, University of London, Room ST 272 Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. The form may also be emailed to jane.lewin@sas.ac.uk. Offers of papers must be received by Friday, 16 September 2011.
For general queries, please contact the organisers:
Arnhilt Höfle (IGRS, University of London); Jochen Hung (IGRS, University of London); Annja Neumann (Queen Mary, University of London); Isabel Wagner (Queen Mary, University of London); Sean Williams (Jesus College, Oxford); Bianca Zaininger (IGRS, University of London)
Sir Robert Taylor Society Conference
23-24 September
Lady Brodie Room
St Hilda's College
The Society is anchored in an annual conference which acts as a forum for exchange between teachers of MFL in secondary schools and colleges and the MML Faculty. We have been working hard in recent years to increase participation from teachers in state schools and FE/sixth-form colleges and to include sessions on pedagogical issues (such as starting languages from scratch) as well as talks on areas of/approaches to literary and cultural research. For further information about the Society, see the website at:
http://sirroberttaylor.wordpress.com/
Programme (pdf)
All welcome.
Interdisciplinary Symposium: Playing False – Representations of Betrayal
Lincoln College, Oxford University
September 16-17, 2011
This conference gathers international scholars from the fields of ancient and modern literature, film studies, music theory, and philosophy – under the sign of betrayal; a sign, which each speaker at this symposium shall question. One might sum up: betrayal presupposes a triadic structure, in which the traitor is caught in a double bind. X gives Y over to some opposition, betraying his political, religious or private affiliations; or, perhaps, X gives himself away. If this structure has gained broad consensus, however, it also immediately opens an equally broad range of questions: Where does X come from; what is it that leads X to betray – and what exactly does he betray? The most basic structure of betrayal, giving over, in fact, involves everyone: for to speak, to give words over, gives oneself away. In light of this, the urgency to rethink betrayal(s) is equal to its ubiquity. In this conference, speakers will engage with the dynamics of betrayal, attending to its many dimensions, crossing politics, ethics, emotions and aesthetics. Not a definition, but representations of betrayal thus form the focus for approaching what it means to play false.
Convened by: Dr Betiel Wasihun and Kristina Mendicino.
For further details please click HERE
Call for Papers - Playing False: Representations of Betrayal
Lincoln College, Oxford University
September 16-17, 2011
Verrat und Argwohn Lauschen in Allen Ecken
(Friedrich Schiller, Wilhlem Tell 1, 4)
To hand over (tradere), to give over (paradidômi): these words sum the dynamics of betrayal in the languages of antiquity. But there is nothing simple and summary about the crossings and double-crossings they name.There have been several attempts to define "betrayal" (e.g. "Jaeggi, Versuch über den Verrat," 1991). Across disciplines, it seems that betrayal presupposes an unstable triadic structure, in which the traitor, isolated, is caught in a double bind. X gives Y over to some opposition; or, perhaps, X gives himself away. But where does X come from, and what is it that leads X to betray? The most basic structure of betrayal, in fact, involves everyone: for to speak, to give words over, gives oneself away. And yet, betrayal is never the same from moment to moment. One must ask rather than assume to what extent the moments of betrayal that emerge on a mythic scale in Aeschylus’ "Seven Against Thebes" (467 BC) share with the political strategies of Thucydides’ historical protagonists. And one must ask how such scenes of betrayal differ from those of the modern world, as they are thematized in the Germanic epic "The Song of the Nibelungen" (ca. 1200), in Shakespeare’s dramas, or in Fellini’s films. In itself graspable, the very ubiquity of betrayal quickly renders it elusive. And in a world where trade connects all to all, the tradition of “tradere” – betrayal and treason – becomes all the more urgent to pursue. In order to approach the phenomenon of betrayal, we will investigate these topics in three panels:
Panel 1: Betrayal - Politics and Theology
The concept of betrayal is commonly understood to be situated in the spheres of politics and theology. Margret Boveri’s case studies of Knut Hamsun and Ezra Pound in "Der Verrat im XX. Jahrhundert" (1956-1960) underscore both the pervasiveness and complexity of betrayal in modern politics. The Christian religion, on the other hand, is nothing without Judas’ foundational treason. Still, the singularity of cases and representations becomes crucial to approaching betrayal. Moving beyond the questions of loyalty, orthodoxy and law, we pose in this panel anew the questions: what emerges from a critical look at representations of political and religious betrayal in their singular dynamics and, above all, language? How is political and religious betrayal dependent upon articulation, be it literary (e.g. Brecht’s "Die Maßnahme," 1930; Werfel’s "Der veruntreute Himmel," 1939), filmic (e.g. Pasolini’s "Il vangolo secondo Matteo," 1964), or visual (e.g. Magritte’s "La trahison des images," 1929)? How does reading carefully open ways to discuss a phenomenon that all too often involves taking sides and betraying a more sober, critical view? After all, the German word “Ver-rat” bespeaks language gone awry, a miscarried (ver-) piece of advice (Rat); religious or political, betrayal unfolds within its language.
Panel 2: Affecting Betrayal
In his essay, "From Betrayal to Violence: Dante’s Inferno and the Social Construction of Crime" (2001) Paul G. Chevigny, an American human rights scholar, elucidates that for Dante “fraud and betrayal were the most serious crimes because they were the most deliberate, the most calculated.” Thus, betrayal: a merely rational act? Of course not. Even the most calculated act cannot be thought apart from emotion. In this panel, we would like to explore how the calculated crime of betrayal is affected by emotions in literary texts or in other artistic representations. Curiously enough, the etymology of the English word “betrayal” traces back to the emotion of “grief” (OED). We would like to pursue the culturally specific parameters that motivate betrayal. What variables affect betrayal (grief, love, angst, ambition, greed, envy, vengeance, rage, conspiracy, intrigue, shame, guilt)? Only the conditions of betrayal make it what it is from case to case – and variations among even the most familiar types of betrayal seem to be endless, as Peter von Matt shows in his monograph on betrayal affected by love, "Liebesverrat: Die Treulosen in der Literatur" (1991). And what about conspiracy? Based on deception and bound to betrayal, conspiracy forms a special case in works such as Friedrich Schiller’s dramas (e.g."Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua," 1783)? Or how does Jorge Luis Borges deal with the figure of the transgressor in his anthology "Ficciones" (e.g. "Tres versiones de Judas," 1944)?
Panel 3: Masks of Betrayal
Playing false often involves the assumption of another role, appearance– or word. Whether one considers the epic mask of the Trojan Horse, where destruction penetrated Troy in the guise of a gift (Vergil, "Aeneid," 30-19 BC), or the maskings that blur the distinctions between the role and the real in works such as "Die Ehe der Maria Braun" (Fassbinder, 1979), the mask seems the traitor’s greatest accomplice. From dramas to picaresque novels, masks of betrayal insist themselves. We solicit speakers to consider the relation between masking and betrayal, both in its serious and more playful forms. Contributors may consider dramatic texts, from Sophocles "Philoctetes" (409 BC) to Heiner Müller’s "Philoktet" (1964) to Mozart’s comic opera "Cosi fan tutte" (1790). Or, they may pursue the ways in which maskings and betrayal more subtly interact in texts that implicitly betray this dynamic, as when the picaro figure of the masked, anonymously-published "Lazarillo de Tormes" (1554) plays his way through the world of sixteenth-century Spain.
Please send abstracts of 300-500 words by Friday, May 27, 2011 to either Dr. Betiel Wasihun (betiel.wasihun@lincoln.ox.ac.uk) or Kristina Mendicino (kristina.mendicino@yale.edu).
Weidenfeld Visiting Professor of European Comparative Literature
Professor James Wood
(Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard University)
“The Modern Novel and the New Atheism”
To be given in the Marie Ogilvie Lecture Theatre, St Anne’s College, all at 5.30 pm on:-
12 May “Everything, Nothing, Something”
17 May “Melville and the New Atheists”
19 May “Jens Peter Jacobsen and the contradictions of atheism Lecture
24 May “Tolstoy’s Third Way Lecture
26 May “’An answer vouchsafed them’: Virginia Woolf’s mystic God.”
31 May “Beckett and Nothing”
Brochure (pdf)
French Theory Seminar Series
From Structuralism to Post-Modernism
Time: 5-6.30pm on Thursdays of odd weeks
Location: Howard Stringer Room, Merton College
(located on the ground floor of the TS Eliot Lecture Theatre).
Convenors: Benjamin Levy (ENS) and Emma Goodwin (Merton College)
Programme (pdf)
The aim of this seminar series is to explore the way four diff erent themes were being approached by French philosophers, writers, sociologists, historians or anthropologists during the second half of the 20th century. These themes have been selected f or their cross-disciplinary influence, but we shall try to see what unifies them.
For more information, including how to access the extracts (in English or in French), please contact frenchtheories@gmail.com
Clara Florio Cooper Lecture 2011
Professor Ronnie Ferguson (Professor of Italian, University of St Andrews), will deliver the annual Clara Florio Cooper Lecture at 5 p.m., on Monday 9 May 2011, in the Main Hall, Taylor Institution.
Subject: ‘The historical status of Venetian: language or dialect?’
Followed by a Drinks Reception in Room 2, 6.00-6.45 pm.
All welcome
THE ZAHAROFF LECTURE 2011
Professor Terence Cave, Emeritus Research Fellow, St John's College
'Thinking with Literature'
Convener: Michael Sheringham FBA, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature
Main Hall, Taylor Institution, St Giles'
5.00pm, Tuesday 10 May 2011
All Welcome
Oxford Spanish Research Seminar
Tuesday, 10 May, 5:00 p.m.
José María Merino, author and member of the Real Academia Española (sillón m), will discuss the development of his novels and microficción in a talk titled 'De la novela al minicuento, en mi experiencia de escritor'.
Room 3 of the Taylor Institute
St Giles, Oxford
Symposium - 'Re-reading East Germany': The Literature and Film of the GDR (1949-2009)
Organised by Professor Leeder, the Symposium will take place at New College, Oxford on 24-25 March 2011.
Full information, including the Registration Form and Abstracts, can be found at:
http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/gdrculture/
Book Launch
The Symposium includes the book launch of:
'The Vocation of Poetry'
by Durs Grünbein, translated by Michael Eskin
which takes place on 24 March 2011 at 6pm in The Long Room, New College, Oxford.
Elizabeth Fallaize Memorial Lecture
Toril Moi (James B. Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies, Duke University)
‘Knowing Oneself, Knowing Others: Love, Language and Truth in Simone de Beauvoir's “The Woman Destroyed”’.
Convener: Michael Sheringham FBA, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature
Main Hall, Taylor Institution, St Giles'
5.00 p.m., Tuesday 8 March 2011
A Drinks Reception will follow
All Welcome
An hour with Declan Donnellan
Director and Co-founder of the Cheek By Jowl Theatre Company
Tuesday 1 March, 2pm in the Taylorian Institute (Lecture Room2)
This coming Tuesday, everyone is warmly invited to come and listen to Declan Donnellan speak about his experiences as a theatre director and co-founder of the celebrated theatre company Cheek by Jowl, whose productions over the past 30 years have embraced works of Greek Tragedy, French Romanticism and Russian Theatre, both past and present. In addition to receiving 3 Olivier Awards for his direction amongst others, his most recent productions include 'Great Expectations' for the RSC, 'Three Sisters' and 'Boris Godunov' (both touring Russo-British collaborations), as well as 'Troilus and Cressida' and 'Macbeth' (in English) at the Barbican, where Cheek by Jowl has been Artistic Associate since 2006.
The interview, which will open up to any questions people have, is to mark the dynamic new production of 'The Tempest', which will be performed by Cheek by Jowl's Russian ensemble (in Russian with English surtitles) at the Oxford Playhouse 8th March - 12th March. Those of you who remember the sheer brilliance and sell-out success of the company's 'Andromaque' in 2009, are likely to be stunned by this internationally renowned Russian ensemble, whose "acting is nothing short of sublime" (Times).
Tickets to this unmissable spectacle can be purchased from the OP website (http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/show/?eventid=1699), by telephone (01865 305 305), or in person at the Box Office (entrance on Beaumont Street; open Monday - Saturday, 10am-6pm). Be sure to book soon to avoid disappointment!
Admission to the event on Tuesday 1 March is free of charge, so anyone who is interested in Russian drama, interpretations of Shakespeare, the translation of plays into modern languages, or theatre direction in general is strongly advised to come along. We look forward to seeing you there.
Modern Languages Admissions Talk and Library Tour
organised and run by the Undergraduate Admissions Office
http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate_courses/finding_out_more/tours/guided_tours/index.html
The Undergraduate Admissions Office are offering guided tours of various Oxford colleges and departments and admissions talks during half term from Monday 21 to Friday 25 February.
On Monday 21 February, the following events may be of interest to potential Modern Languages applicants:
- 1.45pm in the Taylorian - Admissions Talk with a focus on Modern Languages (including Q and A session)
- 2.45pm - Tour of Taylorian Library and Language Centre
Following these events, at 4pm potential applicants would also be able to take a tour of one the following colleges: Exeter, St. John's, Worcester or Trinity.
Please note that these events are intended to give potential applicants a taste of Oxford and of the Modern Languages courses, but they cannot provide the same depth or detail as an open day.
Places are limited and booking is required for these events.To book a place online, please visit our website http://www.admissions.ox.ac.uk/tours and click on 'Guided tours' to fill in the online booking form.
All queries regarding this event should be addressed to the Undergraduate Admissions Office directly and not the Modern Languages Faculty.
The Admissions Office can be contacted by telephone on +44 (0)1865 288000 or by email at undergraduate.admissions@admin.ox.ac.uk
'ЧАЙКА' - Russian Play Reading of A.P. Chekhov's 'The Seagull'
'ЧАЙКА' - Russian Play Reading of A.P. Chekhov's 'The Seagull', THURSDAY 20TH JANUARY at 4:30PM (Taylorian Institute, Lecture Room 2)
In Week 1 of Hilary Term, the week before Chekhov's masterful play is to be performed in English at the Oxford Playhouse, students and teachers from the university's sub-faculty of Slavonic Languages will be performing a reading of the play in Russian, to which all are warmly invited to attend.
Since the play is so often thought to be rooted in the tradition of realist theatre, the reading will be an opportunity to understand the construct, the bare structure of what Chekhov originally wrote which was so striking to audiences at the end of the nineteenth century, completely divided as they were on whether to love it or to hate it. Greater attention will be drawn to the fact that 'The Seagull' was written to be performed, to provoke both laughter and tears, not necessarily to be a stern representation of life itself.
Both comic and earnest, highly aware of their limitations, those performing this reading will be offering a perfect little taster of what is in store...
The Playhouse show is being performed by an OUDS student company from 26th-29th January. To book tickets, go to: http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/show/?eventid=1715.
After the reading, all are invited to stay for refreshments (including several Russian treats) until 7pm.
We hope to see you there!
Lost in Deutschland: Working in the German Media Today
by Brian Melican
5.30pm on Tuesday 23 November in the Taylorian (Room 2)
Brian Melican (Merton 2003-07) has spent the last three years working in the German media, for several regional and national newspapers, setting himself up as a freelance journalist on the back of 'Lost in Deutschland', a blog he started that has spawned articles, a web video series and, most recently, a book of the same name (Pons, 2010).
Screening of sample episodes from the series will be followed by a talk and open discussion. The talk will look first at the 'Lost in Deutschland' project, and move out from there to reflect on general aspects of the German media industry today, giving a first-hand account of some of the country's most important - and most endangered - newsrooms. In particular, he will focus on the Medienkrise, the role of new media and the resistance to it, and the disturbing revelations of the Sarrazin controversy about journalism in Germany today.
All are welcome.
Graduate Open Day
Saturday 13 November 2010, 10.00 am
The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages is organising an Open Day for prospective students wishing to learn more about graduate opportunities at the University of Oxford. The Open Day will be held on Saturday 13 November 2010, commencing at 10.00 am. The venue will be the Taylor Institution, St Giles’, Oxford, OX1 3NA.
The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of European language, literature, and culture. Academic staff working in the sub-faculties of French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, Slavonic and Celtic offer expertise in areas ranging from the medieval period to the present day. The faculty offers one- and two-year taught Masters courses, as well as M.Litt. and D.Phil. research degrees. A number of studentships and scholarships are available.
Prospective students attending the Open Day will receive information about the faculty, the courses and funding available, and the application process. The Open Day will also provide potential applicants with an opportunity to meet current students and members of staff.
If you would like more information about the Graduate Open Day or would like to register to attend, please contact graduate.admissions@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.
Brazil Week 2010
Brazil is becoming more and more visible on the world stage. Not only is its economy booming, but it is hosting both the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. Thousands more people will visit this vibrant country and learn more about its rich and intricate culture.
Oxford can get a small taste of this variety and colour at the events organised in the second Brazil Week, which takes place in the last week of October in venues around the University. This year there are talks, films, exhibitions and music, and special guests from Brazil.
The definitive programme is available HERE.
For more information contact: brazilweek@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk
Ilchester Lecture
The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literatures is pleased to announce an Ilchester Lecture by Professor Zhivov (Moscow, Berkeley and Stanford) on the subject 'Sin and Salvation in the History of Russian Spirituality'.
5 p.m. Thursday 21 October (Week 2)
Taylor Institution, Room 2
Caribbean Week in Oxford
A week of academic and cultural events devoted to the Caribbean, past and present, and its place in the world comprising a
- Conference
- Exhibition
- Musical Workshops
27 September – 2 October 2010
Co-organizers: Eva Sansavior and Richard Scholar
Conference
Caribbean Globalizations: Genres, Histories, and Cultures
Date: 27-29 September
Location: Maison Française d’Oxford
Keynote speakers:
- Maryse Condé
- Celia Britton
- Judith Misrahi-Barak
Visit the conference website at http://www.mfo.ac.uk
Exhibition
Martinique Ltd
Jean-Luc de Laguarigue
Date: 27-30 September
Opening hours: 9:00am-6:00pm
Location: The Long Room, New College, Oxford
‘To capture, on camera, invisible forces: both the monstrous powers of the global economic machine and the various energies that offer, in the tiniest ways, some kind of resistance; to turn an abstract and yet only too real system into the stuff of photography – this is the impossible task that Martinican photographer Jean-Luc de Laguarigue has set himself.’ – Guillaume Pigeard de Gurbert.
Musical Workshops
West African Drumming with Rafiki
Date: Wednesday 29 September
Time: 5:00-7:00pm
Location: Music Room, Oriel College, Oxford
Learn to create and improvise classical West African rhythms on the djembe with experienced teachers and performers. All levels welcome.
Cost: £5 (waged) / £3 (unwaged) to be paid in cash at the workshop
Afro-Cuban Dance Workshop with Guillermo Davis, ‘El Iyawo’
Date: Saturday 2 October
Time: 2:00-3:30pm
Location: Champneys Room, Oriel College, Oxford
A unique opportunity to learn with professional Cuban dancer and teacher Guillermo Davis, ‘El Iyawo’, two traditional Afro-Cuban dances: the Yoruba-inspired Sacred Dance of Orisha Elegua and El Son Tradicional, the elegant precursor to the ever-popular Salsa. Beginners welcome.
Cost: £5 (waged) / £3 (unwaged) to be paid in cash at the workshop
To register for the workshops, please email jennifer_allsopp@hotmail.com
Caribbean Globalizations
Call for Papers
University of Oxford, 27-29 September 2010
Confirmed Keynote Speaker: Maryse Condé
Co-organizers: Eva Sansavior and Richard Scholar
Oriel College, Oxford, and the Maison Française d’Oxford will host a major international conference on Caribbean Globalizations, from September 27th-29thth 2010. The conference forms part of a Leverhulme-funded project and intersects with two study days organized in 2010 and 2011. Timed to coincide with the start of Black History Month, the conference will be accompanied by a Caribbean-themed cultural programme that will include keynote speeches by major writers and academics working on the Francophone Caribbean region writers, art exhibitions, film screenings and musical performances at various venues around Oxford as part of a ‘Caribbean Week in Oxford’.
This conference aims to map and analyse the multiple engagements of various Caribbean countries with the complex and vexed process that is globalization since 1493 (when Columbus landed in Guadeloupe). The region has undoubtedly been the source of a number of the literary-critical paradigms by which we understand this process. Examples of these include: Créolité, creolisation, la relation, the Commonwealth, world literature, the Black Atlantic and littérature-monde. However, as the recent disturbances in Guadeloupe and Martinique have suggested, Caribbean countries are also actively rethinking their own identity and place in a world where the Western economic model of globalization is more in question than ever. Similarly, in the cultural sphere, the effects of this process on the region haves been the subject of a growing and divergent debate.
Caribbean globalizations seeks to make an intervention in this debate by focussing critical attention on the differing engagements with globalization produced in the Caribbean cultural field. The cultural field has long been a particularly fertile arena for Caribbean globalizations. The diversity that characterizes the cultural and social realities of the region arguably forged in the context of earlier forms of globalizations has been an enduring source of inspiration for Caribbean artists, writers, and intellectuals. At the same time, their work has expressed a preoccupation with generating theoretical and aesthetic frameworks globalization being, perhaps the first among equals to account for the specificities of their societies as well as the shifting range of relations that these societies maintain both within and beyond the Caribbean region. The conference aims therefore to foster a wide-ranging discussion of the possibilities presented by Caribbean cultural production for reflecting upon and re-imagining the idea of globalization. It will seek to explore the multiple engagements with and representations of this phenomenon by Caribbean writers, artists, and intellectuals and, as such, interdisciplinary and comparative approaches (bringing together the different languages spoken in the region) are encouraged.
The following themes will serve as starting points to guide the process of reflection and the expectation is that they would be interpreted as broadly as possible:
Histories: How do Caribbean artists, writers, and intellectuals represent and situate globalization within the history of the region? What alternative histories of globalization are presented in their works? How is the idea of a Caribbean history itself represented?
Geographies: How can the Caribbean region be defined? What types of geographies do Caribbean artists create and enact in their work? How do these engage with and/or re-shape current geographical configurations of the West and the Caribbean, the Mother country or the metropolitan space and the colonies, home and adopted country, in a globalized world?
Languages: What role does language play in the processes of Caribbean globalization? To what extent does it challenge or uphold traditional dichotomies between mother tongue and foreign tongue?
Cultures: How are the relations between globalization and the culture of the Caribbean to be understood? To what extent are notions of highbrow and lowbrow, indigenous and foreign, local and global challenged or re-configured?
Genres: To what extent are traditional generic categories respected, challenged or re-invented by Caribbean artists and intellectuals? Can such engagements be situated historically and culturally within the processes of globalization?
Identities: How is a globalized Caribbean identity represented and re-imagined? And how is globalization itself to be defined in a Caribbean context?
Theories: What is the role of theory in defining the Caribbean and/or its relationship to the globalized world? To what extent are distinctions between indigenous theories and foreign borrowings relevant?
Proposals are invited for both paper and panel sessions.
For individual papers:
Please submit an abstract (max. 250 words) including title, institutional affiliation and contact information.
For panel proposals:
Please submit a description of the topic to be addressed by the panel and short abstracts for each of the proposed papers along with contact details for all panel participants and the proposed chair.
Please send abstracts to: caribbeanglobalizations@googlemail.com
The deadline for submitting proposals and panels is: January 31st 2010
Notification: by 1 March 2010
Desire in Dante & the Middle Ages
The Taylor Institution, Oxford, 28-29 June 2010
An international conference, funded by the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, Oxford, and sponsored by the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature.
XIV Forum for Iberian Studies: The Limits of Literary Translation, 24-25 June 2010
A Conference at The Taylor Institution and Exeter College, Oxford
Thinkers ranging from Voltaire to Nabokov have dismissed the translation of poetry as an impossibility. Pirandello famously made similar protestations regarding drama. Jokes are routinely shrugged off as untranslatable. Yet translators, in theory and in practice, regularly contravene these claims, and the XIV Forum for Iberian Studies will likewise take these up as a gauntlet flung down. The Forum will explore ways in which translators overcome, acknowledge, or compensate for the presumed ‘impossibilities’ they encounter in the context of Iberian languages and literatures. At the university where La Celestina, Guzmán de Alfarache, La Regenta, and the Novelas ejemplares were first translated into English, we will discuss old and new challenges in concrete, practical terms.
The Forum will be attended by over 150 scholars and practitioners from 18 countries, who represent various areas of expertise in the fields of translation studies, literature and linguistics.
Keynote Speakers
Suzanne Jill Levine (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) and Edwin Williamson (Exeter College, University of Oxford, UK), ‘Translating Borges: Suzanne Jill Levine in conversation with Edwin Williamson’.
Isabel-Clara Lorda Vidal (Instituto Cervantes, London, UK), ‘La traducción o el amor’.
Micaela Muñoz-Calvo (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain) ‘La aldea gala de Astérix: la aventura de la traducción del humor en la Península Ibérica’.
Jonathan Thacker (Merton College, University of Oxford, UK), ‘Translating a Spanish classic for the modern stage: Calderón’s La vida es sueño in English’.
John Rutherford (The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, UK), ‘On the Impossibility of Translation: the Galician Cantigas’.
Patrick Zabalbeascoa (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain), ‘La traducción del humor plurilingüe: Allo Allo no es Hola Hola ni Manuel habla catalán (He’s from Barcelona)’.
Richard Zenith (Lisboa, Portugal), ‘Translating Poetry: Rhyme and Reason’.
The conference is co-organized by Javier Muñoz-Basols, Catarina Fouto, Laura Soler González and Tyler Fisher, and is sponsored by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford, the Instituto Camões, the Institut Ramon Llull, the Xunta de Galicia and the Instituto Cervantes.
Conference Programme
Booklet with Abstracts from the Conference
Professor Roger Chartier
Weidenfeld Visiting Professor of European Comparative Literature 2009-10
(Writer and academic, Directeur d’Études, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Socials)
"Textual Trajectories in Early Modern Europe”
To be given in the Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre, St Anne’s College, all at 5.30 pm on:-
Tuesday 1st June: "From Manuscript to Book: The Author's Hand"
Wednesday 2nd June: "From Copy to Print: The Printers' Mind"
Friday 4th June: "From Book to Stage: A case Study: Don Quixote for
Puppets (Lisbon, 1733)"
"Textual Recycling: The History of Cardenio"
To be given in the Faculty of Medieval & Modern Languages, Room 2, Taylor Institution, at 2.00 pm on Thursday 3rd June 2010.
Call for Papers: Spanish American Literature and the Scientific
Monday 5 July 2010
University of Oxford
In Spanish American literature, science is often a locus for socio-political commentary, self-discovery, and narrative/poetic experimentation. This conference aims to explore the roles of scientific discourses in shaping the poetics and politics of Spanish American literature, with hopes of better understanding how the convergence of these seemingly separated areas of knowledge and expression has impacted on the cultural production of the continent. What is the place afforded to ostensibly universal and irrefutable scientific discoveries, which (in large part) do not originate in Spanish America? How is the relationship between cultural history and
scientific discourses explored and reworked in literary texts?
Possible areas of investigation include, but are not limited, to:
- The dynamics between science and the imagination
- Imperialism and science; science and (post)colony
- Literary representations of scientific discoveries and theories
- Literary applications of scientific theories
- The use of scientific language in literary discourses
- Scientific enigmas - or - ideas that can be explained by literature but not by science
- The implementation of, importation of, and exportation of scientific ideas in Spanish America
We welcome proposals that deal with the overlap between Spanish American literature and any branch of science: biology, chemistry, ecology, mathematics, medicine, physics, and beyond.
Please send 250 words proposals for papers of no more than twenty minutes in length to sarah.roger@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk, or
olivia.vazquez-medina@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk
by Friday 23 April 2010.
Submissions from both established academics and graduate students are welcome.
Salvador de Madariaga: Statesman and Scholar
A symposium to mark Spain's Presidency of the European Union
For more information please visit the Symposium website.
5-7pm, 18 May 2010, Taylor Institution, St. Giles
Salvador de Madariaga, the first holder of the King Alfonso XIII Chair of Spanish Studies at Oxford, was a pioneer of European integration and founder of the College of Europe.
5.00pm - Prof. Isabel de Madariaga (University of London): 'Madariaga, Statesman, Scholar and Writer'
5.20 pm - Dr. María Rosa de Madariaga (Madrid): 'Madariaga's European Vision'
5.45pm - Prof. José Luis Abellán (Universidad Complutense de Madrid): 'The Debate over Europe in Modern Spain'
6.30pm - H.E. Don Carles Casajuana (Ambassador of Spain): 'Spain's role in the European Union: an overview'
All talks will be in English.
Sponsor: Dirección General del Libro, Archivos y Bibliotecas, Ministerio de Cultura.
A selection of books by Madariaga, as scholar, writer, historian and diplomat, will be displayed in the Taylorian 12 May - 2 June (M-F, 9-6.30; S, 10-3.30)
Taylorian Special Lecture
Prof. Lina Bolzoni (Scuola Normale di Pisa)
Of Poetry, Poets and the Magic of Mirrors in the Renaissance
Thursday 13 May 2010, 5 pm
Oxford, Taylor Institution, Main Hall
All Welcome
Clara Florio Cooper Memorial Lecture
Dr Adam Ledgeway (Cambridge)
‘Lingua toscana in bocca calabra: Italian in Calabria’
Thursday 6 May 2010, 5 pm
Oxford, Taylor Institution, Main Hall
All Welcome
2010 Symposium: ‘Spanish Golden Age Drama in Translation and Performance’
presented by AHRC-funded project ‘Out of the Wings’
at Merton College, Oxford
18-19 March 2010
REGISTRATION FORM AVAILABLE HERE:
Registration and Accommodation, Catering OTW ‘10
Translating and performing the works of Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Calderón de la Barca, and other playwrights of the Golden Age have sparked an increasing amount of interest, heightened by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2004-5 Golden Age season. Our Symposium will be attended by both academic and theatrical practitioners working within the field of Golden Age drama, and a wider base of attendees interested in Spanish theatre in general, as well as University colleagues and students. Speakers will be drawn from the United States and Europe, representing a variety of areas of expertise in translation and performance of the comedia. Please explore our website (www.outofthewings.org) for more information on the project, and see the rest of the blog for past events.
Full conference details, including a provisional programme, can be found here: http://blog.outofthewings.org/
For further information about the Symposium please contact Kathleen Jeffs, Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford, OX1 2JF
Kathleen.Jeffs [at] new.ox.ac.uk and see our website at http://www.outofthewings.org
Negotiating Power in the Literature of the Iberian Inquisitions: Courts, Crowns, and Creeds
A Conference at Exeter College, Oxford
Monday, 15 March 2010, 10:00-17:00
This conference brings together leading scholars whose work on the early modern Inquisitions spans literary and historical considerations, as well as geographical boundaries. Their rich perspectives promise fresh insights.
Dr John Edwards (Queen’s College, Oxford), ‘The Spanish Inquisition Refashioned: The Experience of Mary I’s England and the Valladolid Tribunal, 1559’.
Dr Richard Pym (Royal Holloway), ‘The Curious Tale of the Irishman, the Gypsy, and “the Olivares Girl”: A Footnote to History’.
Dr António Andrade (Aveiro), ‘From Lisbon to Venice: The Trials and Tribulations of the New Christian Duarte Gomes’.
Dr Tobias Green (Birmingham), ‘Policing the Empires: A Comparative Perspective on the Political and Social Functions of the Inquisition in the Portuguese and Spanish Overseas Territories (16th-17th Centuries)’.
Dr Victoria Ríos Castaño (Ulster), ‘The War on Evil: Zumárraga’s Inquisitorial Trials against the Indigenous People in New Spain’.
Keynote Speaker: Prof Francisco Bethencourt (Charles Boxer Professor of History, King’s College London), ‘Inquisition and Literature’.
All are welcome.
If you would like to join the speakers for lunch at the College, please send a cheque for £15 made payable to Dr Tyler Fisher at Exeter College by 8 March.
Exeter College
Oxford OX1 3DP
The conference is co-organized by Catarina Fouto and Tyler Fisher, and is sponsored by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford, and the Instituto Camões Centre for Portuguese Studies.
A reading by Volker Braun
'Da bin ich noch, mein Land geht in den Westen...'
The Sub-faculty of German is delighted to announce that the distinguished German writer, Volker Braun, will be reading in German from his work:
on Tuesday 2 February (Week 3, Hilary Term)
in the McGregor Matthews Room, New College
at 4.30pm
Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Please contact karen.leeder@new.ox.ac.uk to reserve a place.
This will be followed by:
Launch of 'From Stasiland to Ostalgie': the GDR twenty years after
(OGS, November 2009) in the Undercroft, New College, circa 6pm
Strasbourg & the History of the Book: Five centuries of German printed books and manuscripts
11 July - 4 November 2009 (closed Saturday 29 August to Tuesday 8 September)
For details of a presentation of some of the Taylor Institution Library holdings illustrating the history of German book production in Strasbourg from the humanist period onwards, see:
http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/german/strasbourghob/
Click on the link at the bottom of the page for the accompanying booklet (46 pages) or go to:
http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/german/strasbourghob/strasbourg_booklet.pdf