Translating Cube: Six Sides of European Literature and Translation

Berlin, 20 – 22 October 2015

Programme PDF (GER, ENG)

Telling European (Hi)Stories

The „Translating Cube“ rolls into Berlin (20 – 22 October 2015) for its last station after Krakow, Stuttgart, Ljubljana, Tübingen and Prague. European (hi)stories will be told in presentations, readings, performances, discussions and concerts. Current European literary texts will be presented in their original language and in translation, and in this process of exchange and echo, the boundaries between the original literary text and its translation blur. Already established as well as young artists and translators from eight European countries will shape the translating cube. They will not only show provocative art but will also initiate a dialogue between the generations which will be fed by different worlds of experience and perception.
The „translating cube“ is a project coordinated by the Slavic Studies Department of the University of Tübingen, in cooperation with Literaturwerkstatt Berlin and well as other partners in Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovenia and Croatia. The project is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, Robert Bosch Foundation and the Programme for Lifelong Learning of the European Union.

Further information you can find under www.transstar-europa.org.

Tue 20 October, 18:00h

A Tour in the Art of Translation

Ceremonial act in cooperation with the Robert Bosch Foundation for advancing literary translation at the University of Tübingen

The laureate of the Celan prize, Esther Kinsky, writes in her book Foreign Languages: „from the sediments in the crevice between the languages something new, an own little universe of memories, experiences and insights“ grows over the years. On the first celebratory evening of the Translating Cube we will visit this of memories, experiences and insights consisting universe where different facets of translation will be demonstrated.

Elke Erb (Berlin) will read an excerpt from her poem Mäander 2, dedicated to translation, which will also be read in five other languages.

In their introductory words Dr. Maja Pflüger (Robert Bosch Foundation), Prof. Dr. Schamma Schahadat (Univesity of Tübingen), Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel (German Federal Cultural Foundation) and Dr. Thomas Wohlfahrt (Literaturwerkstatt Berlin) will take a look at literary translation from a theoretical and practical perspective.

The keynote speech will be presented by Yurko Prokhasko (Lviv), who will share his experiences and memories as a cultural mediator in a divided and later slowly coalescing Europe of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Smodiš (Ljubljana) concerns herself with issues concerning exchange and entanglement in the present day, especially under the influence of concepts such as permanent mobility and medial simultaneity.

The manner in which a translator can fall in love with a text, wrestles with it and may also fail, will subsequently be mimed by Yulia Mykytjuk (Lviv) and Anja Wutej (Berlin).

The poem Abschiedsverse [Parting Verses] by Elke Erb – which will also be presented in five translations into Polish, Czech, Croatian, Slovenian and Ukrainian –  again places the polyphony of multi-lingual poetry at the center of attention.

Finally the Bosnian singer Damir Imamović (Sarajevo) will present Sevdah music where he combines the tradition of old Slavic ballads with melodies of Ottoman touring groups and the tradition of European Romanticism.

After the concert there will be a reception.

Robert Bosch Foundation, Representation Berlin, Französische Straße 32, 10117 Berlin

Admission is free!

Wed 21 October, 19:00h

Polish, Slovenian and Czech Poetry

Reading and discussion with Andrzej Kopacki (Warsaw), Veronika Dintinjana (Ljubljana), and Ondřej Buddeus (Prague)

Andrzej Kopacki‘s poetry illustrates an entrenched world seemingly paralyzed by stirlessness yet regularly disrupted by “other moods” in its routine, which is also the title of Kopacki’s volume of poems which will be released this fall. His enduring, faceted observations of individual things prolong time and outline the moment of pause.

In her volume of poetry Gelb brennt der Forsythienstrauch [Forsythia Burns Yellow] Veronika Dintinjana intertwines an Italian backdrop – a countryside with olive trees, fields of sunflowers and wheat and the urban space with saints, towers and Gothic arches – into fascinating impressions of summer in which people are continually alienated.

Modern images of life, details of the (technical) everyday are generated in the poetry of Ondřej Buddeus in his volume Mauersegler [Swift] (2012). They cause confusion between perception and reality, between a real, acted out and virtual world which also presents itself in unusual optical forms.

Dagmar Leupold will engage in a conversation with Kopacki, Dintinjana and Buddeus and with her translators Marlena Breuer, Jakob Walosczyk (Kopacki), Anja Wutej (Dintinjana) and Martina Lisa (Buddeus).

Moderation: Dagmar Leupold (Tübingen)

Interpretation: Amalija Maček (Ljubljana)

Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, Knaackstraße 97 (Kulturbrauerei), 10435 Berlin

Admission: 5 €/ 3 €

Thu 22 October, 19:00h

Star & TransStar: Ulrike Almut Sandig (Berlin) and Hryhorij Semenchuk (Lviv)

Performance and Reading

Ulrike Almut Sandig and Hryhorij Semenchuk will perform their German and Ukrainian poems to music; poems about aerial photography and mined landscapes, about birds with human faces singing in two voices, about fairy tales and girls’ dreams, about Russian television, a washed-out November and a spring that drives a Lexus; poems that were created in a war zone in the Ukrainian East and in the furious helplessness of those days.

Participants of the EU-funded project TransStar Europe will read texts from the anthology TransStar Europe: Telling (Hi)Stories

Ukraine: Sashko Ushkalov and Myroslav Dotshynez, presented by Constanze Aka and Stefan Heck

Croatia: Boris Dežulović, presented by Anna Hodel

Slovenia: Miklavž Komelj, presented by Anja Wutej

Czech Republic: Radek Fridrich, Jiři Daníček, Jan Tesnolídek, presented by Martina Lisa and Katka Ringesová

Poland: Tomasz Różycki, presented by Marlena Breuer

Moderation: Tanja Žigon (Ljubljana)

Interpretation: Sofia Onufriv (Berlin)

Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, Knaackstraße 97 (Kulturbrauerei), 10435 Berlin

Admission: 5 €/ 3 €

Contributors

Constanze Aka (*1988) studied East European studies with a focus on cultural, literary and political sciences at the Free University of Berlin and University of Passau. After a detour into the world of European institutions she now works at the Institute for European Politics in Berlin. In the EU-funded project TransStar Europe she translates from Ukrainian into German, i.a. Sashko Ushkalov and Yuri Izdryk.

Marlena Breuer (*1985) completed her vocational training in carpentry and worked as an instrument maker. After finishing her final secondary school examination (Abitur), she studied Slavic studies at the University of Tübingen. In the course of her studies and within the framework of the project Textabdrücke [Textual Impressions] at the University of Tübingen, she discovered her passion for translating literary texts, first from Russian and later from Polish. Within the framework of the TransStar Europe project she translates text from the novel Bestiarium by Tomasz Różycki.

Ondřej Buddeus (*1984) is a poet, translator and stage artist. In addition to two poetry volumes he publishes children’s books and creates theatre performances.

Daniela Čančar (*1982) studied German studies in Sarajevo and literary studies in Mostar. From 2004 to 2006 she worked for the Goethe Institute in Sarajevo and from 2006 to 2011 she worked as an assistant for German literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zenica. Since 2012 she is writing her doctoral thesis at the University of Zadar on the character portraits in the novels of Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek. She is a participant in the EU-funded project TransStar Europe.

Claudia Dathe (*1971) completed her studies in business administration and translation studies (Russian, Polish) in Leipzig, Pjatigorsk (Russia) and Krakow. From 1997 to 2004 she was a lector for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Kazakhstan and the Ukraine. After returning to Germany, she worked as a freelance translator for the Ukrainian and Russian languages and conducted tutorials for up-and-coming translators. Since 2009 she works at the Slavic Studies Department of the University of Tübingen; since 2013 she is the coordinator of the EU-funded project TransStar Europe and the artistic director of the project Übersetzungswürfel [Translating Cube]. Claudia Dathe translated texts into German by Ukrainian authors such as Serhij Zhadan, Olexandr Irwanez, Tanja Maljartschuk and Andrei Kurkov.

Veronika Dintinjana (*1977) is a poet and translator. In 2008 she won the poetry competition and the 6^th Ljubljana Poetry Slam. She is the co-founder of kentaver cultural society and organises monthly poetry readings in Ljubljana.

Ana Dejanović (*1988) studied translation in the department for translation at the Faculty of Humanities in Ljubljana and completed her BA degree in 2012. Since then she studies interpretation in the same department. She translates from German into Slovenian and since 2013 she works with the EU-funded project TransStar Europe.

Elke Erb (*1938) after completing her exams to become a teacher in 1963 and working at a publishing house from 1963/65, she has been working as a freelancer since 1966. She translates (primarily from Russian) and writes own texts: short stories and poetry. Her latest publications are Sonanz (2008) at Urs Engeler; Meins [Mine] in Roughbook 006 (2010); Das Hündle kam weiter auf drein [The Puppy Came Further On] in Roughbook 028 (2013) and in Roughbook (2015) Sonnenklar [Crystal Clear].

Stefan Heck (*1987) studied Slavic studies and business administration in Tübingen and Warsaw. Since 2013 he works as a research assistant at the department for Slavic studies of the University of Tübingen where he is currently writing his doctoral thesis on the aspect in Slavic languages. In the EU-funded project TransStar Europe he translates from Ukrainian and Russian, i.a. Marianna Kiianovska and Vladimir Rafeenko.

Anna Hodel (*1982) studied Slavic languages and literatures and Eastern European history at the Universities of Basel, St. Petersburg and Zagreb. She teaches Russian at the Language Center of the University of Basel and works as a research assistant at the Slavic Seminar Basel, where she is currently completing her PhD on South Slavic romantic literatures. Anna Hodel has already organised a great number of events between literature, language and politics and since 2013 she is a participant in the EU-funded project TransStar Europe.

Damir Imamović (*1978) comes from a Bosnian family in Sarajevo which has a long tradition in literature and Sevdah music. In 2005 he started his solo career, recorded two CDs and in 2012 his first CD with his band „Sevdah Takht“, in which he plays together with Ivan Mihajlović and Nenad Kovačić. In addition he leads workshops and conducts seminars on the history, aesthetics and manual skills involved in Sevdah as a traditional art form.

Andrzej Kopacki (*1959) is a German studies lecturer at the University of Warsaw, translator from German and poet. He has published a number of poetry volumes, amongst which are two Polish-German editions: Chanson de gestes, 2005 and An der Ampel [At the Traffic Light], 2011 both of which were translated by Doreen Daume. In 2009 he was a translator in residence at the University of Tübingen.

Dagmar Leupold (*1955) studied German studies, philosophy and comparative literature studies in Marburg, Tübingen und New York. She completed her PhD in 1993 at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. Since 1985 she is a freelance writer and has to date published a number of literary publications: poetry volumes, short prose and novels such as: „Eden Plaza“ (2002), „Nach den Kriegen“ [After the Wars] (2004), „Die Helligkeit der Nacht. Ein Journal“ [The Holiness of the Night: A Journal] (2009). Her latest is the novel „Unter der Hand“ [On the Quiet] (Jung und Jung). Since 2004 Dagmar Leupold coordinates “Studio Literature and Theatre” at the University of Tübingen.

Martina Lisa (*1981) studied history and German as a foreign language at the University of Leipzig. Due to numerous trips and professional stays (teaching German) in mostly eastern countries (Azerbaijan, Russia, Tadzhikistan) and her sozialisation in the Czech Republic and Germany, moving and switching between cultures are a fundamental part of her life. Since her studies she has regularly translated texts into German, primarily texts from the field of humanities. Within the framework of the EU-funded project TransStar Europe she has translated poems by Ondřej Buddeus from Czech into German.

Amalija Maček (*1971) studied German and Hispanic studies at the University of Ljubljana and from 1995 to 2001 she worked as a freelance translator and interpreter. Since 2001 she has worked at the Department of Translation at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Humanities, where she mainly teaches translation from German into Slovene. From German into Slovene she has translated i.a. works by Terezia Mora, Josef Winlkler, Martin Pollack and Bertold Brecht.

Yulia Mykytjuk (*1987) studied German Studies in Lviv, Erlangen and Duisburg. She works as a German-language teacher, translator and interpreter and since 2010 she is a PhD student at the Chair for German philology at the National Ivan Franko University of Lviv. Since 2013 she has been participating in the EU-funded project TransStar Europe and i.a. has translated Silke Scheuermann and Peter Bichsel into Ukrainian.

Sofia Onufriv (*1970) studied German and publishing studies in Lviv. Currently she is a freelance interpreter and translator, cultural manager and mediator as well as travel guide (www.eol-reisen.de). She is a member of the translator association “Translit” (www.translit-portal.de). In the EU-funded project TransStar Europe she translates from Ukrainian into German, amongst others also Lina Kostenko.

Maja Pflüger  (*1963) studied German studies and geography in Tübingen and Hamburg. From 1995 until 1998 she worked as a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) lector for German literature and language in Toruń/Poland. From 1999-2000 she directed the Department of German as a Foreign Language at the Center for Languages and Philology at the University of Ulm. Since 2000 she works at the Robert Bosch Foundation as a project manager, since 2013 as head of the section culture and education in the program area „International Relations Europe and Its Neighbors”.

Yurko Prokhasko (*1970) was born in the eastern Galician Ivano-Frankivsk and is a specialist in German Studies, translator, essayist, journalist (Krytyka, Ji, Tygodnik Powszechny, Die Zeit, Kafka, La Repubblika, Falter, Frankfurter Rundschau, Volltext, Süddeutsche Zeitung) and curator of exhibitions. He studied German Studies (1987 – 1992) and Psychology (2004 – 2009) at the University of Lviv and completed the training as group analyst in Altaussee (Austria, 1997 – 2007). Translates from German (i.a. R. Musil, J. Roth, F. Kafka, R.M. Rilke, J. Hermann), Polish (J. Wittlin, J. Iwaszkiewicz, L. Kołakowski) and Jiddish (Deborah Vogel). Corresponding member of the Saxon Academy of Arts (Dresden, since June 2007). He ist he Friedrich Gundolf prize winner for mediating German culture abroad awarded by the German Academy for Language and Poetry (Darmstadt, 2008). In 2008 he received Translatio, the Autrian national prize for literary translation. In the academic year 2011-12 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin [Institute for Advanced Study] and in 2013 he was a fellow at the Landis&Gyr Foundation (Zug, Switzerland). He is a member of the editorial staff of the Kiev monthly Krytyka. Yurko Prokhasko lives in Lviv where he works at the Ivan Franko Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences as well as at the Ivan Franko University and at the Psychoanalytical Institute (2010) of which he is one of the founders.

Katka Ringesová (*1980) studied in Pilsen and Regensburg and since 2011 she works as a translator in Berlin. She translates into the Czech language and since 2013 she participates in the EU-funded project TransStar Europe.

Ulrike Almut Sandig (*1979) is a poet, performer and writer of prose. This year the volume of short stories Buch gegen das Vergessen [Book Against Forgetting] will be published. Together with Sebastian Reuter she developed a sound installation with translated excerpts from her short story Salzwasser [Salt Water] from the volume Famingoes for the project Translating Cube. Six Sides of European Literature and Translation.

Schamma Schahadat (*1961) studied Russian and English philology at the universities of Colone, Exeter and Moscow; she received her PhD and habilitated at the University of Constance. Since 2004 she is professor for Slavic literary and cultural studies (Russian and Polish studies) at the University of Tübingen. She is the coordinator of the EU-funded project TransStar Europe.

Hryhorij Semenchuk (*1991) is poet, musician and cultural manager. He published a number of volumes of poetry, is program manager of the Lviv International Literary Festival and drummer of the band Drumteatr.

Irena Smodiš (*1990) studied German and Scandinavian studies at the University of Ljubljana. During her school and university years she had longer stays in Vienna and Berlin. Since 2013 she participates in the EU-funded project TransStar Europe for training young literary translators and cultural mediators. Within the framework of this project she has translated texts by Eugen Ruge, Peter Licht, Ulrike Almut Sandig and Raoul Schrott into Slovenian. Since 2014 she works at the Beletrina publishing house in Ljubljana.

Zofia Sucharska (*1988) studied German Studies with a focus on translation in Gdańsk, Poland and contemporary German literature in Berlin. Currently she works in an online advertising agency in Berlin. Since 2013 she works in the EU-funded project TransStar Europe and translates from German into Polish.

Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel studied German studies and philosophy in Göttingen and from 1989 until 1994 she worked as a lector for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the University of Barcelona. From 1995 until 2000 she worked as a consultant of international relations for the Weimar 1999 Kulturstadt Europas GmbH. Subsequently she headed the PR department as well as the organisation of guest performances at the German National Theatre Weimar before she switched to becoming the head of the communications department and press officer of the German Federal Cultural Foundation in 2002.

Jakob Walosczyk (*1981) studied Slavic and English studies in Bamberg, and subsequently has been active in different areas of adult education. Since 2013 he works as a lector of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Mykolajiw/Ukraine. He translates from the Polish language and since 2013 he takes part in the EU-funded project TransStar Europe.

Thomas Wohlfahrt (*1956) studied German studies and music science in Halle (Saale). After his research activities at the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) he was the artistic head of the Theaterhaus Berlin and as the founding director of Literaturwerkstatt Berlin he is responsible for approximaltely 100 events anually from the areas of culture, politics, business and science.

Anja Wutej (*1985) studied German studies and safety in Ljubljana, Maribor, Lisbon and Berlin. During her studies and within the framework of projects she prepared translations for HALMA, Poetikon and for UNIKUM, the cultural center of the university in Klagenfurt. Since 2013 she participates in the EU-funded project TransStar Europa and translates from Slovenian into German. In her freetime she is an actress, filmmaker, singer and tinkerer.

Tanja Žigon (*1974) studied German studies and history at the University of Ljubljana. From 1998 to 2004 she worked as a freelance journalist. Since 2004 she works at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Ljubljana; she is a lecturer for translation studies. Since 2013 she heads the research program Intercultural Literary Science Studies, which is funded by the Slovenian Research Agency. She is a member of the TransStar Europe consortium and the coordinator of the project in Slovenia.

Coordinator: Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Tübingen. Partner: Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Villa Decius Krakau, University of Ljubljana, Charles University Prague, Literaturwerkstatt Berlin as well as the partner of the EU-funded project TransStar Europe.

More detailed information on the six stations oft he translating cube and on the EU-funded project TransStar Europe you will find under:

www.transtar-europa.com or

http://www.slavistik.uni-tuebingen.de/transstar.html

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, Robert Bosch Foundation and the Program for Lifelong Learning of the European Union.

Programme (PDF)

Translating Cube in Tübingen

Reinold Hermanns: SWR2 Journal am Mittag, Mai 8, 2015

Listen here.

Being Exchanged: Between Paris, Stuttgart and Ivano-Frankivsk

Yuri Andrukhovytsh, Lubomír Martinek and Sudabeh Mohafez experience the Other in completely different ways: as a confrontation in the role of the immigrant, as a frustrating experience while engaging in a discussion about the homeland and as an overall attitude towards life in the present day. All three authors talk about their way of mediating in the midst of foreignness and read from their current works.

Sudabeh Mohafez was born in 1963 in Teheran, moved to Berlin in 1979 and has been living in Stuttgart for ten years now where she works as an author. Her latest works are a volume of short stories entitled das zehn zeilen buch [the ten line book] and the novel brennt [burning].

Yuri Andrukhovytsh was born in Ivano-Frankivsk in Western Ukraine in 1960. Since the 2000’s he is considered to be the most important voice of Ukrainian literature in Germany. His latest publication as an editor is the volume Euromaidan. Was in der Ukraine auf dem Spiel steht [Euromaidan: What’s at Stake in Ukraine], which was published by Suhrkamp Verlag publishing house.

Lubomír Martínek lived in Prague until 1979 and then emigrated to Paris. In his primarily essayistic works he writes about the lost identity of modern humans.

Facilitator: Claudia Dathe
Location: Pfleghofsaal

Here some photos.

An evening with Katja Perat, Miklavž Komelj and Natalka Sniadanko and a concert of the a cappella band Jazzy.si

The last in the row of the events organised as part of the TransStar workshop in Ljubljana took place at the Metelkova alternative cultural centre. Natalka Sniadanko, a Ukranian author and translator, and the established Slovenian poets Katja Perat and Miklavž Komelj spoke about how they think literature and politics are intertwined by giving their own personal opinion on politics and current events. Natalka Sniadenko read a few pages from her novel Frau Müller hat nicht die Absicht mehr zu bezahlen, Katja Perat read her poem Dekonstruiraj me and Miklavž Komelj read a part of his poem Pismo od daleč.

The event was concluded by a Jazzy.si concert. In honour of the guests from Ukraine the band sang one Ukranian song.

Here some photos.

by Ana Dejanović und Lydia Nagel

The reading and discussion with the Austrian author and recipient of the Büchner prize, Josef Winkler, and the Ukrainian poet Ostap Slyvynsky.

Read more.

Some photos here.

Being exchanged: dual talent

Aleš Berger is the publisher of the series entitled Kondor and nova lirika, the translator of J.L. Borges, Apollinaire, Char, Queneau, Prévert, Beckett, Lautréamont and also of the Asterix comic into Slovenian. He is the author of a number of works of prose and plays. Petra Vidali is the editor of the translation series at Litera publishing called babilon, where works of Genazino, Erpenbeck, Geiger, Mora and Haushofer amongst others were published. She works at Večer, a daily newspaper.

An exciting discussion, which delivered insight into the career of two Slovenian publishers. They aimed a lot of encouraging words at the young translators. It is important to raise the existing awareness of the importance of literary translation in Europe, particularly with projects like TransStar.

Some photos here.

Being exchanged

On 16 April 2015 Katja Stergar from the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK) gave a presentation at the project meeting of the projects TransStar Europa and Translating Cube: Six Sides of European Literature and Translation in Ljubljana. She presented the possibilities for the co-funding of translations of literary works into Slovenian and from Slovenian. She explained that only translations of texts of high quality for which a contract with a publisher has already been signed can be co-financed and she also emphasized that in order for the publisher to get a grant the translators have to be paid adequately. She also talked about other activities of the Slovenian Book Agency.

Here some Photos.

by Janko Trupej

Translating Cube: Six Sides of European Literature and Translation

The Transformation of the Other

Tübingen

6 – 10 May 2015

Program (PDF)

Wednesday, May 6, 19:00h

Being Exchanged: Between Paris, Stuttgart and Ivano-Frankivsk

Yuri Andrukhovytsh, Lubomír Martinek and Sudabeh Mohafez experience the Other in completely different ways: as a confrontation in the role of the immigrant, as a frustrating experience while engaging in a discussion about the homeland and as an overall attitude towards life in the present day. All three authors talk about their way of mediating in the midst of foreignness and read from their current works.

Sudabeh Mohafez was born in 1963 in Teheran, moved to Berlin in 1979 and has been living in Stuttgart for ten years now where she works as an author. Her latest works are a volume of short stories entitled das zehn zeilen buch [the ten line book] and the novel brennt [burning].

Yuri Andrukhovytsh was born in Ivano-Frankivsk in Western Ukraine in 1960. Since the 2000’s he is considered to be the most important voice of Ukrainian literature in Germany. His latest publication as an editor is the volume Euromaidan. Was in der Ukraine auf dem Spiel steht [Euromaidan: What’s at Stake in Ukraine], which was published by Suhrkamp Verlag publishing house.

Lubomír Martínek lived in Prague until 1979 and then emigrated to Paris. In his primarily essayistic works he writes about the lost identity of modern humans.

Facilitator: Claudia Dathe

Location: Pfleghofsaal

Afterwards: reception

Thursday, May 7, 20:00h

Being Crossed: Telling European History – Boris Dežulovć and Alena Zemančíková

„We need something of our own“ – „It’s good that we don’t own anything.“ Between these two maxims the life of Anna and her family who are in search of continuity and independence in the Czech Republic is unravelled in the short story Wie ein Obdachloser [Like a Homeless Person] by Alena Zemančikovás.

In his satirical novel Who gives a fuck about a thousand dinars now the Croatian author Boris Dežulović tells the story of a member of the Black Pumas, a special unit of the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who got lost during military action in the woods near Prijedor and was found three years later in a state of complete mental disarray and unable to speak.

Within the framework of the EU-funded TransStar Europe project, Alena Zemančiková and Boris Dežulović were translated into German by Daniela Pusch and Maja Konstantinović. Alida Bremer will discuss European stories and identities with the authors and translators.

Alena Zemančiková was born in Prague in 1955 and works promoting German-Czech culture. She works for the Czech cultural radio station Vltava since 1997. Until date she has published three volumes of stories.

Boris Dežulović was born in Split in 1964 and works as an illustrator, comic illustrator and journalist. He publishes novels and political-satire poems, in German i.a. Gedichte aus Lora (2008).

Maja Konstantinović was born in Vukovar in 1989 and studies Theory of Literature and Culture at the University of Tübingen. Since 2009 she works on her own literary translations from Croatian and from Serbian.

Daniela Pusch was born in Karlovy Vary in 1978 and today works in Düsseldorf as a tour guide and translator from the Czech language.

Facilitation: Alida Bremer

Location: Club Voltaire

Friday, May 8, 20:00h

Failed: All That Can Go Wrong When Translating

Jokes about the Chukchi? Impossible to understand. A mixture between the Russian and Ukrainian languages? Impossible to translate. A hero called Zbigniew Szczypiorski? Impossible to pronounce.

The improv theatre Action und Drama from Leipzig will illustrate the trials and tribulations translators are confronted with on a daily basis when they have to transfer things that are impossible to understand, impossible to translate and many other things into another language. And how they fail.

The improv theatre Action und Drama is in existence since 2009 and integrates banging collages of scenes into its performances and flowing stories, calm storytelling and scratching at the speed limit of association. Moritz Bockenkamm, August Geyler and Sophie Weigelt will take part in the event.

Location: Brechtbau-Theater

Saturday, May 9, 15:00 – 18:00h

The Art of Literary Translation

15:00 – 15:45h

Being read: The Heritage of Anti-Fascism in the Balkans

BETON INTERNATIONAL is a journal for literature and society that in this year’s edition follows the question of whether today, 70 years after the end of WWII, the concept of anti-fascism is outdated, whether it dissipated or whether it was misused. Participants of the EU-funded TransStar Europe project have translated texts of Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin authors for BETON INTERNATIONAL and will present them to the audience.

Facilitation: Matthias Jacob

16:00 – 17:00h

Being exchanged: Writing and Translating After the Demise of Yugoslavia

Following the wars on the Balkans, six independent states emerged from the former Yugoslavia which today primarily want to differentiate themselves from each other specifically via their policy on language and culture and try to develop independent national literatures. During the discussion translators from Croatia, Austria and Germany will speak about the phenomenon of differentiation, war as a dominant subject matter in the literatures of ex-Yugoslavia and the perception of the literatures at home and abroad.

Participants: Anna Hodel, N.N., Bojana Bajić, Želika Gorićki

Facilitation: Andy Jelčić

17:15 – 18:00h

Being seen: Places of Translation

With a camera obscura participants of the EU-funded project TransStar Europe captured places that inspire them when translating literary texts. With the principle of long exposure – seven days under normal lighting conditions – unmoving objects are in focus while persons and animals turn into fleeting and invisible ghosts. Views on places, objects and situations find their alienated and translated impression on the photographic paper and in this way experience a new aesthetic dimension in superimposed layers of time.

Radovan Charvát presents these pictures of discovered places of inspiration and yearning and engages in discussion with participants.

Facilitation: Radovan Charvát

Between the different events it is possible to engage in discussion with participants of the EU-funded TransStar Europe project from Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Germany and Switzerland while enjoying a cup of coffee or another type of drink.

Location: Stadtmuseum

Sunday, May 10

11:00h

Being Exchanged: Text Echo – Writing and Translating Poetry

During a Sunday matinee Elke Erb, Uljana Wolf and Ilma Rakusa will read from their rich poetic œvre which feeds from their perception of manifold cultural spaces in Europe and abroad. They will speak about the poetry of their own works and of their translations.

In her poetry Elke Erb visualizes the passing of time in a field of tension between persons, things and nature with views that are rich in association and saturated with experience. Amongst the authors she translated are Marina Zvetaeva and Alexdanr Blok.

The current poems by Uljana Wolf are poetic entanglements between the English and German languages from which patterns evolve where the languages blur and new sounds and meanings merge together. Uljana Wolf translates from East European and English languages, amongst others she translates Christian Hawkey.

Texts by Ilma Rakusas are dedicated to persons and landscapes of different cultural imprints, turning their anonymity into an experiencable familiarity. Also Ilma Rakusas has translated Marina Zvetaeva into German and in addition many other Hungarian, Russian and French authors.

Facilitation: Dagmar Leupold

Location: Hölderlinturm

Further Info

Events of the TransStar Europe project

www.transstar-europa.org

Locations:

Pfleghofsaal, Schulberg 2, 72070 Tübingen

Hölderlinturm, Bursagasse 6

Brechtbau-Theater, Brechtbau, Wilhelmstraße 50

Stadtmuseum Tübingen, Kornhausstraße 10

Club Voltaire, Haaggasse 26b

Contact person: Claudia Dathe

Claudia.dathe@uni-tuebingen.de

Free entry