Call for Papers
Erotic Literature: Adaptation and Translation in Europe and Asia
29-30 June 2015 University of Cambridge, Centre for Research in the
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH)
Organizers: Johannes D. Kaminski, Rudolph Ng
Keynotes: Eva Illouz, Laura Moretti
This conference will address the semantic demarcations of erotic
literature. Transgressive by nature, no genre of literature is more
defined by the social and aesthetic conventions that it playfully
disregards or unwillingly reproduces.
Leopold von Sacher Masoch?s Venus in Furs (1870) is an excellent
example of an erotic novel that has prompted a multitude of adaptions.
Its translations have resonated strongly in different socio-cultural
settings, no doubt in part as a result of translators? efforts to
tailor the text to new audiences. Film adaptations cover a broad
spectrum, from mainstream soft-core porn to acclaimed psychological
dramas such as Roman Polanski?s latest feature film (2013). Often
enough, the cross-cultural transfer of erotic literature must
negotiate incompatible concepts. When Franz Kuhn translated the 17th
century Chinese text The Carnal Prayer Mat ??? into German for the
first time (1959), he glossed over the finesse of its physiological
detail. The anthropological conceptions that inform the text simply
proved too inconsistent with contemporaneous Western notions of the
body. At any rate, upon publication, Swiss authorities decided to
place the translation on the index.
Bridging linguistic and topological disjunctions, the transpository
process entails a delicate balancing act, which, for Roland Barthes,
comprises the pleasure of reading itself (cf. The Pleasure of the
Text, 1973): in each case, the rhythm between the said and the unsaid
must be measured anew, as different languages and genres answer to
different aesthetic sensibilities.
This conference aims to unite literary and scholars of the visual arts
with an interdisciplinary ambit. Contributions will touch upon
European and Asian topics or both. Possible case studies will be
concerned with one or more of the following questions:
- How do the demarcations of the erotic vary a) when a text is
transposed into different literary genres, b) when adapted to film or
other visual media, or c) when translated into another language?
- Which factors determine the fluctuating rules that determine the
lines between the explicit and implicit? Who dominates the discourse
of the erotic, if not white middle-aged men?
- How do adaptations pierce the thin layer that separates private
enjoyment and public outrage? How do juridical and aesthetic concerns
intertwine when the erotic is distinguished from the pornographic?
- If the erotic only works within such defined cultural parameters,
how is the 50 Shades-effect possible?as a global phenomenon?
Proposals for a 20-minute paper should include a 250-word abstract
(alongside a mini-bio) and should be sent to
[log in to unmask] by 15 November 2014.
Conference website: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25657
Supported by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and
Social Sciences (CRASSH), Cambridge, and the Tiarks Fund of the
Department of German, Cambridge.
--
Dr Johannes Kaminski
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Cambridge
Department of German & Dutch
[log in to unmask]
--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
|