Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TransMemo (Translation and Memory: Strategies of Remembering and Forgetting in Contemporary Arab Migrant Literature)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-04-01 do 2023-03-31
TransMemo investigates memory and translation in the context of migration and transcultural movement. Focusing on texts by migrant Arab authors in Britain, and viewing these texts as examples of cultural translation, it proposes a new approach for the enactive and affective engagement of memory with the past from the perspective of the present and analyses forms of remembering in fiction, thus contributing to the theorisation of the movement of people and objects between cultural spaces and how this affects cultural exchange. In so doing, it recognizes the increasing importance of the phenomena of migration and mobility in public and scholarly discourse, reconsidering the literary text as product of translation and movement based in dialogue between disciplines and methodologies concerned with translocal and transnational identity. In light of socio-economic upheavals and a growing body of texts and authors engaged in transcultural writing, TransMemo understands cultural translation as a critical approach for addressing these phenomena which define modern society. Through case studies and readings of Arab British authors, it foregrounds the social reconstruction of memory in the present and the creative production of cultural identity, engaging with migrant writing and memory as translingual and transcultural survival and drawing attention to the processes and effects that shape these narrative constructions in private and public space. TransMemo enhances interdisciplinary research in the study of translation and memory by exploring representations of memory and migration in literary texts and emphasizing the productive dimensions of memory in various forms of cultural movement and exchange.
Hosted by University College London’s (UCL) Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS), TransMemo included training-through-research by means of an independent research project. Various representations of nostalgia, memory, home, migration, identity and cultural translation in novels by contemporary Arab British women authors were analysed through close critical readings and case studies anchored in interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies, including translation studies, memory studies, literary and cultural theory and criticism, postcolonialism, cultural materialism, embodiment and performativity. Questions addressed include the underlying cultural narratives and discourses, the consequences of the presence/absence of nostalgic remembering/forgetting for migrant subjectivity, visibility, survival, and cultural encounter, and how nostalgia can be configured as enabling memory beyond aspects of loss. The key findings are as follows: First, the selected authors/texts share similar trajectories in relation to nostalgia’s role in countering experiences of dislocation, representing migrants’ loss but also their agentic homemaking practices in the present; second, the narratives elicit entanglements with cultural minority and dominance as they often contest inequalities and daily negotiations of power; third, the readings reveal strong intersections and engagements with diasporic material realities, gender relations, trauma and xenophobia in the country of origin and the host country; fourth, the results show that the texts/authors engage explicit and implicit links between the empirical experience of migration and the theory and practice of translation as negotiation of cultural realities, often problematizing migrants’ minority and displacement as they move between cultures; fifth, the concept of cultural translation was shown to be fruitful in terms of investigating the ways migrant authors’ perform functions of cultural mediation while subverting dominant cultural discourses and power relations.
The publications generated by the project encompass a monograph (in progress), several forthcoming research papers in peer-reviewed academic journals, and a published paper in a conference proceedings book. In terms of career development, the project also included co- and microteaching, running reading groups and seminars, auditing and assisting in classes, mentor feedback, training in teaching and pedagogy in dedicated courses at UCL, organizational assistance and chairing sessions in academic events and activities at CenTraS. The dissemination and outreach activities included peer networking and the presentation of research results to academic audiences at national and international conferences, and a public lecture in the CenTraS Global Translation Lecture Series “Translation, Memory, Migration”. Further planned public engagement and outreach activities include a newspaper article and a workshop.
The publications generated by the project encompass a monograph (in progress), several forthcoming research papers in peer-reviewed academic journals, and a published paper in a conference proceedings book. In terms of career development, the project also included co- and microteaching, running reading groups and seminars, auditing and assisting in classes, mentor feedback, training in teaching and pedagogy in dedicated courses at UCL, organizational assistance and chairing sessions in academic events and activities at CenTraS. The dissemination and outreach activities included peer networking and the presentation of research results to academic audiences at national and international conferences, and a public lecture in the CenTraS Global Translation Lecture Series “Translation, Memory, Migration”. Further planned public engagement and outreach activities include a newspaper article and a workshop.
TransMemo has already contributed to the still emerging translation-memory intersection by addressing personal and collective representations of the past from the perspective of the transgenerational, transcultural and transnational relevance of memory. It has enhanced the state of the art by combining the broader social and cultural effects and the interpersonal and affective dimensions of literary representations of migration and memory, emphasizing the phenomenal and epistemic value of nostalgic narratives of home in contemporary migrant literature, a relatively under-researched area. The research has done significant work in harnessing the interdisciplinary potential of the theory and practice of nostalgia and cultural translation as framework for literary criticism and transnational literature, benefiting from dynamic approaches and exchanges in the study of memory, migration and translation to develop a new perspective on the (re)construction of the past as textual and social practice concerning people and their temporal and spatial border-crossings. TransMemo has filled an important gap in research into Arab British authors’ engagement with cultural translation, drawing attention to the significance of memory in this literary genre and its intersections with translation and the underpinnings of nostalgic narratives of home and how this affects the cultural image of the people they represent.
In terms of impact, the project is contributing to explicating the conceptual and practical links between memory, transnational identity, literature and migration, particularly as addressed in Arab migrant literature. It will provide impetus for interdisciplinary perspectives in postcolonial literary theory and transnational approaches by foregrounding the perspectives of gender, subjugation, orientalism and hybrid identity represented by Arab British women writers and their narrative, performative and embodied engagements with and representations of cultural exchange, translation, nostalgia, home and migration. The project also has a social impact, raising awareness of the complexities that arise for modern society through migration, global movement and multiculturalism. It challenges negative portrayals of migrants and refugees in the public discourse by utilizing literature as a lens for society to reflect on the political and social structures that define cultural relations in a context of inequality. Thus, the project not only accounts for the present surge in writing on memory and nostalgia but also allows society to critique the politics of identity in which migration is embedded.
In terms of impact, the project is contributing to explicating the conceptual and practical links between memory, transnational identity, literature and migration, particularly as addressed in Arab migrant literature. It will provide impetus for interdisciplinary perspectives in postcolonial literary theory and transnational approaches by foregrounding the perspectives of gender, subjugation, orientalism and hybrid identity represented by Arab British women writers and their narrative, performative and embodied engagements with and representations of cultural exchange, translation, nostalgia, home and migration. The project also has a social impact, raising awareness of the complexities that arise for modern society through migration, global movement and multiculturalism. It challenges negative portrayals of migrants and refugees in the public discourse by utilizing literature as a lens for society to reflect on the political and social structures that define cultural relations in a context of inequality. Thus, the project not only accounts for the present surge in writing on memory and nostalgia but also allows society to critique the politics of identity in which migration is embedded.