In the course of discussing her career as translator from French, Dutch, and other languages, Lydia Davis will describe the vital role of the translator in importing the writings of other cultures and traditions and exposing them to wider audiences. It is the translator into English who can give voice to those writers who would otherwise be unheard in the (vast) Anglophone world. Davis will propose that it is the obligation of every dedicated writer of English to attempt translation as part of his or her writing mission, especially in this day and age when we entertain the illusion that knowledge is instantly obtainable and when many believe the English language is so dominant that it is not necessary to know any other.
Winner of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2003, Lydia Davis is the author of one novel and seven story collections, the most recent of which is Can’t and Won’t. Davis’ Varieties of Disturbance was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the winner of the 2013 Award of Merit Medal for the short story from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and of the 2013 Man Booker International Prize. She is also the translator of Swann’s Way (2003) and Madame Bovary (2010), both of which were awarded the French-American Foundation Translation Prize. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, published in 2009, was described by James Wood in The New Yorker as “a grand cumulative achievement.”
Seminars run from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
RSVP to humanitiesinstitute@scrippscollege.edu Seating for this seminar is fully booked. We encourage you to attend Lydia Davis’s public reading on Thursday, November 20 at 4:15 p.m. in the Hampton Room in Malott Commons.