Resistance and its Futures: Translating the (Untranslatable) Wartime Poetry of Rene Char

Organized by Sandra Bermann, Cotsen Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University, the PIIRS Fung Global Fellows Program is proud to be a co-sponsor of this two-day international conference, which will explore how René Char's Feuillets d'Hypnos (Leaves of Hypnos), became a global inter-semiotic phenomenon. Often considered untranslatable, this collection of 237 short prose poems was drafted by Char while leading a division on the Maquis in WWII. In fact, its mysterious, aphoristic language soon inspired translations into more than 30 languages, as well as into the visual arts, theater, music and film. . . . . Offering insight into oppression, war, and suffering, along with hope and an ongoing quest for beauty, Char's text and its various renditions produce a living, global legacy. They also prompt historical and philosophical questions: How do new understandings of Char's text emerge through its translations? And what might these inter-lingual and inter-semiotic versions tell us about translation as well as about literary and artistic resistance?. . . . Through a series of panels, conversations, and performances enlisting some 30 scholars and artists, as well as a number of Princeton students, we will begin to consider these issues.. . . . Event link: https://complit.princeton.edu/events/resistance-and-its-futures-translating-untranslatable-wartime-poetry-rene-char. . . . Conference sponsors:. . Humanities Council, UCHV, IHUM, Fung Global Fellows Program, French Embassy, Comparative Literature. . . . --- Event Details: https://my.princeton.edu/rsvp?id=1957889