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

This two-day international conference 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. 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.. . . . Conference: Resistance and its Futures: Translating the (Untranslatable) Wartime Poetry of René Char. . . . April 30: East Pyne 127. . 6:00- 7:30. . Pre-conference screening : Jérôme Prieur's film, 1941, dernier bateau pour l'Exil. . . . May 1: Chancellor Green Rotunda. . 9.00 - 10.30. . The politics of languages. . Xita Rubert, 'Impersonality'. . Isabelle Chen, 'Regional Resonances'. . Rachel Galvin, 'Reading René Char in Spanish'. . Fabrice Langrognet, 'Looking at Space and Time in the Feuillets'. . . . 11.00 - 12.30. . Yesterday and today. . Brooke Holmes, 'Char's Heraclitus'. . Jesse Godine, 'Translation and Originality'. . Karen Emmerich, 'Belated Waking'. . André Benhaïm, 'Ulysses' Brothers: Char, Camus, and the Odyssey'. . . . 1.30 - 3.00. . Poetry as resistance. . (Poetry reading by Gabriel Dufay). . Effie Rentzou 'Translating Resistance to Poetry'. . Peter Makhlouf, 'Mouvance: a Politico-philosophical Inquiry'. . Yoshimoto Motoko, 'Les traductions japonaises: les attraits d'une l'oeuvre qui se révolte contre l'obscurité du temps et la difficulté de la traduction'. . . . 3.30 - 5.00. . From the literary to the digital. . Brian Kernighan, ' Exploratory data analysis of translations of Feuillets d'Hypnos'. . Wouter Haverals, 'When Humans and Machines Translate Char: Computational Insights into Feuillets d'Hypnos Across Languages'. . Christiane Fellbaum, Arnov Ambre, and Jalen Johnson, 'From Lyrical to Digital and Back' . . . . 5:30-6:30: New Char translations by students from HUM 423. . . . . . May 2: Chancellor Green Rotunda. . . . 9.00 - 10.30. . Dialogues with tradition. . Daniel Heller-Roazen, 'Before the Unknown'. . Haun Saussy, 'Signals Both Discreet and Discrete'. . Robyn Creswell, 'Loyaux Adversaires'. . . . 11.00 - 12-30. . Translating change. . David Bellos, 'Poetry and Translation'. . Liesl Yamaguchi, 'Moonlight'. . Tamara Hundorova, 'The Language of War'. . . . 1.30 - 3.00. . Resistance and the arts . . (Poetry reading by Gabriel Dufay). . Marie-Claude Char, 'René Char, Poet and Artist'. . Gabriel Sobin, 'Translating Poetry into Stone'. . Sasha Hemon, 'All Together: Music, Poetry and Vision'. . Polina Kosmadaki, 'Zervos, Char, and Cahiers d'Art'. . . . 3.30- 5.00. . Resistance now. . Annette Becker, 'Traduire les paysages'. . Emily Apter and Jacques Lezra, 'Paleo-resistances'. . Matthew Reynolds, 'Collaborating with an LLM' . . Philip Nord, 'The Fate of Resistance Humanism'. . . . 5:30- 7:00. . Reading from the Feuillets by Gabriel Dufay. . . . Screening of Jérôme Prieur's film, René Char, nom de guerre Alexandre. . --- Event Details: https://my.princeton.edu/rsvp?id=1957889