Dynamics of Devotion

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

Andrew Quintman (Wesleyan), Lara Braitstein (McGill), Heidi Nevin (Independent), Anne Klein (Rice), Holly Gayley (University of Colorado, Boulder), and Annabella Pitkin (Lehigh) take on the topic of devotion in translation. Annabella Pitkin skillfully facilitates discussion focused on three themes: literary and embodied devotion, translation as an act of devotion, and the cultural translation of devotion. Regarding the first, the group considers what terms are particularly difficult to unpack in English, posing questions like, “How does language serve to dictate devotion?”, and, “How does literature and its utterance help mediate the distance between subject and object?” While translators are positioned as […]

Dynamics of DevotionMigmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

Collections of Songs (mgur ‘bum)

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

By taking a bird’s-eye view of collections of songs (mgur ‘bum), Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia) and Andrew Quintman (Wesleyan) examine gaps in our knowledge based on the extant collections and their experiences both as translators and as historians of literature. They elicit an exploratory discussion by beginning with a series of key questions and positing ways in which we can think about songs as an autonomous literary form as well as how we might approach the provenance of songs and the process of their production and reproduction from the standpoint of history, in addition to other stimulating topics. What […]

Collections of Songs (mgur ‘bum)Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

Gender in Translating Devotional Verse

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

In this collaborative discussion breakout session, Jue Liang (University of Virginia) and Natasha Mikles (Texas State) discuss the dynamics of socially constructed ideas about gender on our readings of classical texts and biographies. The group also explores devotion as a culturally constructed idea and devotional language as gendered. Jue and Natasha lead the group in developing “word banks” of terms that elicit a mood of binary gender constructs and then the discussion naturally unfolds into thoughtful exploration of the deconstruction of the binary and a consideration of the opposites of gender and devotion and the value we place on all […]

Gender in Translating Devotional VerseMigmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:43-07:00

Linguistic Hospitality

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:44-07:00

Dominique Townsend (Bard) and Lucas Carmichael (University of Colorado, Boulder) present Paul Ricoeur’s essay, “On Translation“, as a starting point for discussion of linguistic hospitality. After a brief introduction to the essay, small group discussions on the ethics of translation, the dynamics of retranslation, and “resistance to the foreign” focus the conversation. The small groups then share a summary of their exploration and find that Ricoeur’s optimism in his encouragement to give up the idea of a perfect translation became the basis for small group conversation and further discussion.

Linguistic HospitalityMigmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:44-07:00

Rasa Theory and Affect

Migmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:44-07:00

Nancy Lin (84000) and Annabella Pitkin (Lehigh) lead a rich discussion about how rasa and affect theories might help translators of Tibetan appreciate and communicate about art and literature in English, particularly regarding the more subtle aspects of tone, mood, and feeling in a given work. Nancy begins by facilitating a discussion of a particular verse to develop a shared vocabulary for rasa theory. She then presents potential understandings of rasa through consideration of Bharata’s Treatise on Drama and Daṇḍin’s Mirror of Poetry and employs this shared vocabulary in a conversation about the work of Tibetan authors. Annabella poses compelling […]

Rasa Theory and AffectMigmar Lama2022-11-16T23:40:44-07:00