The Path to the Nobel Prize: Starring Translation
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: December 13, 2024, 19:00 – 21:00
A discussion evening on the challenges of translation in the context of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The story of this year’s laureate, Han Kang, illustrates the crucial role of translation in the contemporary literary world. Her novel The Vegetarian, published in Korea in 2007, received international recognition only after its English translation in 2016, when it won the prestigious Man Booker Prize. Her most recent novel, I Do Not Bid Farewell, has not yet been translated into English. However, it was released in a Swedish translation in the spring – a fact that undoubtedly played a role in the Swedish Academy’s decision to award her the Nobel Prize. This development raises again questions about the ways literature travels across languages and cultures. How does literature from “small” languages reach global readers? What does it mean to translate from Korean, a language not only geographically but also structurally distant? And what is the role of translation into English as an intermediary language?
These and other issues will be discussed by Petra Ben-Ari, translator of Han Kang’s works into Czech, Miriam Löwenstein, head of Korean Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and translator of Korean literature, and Viktor Janiš, renowned translator from English and an expert on the translation scene.
The evening will be hosted by Anežka Charvátová, chairwoman of the Czech Literary Translators’ Guild.
The event is held with the financial support of the City of Prague.