Olga Tokarczuk  — Nieprzekładalna?  Literature as Translation of the World

We warmly invite you to an academic symposium devoted to selected aspects of the translation and reception of Olga Tokarczuk’s work – one of the most important voices in contemporary European literature and winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. In novels such as “Flights”, “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” and “The Books of Jacob”, Tokarczuk constructs multilayered narratives rooted in the languages, histories and cultures of Central and Eastern Europe. Her prose moves within the spaces of borderlands – geographical, cultural and spiritual. Tokarczuk explores identities composed of many overlapping layers – from Lower Silesia through Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia – consistently stepping beyond national frameworks and questioning traditional narratives of belonging. Her writing draws on the histories of migration and displacement, as well as Slavic cosmology, astrology, folk spirituality, and figures from the margins of mythology and Eastern Christian mysticism.

                During the symposium, we will examine how these intricate layers of meaning function in translation – what is carried over and, paradoxically, what gains new life and resonance. We will also reflect on the role of the translator as a cultural mediator between languages, traditions and worldviews. The programme includes presentations by scholars from the UK and Israel, as well as a conversation with Antonia Lloyd-Jones – a long-standing translator of Tokarczuk’s work into English, whose translations and promotional efforts have played a key role in the author’s international reception. The symposium will conclude with an open discussion with the audience.
 

PROGRAM / PROGRAMME

15:00–15:15
OTWARCIE SYMPOZJUM I WPROWADZENIE / OPENING & INTRODUCTION

• Prof. Włodzimierz Mier-Jęrzejowicz (Rector of PUNO)
• Dr Justyna Gorzkowicz: Tłumacz jako mediator międzykulturowy / Rethinking Translation as Cultural Mediation

15:15–16:45 
BLOK I – KONTEKSTY TŁUMACZENIA I RECEPCJI / BLOCK I – CONTEXTS OF TRANSLATION AND RECEPTION
Prowadzenie / Chair: Dr Justyna Gorzkowicz (czas trwania / duration: 2 x 45 min.)

• Dr Dorota Burda-Fischer (Haifa Interdisciplinary Unit for Polish Studies, University of Haifa): Tłumaczenie
  i recepcja „Ksiąg Jakubowych” w języku hebrajskim / Translation and Reception of “The Books of Jacob" in Hebrew
• Prowadzić tekst przez języki. Tłumacząc Tokarczuk / Guiding a Text Through Languages: Translating Tokarczuk. Conversation with Antonia Lloyd-Jones

16:45–17:00
Przerwa kawowa / Coffee break

17:00–17:40
BLOK II – W BRYTYJSKIM OBIEGU AKADEMICKIM / BLOCK II – IN THE BRITISH ACADEMIC CIRCULATION
Prowadzenie / Chair: Dr Agnieszka Szajner (czas trwania / duration: 2 x 20 min.)

• Prof. Katarzyna Zechenter (University College London): Olga Tokarczuk i Wisława Szymborska. Paradoksy, wiedza i literatura / Olga Tokarczuk and Wisława Szymborska: Paradoxes, Knowledge, and Literature
• Agnieszka Puchalska (doktorantka / PhD Candidate, UCL SSEES): Nowe życie tekstu? Olga Tokarczuk, Walter Benjamin i znaczenie przekładu / A New Life for the Text? Olga Tokarczuk, Walter Benjamin and the Meaning of Translation

17:40–18:40
Dyskusja moderowana z udziałem publiczności / Moderated Discussion with the Audience
Moderator: Dr Agnieszka Szajner

18:40–19:00
Zakończenie i rozmowy nieformalne przy poczęstunku / Closing Remarks and Informal Conversations over Light Refreshments

KOMITET ORGANIZACYJNO-NAUKOWY / ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
dr Justyna Gorzkowicz (OBeDEP, PUNO), dr Agnieszka Szajner (PUNO), red. Regina Wasiak-Taylor (ZPPnO),
Wojciech Klas (PUNO), Urszula Lennik (PUNO), Małgorzata Mroczkowska (ZPPnO)

* Practical Note: Conducted in Polish · Open to all · Questions welcome in English