Online Lecture: Confronting the (un)speakable: the translatability of trauma.

‘Confronting the (un)speakable: the translatability of trauma’- Dr Sharon Deane-Cox (University of Strathclyde). Tuesday 30 May, 1-2pm (GMT)

The idea that trauma is unspeakable (Caruth 1996) has gained significant traction in cultural and literary trauma studies, often becoming the default critical stance with regard to its fictional and non-fictional representations. At the same time, though, critics such as LaCapra (2001), Kansteiner and Weilnböck (2010), and Mandel (2006), have been pushing back against this so-called anti-narrative approach, not least as it belies the capacity of trauma survivors to encode their lived experiences, to use words to work through and heal from their suffering.

Such conceptual (and often complex) debates over speakability make it difficult to understand the implications of grafting translation into the communication process. This paper aligns itself with proponents of the speakability of trauma, arguing that the very existence of trauma narratives renders them inherently translatable; to suggest otherwise takes us down problematic, abstracted routes that risk turning our focus away from the human at the centre of such texts.

Drawing primarily on French Holocaust survivor testimonies and their translations, the paper will further adopt an applied approach to the translatability of trauma to illustrate where the translator might best hear and respond to its inflections. It will then conclude by proposing future avenues for research in the underexplored area of trauma translation.