You've noticed already, but of course Damion Searls is nominated twice over for the Best Translated Book Award in the fiction category, for Elfriede Jelinek's Her Not All Her and for Christa Wolf's City of Angels. I have them both, so I already know he's a very talented and ingenious translator - particularly as the Jelinek play demands a lot of tying and untying of knots.
Typographical Era is focusing on all the translators and has a short profile of Damion with a link to an interview he gave for BOMB magazine. Congratulations, Damion!
The award itself is up for an award to be awarded at the London Book Fair. The award is sadly unable to attend.
Showing posts with label elfriede jelinek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elfriede jelinek. Show all posts
Monday, 24 March 2014
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Six-Hour Drama Marathon, Anyone?
Sport, eh? Most bookish types will agree it's a bit crap, or at least the participatory bit. Stops you thinking weighty thoughts, what with concentrating on getting a small round object into a hole or whatever. Usually involves a little too much physical exertion. And I'm sure I'm not the only bookish type for whom the best thing about school Physical Education lessons was thinking up creative excuses for not taking part.*
Top enraged Austrian writer, Nobel laureate and playwright Elfriede Jelinek, however, gives us a number of other reasons not to like it, which are summed up in her six-hour play Sport. To wit:
Should you be too far away to attend, the very good German lit blog Litaffin has a useful list of books to read that feature sport.
*My sister came up with the frankly fantastic "I've got a shard of broken glass in the sole of my foot" and managed to evade at least two sessions in the school gym, where we had to go barefoot, until the PE teacher Mr. O'Sadist began to get suspicious. I was also - literally - scarred for life when I ran into my friend's raised hockey stick. I still have a dimple in my left cheek from that incident, but rather stupidly took Mrs. Humourless-Brisk's advice to get straight back in the saddle and onto the playing field.
Top enraged Austrian writer, Nobel laureate and playwright Elfriede Jelinek, however, gives us a number of other reasons not to like it, which are summed up in her six-hour play Sport. To wit:
Jelinek explores the marketing and sale of human bodies and emotions in sports with angry wit, questioning our obsession with fitness, body image and high performance at any cost. Sport is seen as a medium for fanaticism, as a form of war in peacetime.And what better time to stage the play, in Penny Black's translation, than during the London Olympics? A two-finger salute to all that "our GDP is bigger than your GDP" medal-grabbing and competitive Union Jack displaying. So catch it this coming Sunday in a staged reading at the Soho Theatre - you can stroll in and out as you please during the six hours, but do watch out for the 200 kilos of toy stuffing. Team GB merchandise will not be on sale in the foyer.
Should you be too far away to attend, the very good German lit blog Litaffin has a useful list of books to read that feature sport.
*My sister came up with the frankly fantastic "I've got a shard of broken glass in the sole of my foot" and managed to evade at least two sessions in the school gym, where we had to go barefoot, until the PE teacher Mr. O'Sadist began to get suspicious. I was also - literally - scarred for life when I ran into my friend's raised hockey stick. I still have a dimple in my left cheek from that incident, but rather stupidly took Mrs. Humourless-Brisk's advice to get straight back in the saddle and onto the playing field.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Translating Jelinek
Much has been made of Nicholas Spice's favourable article on Elfriede Jelinek in the London Review of Books. It is very much worth taking the time to read, very well informed and interesting. But people seem to have picked up on what is little more than an aside, Spice's criticism of Martin Chalmers' translation of Gier/Greed. In fact, Spice goes into barely any detail, condemning the translation without naming a single flaw by name - just as he fails to name the translator, perhaps out of a false sense of politeness.
If you're actually interested in the art of translating Jelinek, take a look at the website of the Elfriede Jelinek Research Centre at the University of Vienna. The site features essays in German by eight of the author's translators, including the irrepressible Lilian Friedberg, who has translated several of Jelinek's plays into American English. In fact, you can access several English translations (although none by Martin Chalmers) via Jelinek's own site (scroll down to 2007 and 2008 on the left). But remember - no quoting! Elfriede doesn't approve...
If you're actually interested in the art of translating Jelinek, take a look at the website of the Elfriede Jelinek Research Centre at the University of Vienna. The site features essays in German by eight of the author's translators, including the irrepressible Lilian Friedberg, who has translated several of Jelinek's plays into American English. In fact, you can access several English translations (although none by Martin Chalmers) via Jelinek's own site (scroll down to 2007 and 2008 on the left). But remember - no quoting! Elfriede doesn't approve...
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
The Most Influential German-Speaking Woman...
...according to Cicero magazine, is the literary critic and writer Elke Heidenreich. The magazine apparently evaluated women according to their mentions in the "most important" German-language newspapers and magazines since 1998, plus internet hits and archive inclusions. Heidenreich presents a very influential TV literary magazine called Lesen! (don't you just love that commanding tone?) and has had an incredibly varied career in the public eye.
She is followed in the top ten by the feminist Alice Schwarzer, Nobel literature laureate Elfriede Jelinek, the writer and director Doris Dörrie, the writers Christa Wolf and Cornelia Funke, university boss and possible presidential candidate Gesine Schwan, the literary critic Iris Radisch, Bishop Margot Käßmann and Jutta Limbach, the former head of the Goethe Institut.
Note that Angela Merkel doesn't seem to be included. I'd have thought she actually has more influence over life in Germany than Cornelia Funke. It seems they're actually talking about women who influence German-language culture - and there are plenty of heavyweights in that department. But if you look at the top women, you can make out that we're more influential in literature (creating and critiquing it) than in any other field of culture. After all, we've been at it long enough and we can do it from home while bouncing babies on our knees - not like film or theatre or music.
So hooray for German-speaking women. Long may they influence us!
She is followed in the top ten by the feminist Alice Schwarzer, Nobel literature laureate Elfriede Jelinek, the writer and director Doris Dörrie, the writers Christa Wolf and Cornelia Funke, university boss and possible presidential candidate Gesine Schwan, the literary critic Iris Radisch, Bishop Margot Käßmann and Jutta Limbach, the former head of the Goethe Institut.
Note that Angela Merkel doesn't seem to be included. I'd have thought she actually has more influence over life in Germany than Cornelia Funke. It seems they're actually talking about women who influence German-language culture - and there are plenty of heavyweights in that department. But if you look at the top women, you can make out that we're more influential in literature (creating and critiquing it) than in any other field of culture. After all, we've been at it long enough and we can do it from home while bouncing babies on our knees - not like film or theatre or music.
So hooray for German-speaking women. Long may they influence us!
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Jelinek
Such a lovely name, don't you think? Yell-y-neck.
Elfriede Jelinek has put an entire new novel up on her website. Entitled Neid (Envy), it's apparently about "an older violin teacher left by her husband, who lives in a bleak Upper Styrian town. The book's themes range from the destruction of nature to politics to the bleakness of the Austrian provinces." (Heise online)
They also say it's estimated to be 900 pages long. I might take a look at it, but then again, I don't feel up to reading 900 pages on my computer screen. Elfriede Jelinek has threatened to take it off again whenever she feels like it, so you might want to rush to get a look before it disappears again.
I'm deliberately not including a quote, which I would generally do. The reason is that the website expressly prohibits any form of reproduction or quotes without prior permission. This has already provoked discussion on the Heise forum - and I find it just as counterproductive as it is ridiculous - and of course without any legal standing. Naturally enough, the author wants to protect her copyright, but a note saying that the texts are subject to Austrian copyright law would surely suffice. A case of extreme caution, I feel, rather than a genuine embracing of the internet as a medium for all.
Incidentally, the website also features a short text on the state of Austria after Amstetten. Called Im Verlassenen (Abandoned), it is well worth reading and very Catholic. In the introduction to Beneath Black Stars (see yesterday's post), Martin Chalmers writes:
Jelinek again: 'For me Austria is a nation of criminals. This country has a criminal past.' (...) One critic has commented that it is 'strange that it is precisely those who campaign so vehemently against nationalist activities, who appear to share the fetishization of national characteristics with their opponents'.
Certainly something to think about. But if you ask me, it is at least more legitimate for people living in a particular country to fetishise national characteristics than it is for people outside of that country. Maybe a bit like that whole "don't you dare criticise my mum/brother/husband - I'm the only one who can do that" thing.
Addendum: Perlentaucher rips the piss out of Jelinek's citation ban in its review of the German feuilletons. Way to go!
Elfriede Jelinek has put an entire new novel up on her website. Entitled Neid (Envy), it's apparently about "an older violin teacher left by her husband, who lives in a bleak Upper Styrian town. The book's themes range from the destruction of nature to politics to the bleakness of the Austrian provinces." (Heise online)
They also say it's estimated to be 900 pages long. I might take a look at it, but then again, I don't feel up to reading 900 pages on my computer screen. Elfriede Jelinek has threatened to take it off again whenever she feels like it, so you might want to rush to get a look before it disappears again.
I'm deliberately not including a quote, which I would generally do. The reason is that the website expressly prohibits any form of reproduction or quotes without prior permission. This has already provoked discussion on the Heise forum - and I find it just as counterproductive as it is ridiculous - and of course without any legal standing. Naturally enough, the author wants to protect her copyright, but a note saying that the texts are subject to Austrian copyright law would surely suffice. A case of extreme caution, I feel, rather than a genuine embracing of the internet as a medium for all.
Incidentally, the website also features a short text on the state of Austria after Amstetten. Called Im Verlassenen (Abandoned), it is well worth reading and very Catholic. In the introduction to Beneath Black Stars (see yesterday's post), Martin Chalmers writes:
Jelinek again: 'For me Austria is a nation of criminals. This country has a criminal past.' (...) One critic has commented that it is 'strange that it is precisely those who campaign so vehemently against nationalist activities, who appear to share the fetishization of national characteristics with their opponents'.
Certainly something to think about. But if you ask me, it is at least more legitimate for people living in a particular country to fetishise national characteristics than it is for people outside of that country. Maybe a bit like that whole "don't you dare criticise my mum/brother/husband - I'm the only one who can do that" thing.
Addendum: Perlentaucher rips the piss out of Jelinek's citation ban in its review of the German feuilletons. Way to go!
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