Les conferències plenàries aniran a càrrec de:
Dr Ruth Abou Rached, Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Manchester, Regne Unit
Encountering intersectionality/ies, intersectionality/ies encountered: reading literary works of Middle East North Africa (MENA) creatives in para/translation
“History is usually written by men and a pressing question I had was: how would a woman narrate our history?”i Iman Humaydan said that she asked herself this question while writing her Arabic novel aghāniyyat lil-ʿatmah [Songs for the Darkness] (2024), longlisted for the 2025 Arabic Fiction Prize. Interesting about Humaydan’s question is her use of the word ‘our’: which ‘woman’ or ‘women’ would tell whose hi/stories in MENA? In whose language/s? In which contexts? Due to climate change, migration, public health and geo-politics, continued production of – and access to – literary works in MENA itself for example is less certain. So how would a woman narrate a story like Humaydan’s where communities and other sources of histories in some locations are disappearing? Who will read these works? And where? Such questions invite critical reflection on al-taqātuʿiyya (the Arabic term for intersectionality) as the interlocking systems of oppression within which gender/ed hegemonies operate, in relation to MENA literary works and their cross-language publications in diverse times and locations.
With issues of time and location in mind, I first consider the implications of access to literary works in MENA itself, asking, what and whose perspectives, aesthetics and histories could be lost or forgotten if many can no longer travel to certain places in MENA? what happens if traditional MENA literary spaces, such as universities, archives and libraries, are damaged or destroyed? how will connections between original and translated works be remembered? Throughout my talk, I draw on the theory of ‘feminist paratranslation’ to explore how specific works by MENA creatives first published in Arabic, have been translated or ‘paratranslated’ into other languages in ways which may or may not be claimed as “feminist” but have political effects towards feminist (intersectionally defined) ends, reflecting gaps and limitations of doing so. From this intersectional perspective, I also highlight the crucial roles played by the many creatives such as editors, artists, reviewers, translators – or ‘au/theirs’ – in the (para) translation of MENA literary works across many languages, time-spans and geo-political locations.
Dr Denise Carrascosa, Instituto de Letras, Universidade Federal da Bahia , Brasil
Translating Abolitionist Black Feminism
Contemporary articulations of Brazil’s social imaginary are deeply shaped by its colonial legacy of slavery, racism, sexism and necropolitical and punitive state practices. These have positioned Brazil as one of the global leaders in the incarceration of women - with the overwhelming majority being Black and impoverished women. In this context, I will critically analyse a corpus of texts authored by incarcerated Afro-Brazilian Black women over the past two decades, including poems, short stories, chronicles and a theatre play. My aim is two-fold. First, I shall explore how these writings illuminate the paradoxical process of archiving the technologies of racially selective suffering and torture produced by the contemporary carceral Brazilian state, alongside the complex modes of subjectivation and survival within the prison system. Second, I shall reflect on how these counter-narratives of cultural memory challenge the ethical, aesthetic and political dimensions of literary translation, particularly when engaging with testimonies and traumatic memories from the Afro-Brazilian community. This discussion will be grounded in an abolitionist Black feminist perspective and praxis on translation.
