Translating Post-Yugoslav Literature

Please join the Njegoš Endowment for Serbian Language and Culture and the Harriman Institute for a round table on translating post-Yugoslav literature with Ellen Elias-Bursac (independent scholar and literary translator), Sibelan Forrester (Susan W. Lippincott Professor of Modern and Classical Languages and Russian at Swarthmore College) and Jennifer H. Zoble (Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU).

This round table will focus on translation practices by Elias-Bursac, Forrester, and Zoble, all of whom actively translate literature published in Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian. In the first part of the panel, the participants will read selected excerpts from the post-Yugoslav literary works they translated or are currently working on. The second part of the panel will generate a conversation about a range of topics related to the translation process and practices. The panelists will also reflect on how their translation practices relate to the recent Common Language Declaration and whether this relation enhances the translators’ socio-cultural roles. Issued and signed by a number of linguists and experts from diverse fields, the Common Language Declaration proclaims that Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian are not four different languages, but four different language standards of the same polycentric language.

From Harriman Institute (Columbia)