The notion of equivalence is central in both translation theory and practice, and has been formulated both by Cicero and Saint Jerome in the Antiquity as “sense for sense”, as opposed to “word for word”. Eugene Nida has reformulated and developed the notion in a famous and referential chapter titled “Principles of correspondence”, which is part of his 1964 work, Towards a science of translating. But what are correspondences? Do they represent the possibilities of a complete understanding between cultures or, on the contrary, do they symbolize the impossibility of the perfect translation? In this seminar, we will approach this notion through various perspectives - theoretical, practical, linguistic and even political - in order to both compare and share reflections, thoughts and practices as experienced in different fields.

Thursday 20 September 2018 Room 1481-366

10.30-10.45 Welcome and presentation Merete Birkelund, Sébastien Doubinsky and Christina Kkona

10.45- 11.45 Didier Coste, University of Bordeaux Montaigne: Conversion is the limit, or the receding horizon of equivalence

11.45-12.30 Jørn Erslev Andersen, Aarhus University: Translative equivalences of Beckett’s quatrain ”Dieppe”, Hölderlin’s tower poem “The Walk”, and Unica Zürn’s anagram poem “In the dust of his life”

12.30-13.15 Hanne Jansen, University of Copenhagen: Equivalence and Fidelity

13.15-14.15 Lunch

14.15-15.00 Lotte Jansen, Copenhagen: Man and du – how to translate English you and Russian ty into Danish

15.00- 15.30 Coffee break

15.30-16.15 Jørn Boisen, University of Copenhagen: Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow – a translational meltdown.

Friday 21 September 2018 Room 1481-366

10.15- 11.15 Bo Due Skovsbøll, European Commission, Bruxelles: Equivalence in an EU translation context

11.15-12.00 Anne Schjoldager, University of Aarhus: Equivalence(s) in Functional Translation Studies

12.00-12.45 Eskil Hein, FBO, Forum for Billedmedieoversættelse/Dansk Journalistforbund: Mission: Impossible – Equivalence in Subtitling

12.45- 14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.00 Roundtable

The seminar is supported by the School of Communication and Culture (Research Programme Language Sciences: the Research Group ‘Semantics, enunciation and translation’) and AIAS.

Organisers: Merete Birkelund, Sébastien Doubinsky, French Department, School of Communication and Culture and Christina Kkona, AIAS.