Conference Translation and the Urban Landscape: the Afterlife of the Arcades

Colégio Almada Negreiros (CAN) | NOVA FCSH| Room 217 

13th December 2019 | Friday | 10h00 – 17h20

What connects the everyday life of cities to the images of language? To what extent is it possible to reflect on the city through the lens of translation, and vice versa? At such an intersection, this issue is as ancient as it is pressing. Indeed, the manifold linguistic and cultural forms that pervade today’s cities are in many respects a lively and paradoxical re-enactment of the ancient myths of the fragmentation of language such as the Tower of Babel. This conference will explore the many faces of the act of translating within and throughout the urban landscape, taking as its starting point Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project, a philosophical reflection on the relationship between different historical epochs based on the history of the city of Paris.

Organized by: FCT-funded Project Fragmentation and Reconfiguration: experiencing the city between art and philosophy (PTDC/FER-FIL/32042/2017) and research Group Art, Critique and Aesthetic Experience

Scroll down for the detailed program and the abstracts.

Programme:

10h00

Opening remarks

Bruno C. Duarte, Maria Filomena Molder, Nélio Conceição and Nuno Fonseca (IFILNOVA, NOVA FCSH)

Showcase of the radiobroadcast One-way Streets (Ruas de Sentido Único)

10h30 – 11h20

Sherry Simon (Concordia University – Montréal): Arcades, Bridges, Hotels, Monuments and other Translation Sites

 Coffee Break

11h40 – 12h20

Alexandra Dias Fortes (IFILNOVA, NOVA FCSH): Wor(l)d Cities: Translating Writing into Built Form

12h20 – 13h10

José Miranda Justo (CFUL, Universidade de Lisboa): Displacements: complex metaphors, artworks and translation 

Lunch

14h40 – 15h30: Daniel Weidner (ZfL – Berlin, Humboldt University): Translating the Name of the City. Walter Benjamin and the Afterlife of Charles Baudelaire and Marcel Proust

15h30 – 16h10

Nélio Conceição (IFILNOVA, NOVA FCSH): Translating ambiguities: prostitution, gambling and thresholds in the Arcades Project

Coffee Break

16h30 – 17h20

Maria Filomena Molder (IFILNOVA, NOVA FCSH): La question de la transposition : phénomène originaire, origine et image dialectique