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SUMMARY:Erotic Literature: Adaptation and Translation in Europe and Asia -
  Speaker to be confirmed
DTSTART:20150629T080000Z
DTEND:20150629T170000Z
UID:TALK55717@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:24901
DESCRIPTION:This conference will address the semantic demarcations of erot
 ic literature. Transgressive by nature\, no genre of literature is more de
 fined by the social and aesthetic conventions that it playfully disregards
  or unwillingly reproduces.\n\nLeopold von Sacher Masoch’s Venus in Furs
  (1870) is an excellent example of an erotic novel that has prompted a mul
 titude of adaptions. Its translations have resonated strongly in different
  socio-cultural settings\, no doubt in part as a result of translators’ 
 efforts to tailor the text to new audiences. Film adaptations cover a broa
 d spectrum\, from mainstream soft-core porn to acclaimed psychological dra
 mas such as Roman Polanski’s latest feature film (2013). Often enough\, 
 the cross-cultural transfer of erotic literature must negotiate incompatib
 le concepts. When Franz Kuhn translated the 17th century Chinese text The 
 Carnal Prayer Mat 肉蒲團 into German for the first time (1959)\, he glo
 ssed over the finesse of its physiological detail. The anthropological con
 ceptions that inform the text simply proved too inconsistent with contempo
 raneous Western notions of the body. At any rate\, upon publication\, Swis
 s authorities decided to place the translation on the index.\n\nBridging l
 inguistic and topological disjunctions\, the transpository process entails
  a delicate balancing act\, which\, for Roland Barthes\, comprises the ple
 asure of reading itself (cf. The Pleasure of the Text\, 1973): in each cas
 e\, the rhythm between the said and the unsaid must be measured anew\, as 
 different languages and genres answer to different aesthetic sensibilities
 .\n\nThis conference aims to unite literary and film scholars with an inte
 rdisciplinary ambit. Contributions will touch upon European and Asian topi
 cs or both.
LOCATION:CRASSH\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge\, CB3 
 9DP
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