Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies
 

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Olivia Hellewell

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts

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Biography

I gained my BA in Hispanic Studies and Russian with East European Studies from the University of Nottingham, before specialising in Slovene language when I was awarded AHRC funding for a Postgraduate Diploma in Slovene. I hold an MA and a PhD in Translation Studies also from the University of Nottingham.

I currently hold an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, where I am developing my doctoral research project into 'supply-driven' translation, less translated languages and power and agency in literary translation.

From October 2020 to January 2021 I was Translator in Residence at the British Centre for Literary Translation, at the University of East Anglia. I translate contemporary Slovene fiction, and my recent translation publications include The Fig Tree by Goran Vojnović (Istros Books, 2020; reviews in the TLS, Irish Times and Arts Desk) and the children's book Felix After The Rain by Dunja Jogan (Tiny Owl, 2020), which was chosen by the Centre for Literary in Primary Education (CLPE) as one of their best books of 2020.

Expertise Summary

I'm interested in the mechanics of literary translation systems: the institutions, agents and discourses that shape the production of literary translations, and how these factors determine the body of literature available to readers in English. I'm especially interested in how literatures that are 'less often the source of translation in the international exchange of linguistic goods' (Branchadell 2005) are translated into English, as well as the initiatives that seek to counteract existing power structures in the anglophone publishing industry.

My particular area of expertise lies in Slovene literature, the translation of contemporary Slovene fiction into English after 1991, and the role of language and literature in narratives of Slovene nation-building, as well as a wealth of expertise in professional literary translation, and leading translation workshops.

Teaching Summary

I am the Spanish seminar tutor for Introduction to Translation and Interpreting Studies (MLAC1089) and Contemporary Translation Studies (MLAC2158); I supervise Spanish translation projects on the… read more