University of Nottingham
Encounter with Ursula Krechel and Mandy Wight
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Encounters: Writers and Translators in Conversation are events that give us unique insights into the work that usually goes on behind closed doors: translating. As part of this series jointly organised by the Institute of Modern Languages Research (London, Godela Weiss-Sussex) and The University of Nottingham's German Section (Heike Bartel) we are bringing together:
Ursula Krechel (German author of Landgericht, 2012) and Mandy Wight (translator into English) to read from their work, talk about theory and practice of translation and answer questions from the audience.
We will work with Krechel's novel Landgericht (Vienna: Jung &Jung, 2012) that won the German Book Prize in 2012 and has also been turned into a TV adaptation.
Landgericht tells – amongst other narrative strands – the story based on the life of Ruth Barnett who was a child on the ‘Kindertransporte’ (childrens' transports). These enabled nearly 10,000 child refugees to flee from Nazi-occupied territories to the UK in 1938-39 and they are remembered as a life-shaping experience of the loss of a homeland, of parents, family and friends - and of the finding of refuge and eventually a new life in the UK.
Our Encounter between the author Ursula Krechel and 'her' translator into English, Mandy Wight, gives us the opportunity to discuss issues of translating this novel, gain insights into how author and translator work together and ask questions about writing and translating history, loss and belonging in fiction, film, history and life.
All welcome - join us for this event that will be held in English even if you have no or little knowledge of German but are interested in translation.