May 22, 2019
May 24, 2019
Louvain-la-Neuve
Sénat académique et Musée L
![](http://cdn.uclouvain.be/styles/full_width/groups/cms-editors-ecr/evenements/2019/Les%20transferts%20culturels%202%201.jpg?itok=OhqWeY52)
Introduced in Cultural History in the late 1980s to cover the dead angles of comparative studies, the notion of cultural transfer refers to diverse phenomena of circulation, transformation and reinterpretation of cultural and textual goods across geo-cultural areas. As a research method intended to override national frameworks, Cultural Transfer Studies have inspired an increasing amount of interdisciplinary work in various fields such as Literary Studies (e.g., Lüsebrink 2008, Roland 2016), Translation Studies (e.g., Göpferich 2007, Roig-Sanz & Meylaerts 2018), or Cultural and Art History (e.g., Espagne 2013, Middell 2014). Beyond the sole idea of displacement between a source and a target culture, cultural transfers aim to do justice to the heterogeneity of each cultural zone and to the logics of intersection and hybridity by identifying enclaves, networks and vectors of exchanges. Inspired by the promises of ‘entangled history’/’Verflechtungsgeschichte’ (Werner & Zimmerman 2003) – which takes into account the reciprocity and multidirectionality of (re-)transfers –, recent studies have investigated the diversity, intertwining and non-linearity of a broad spectrum of transfer practices, including translations, thus giving voice to mediating activities and agencies largely ignored so far (e.g., D’hulst 2012).
Despite its conceptual relevance and the proliferation of case studies on mediators and border crossing phenomena, Transfer Studies seem to have reached a turning point. On the one hand and as already pointed out by Werner and Zimmerman (2003), even entangled objects, entities and practices do not escape pre-established categorizations and the essentialist pitfalls they entail. On the other hand, the insistence on coincidence and the methodological flattening out of any pre-existing borders, sometimes at the expense of historicity, risk to precipitate the methodological framework toward unproductive relativism. As a result, and because of a certain lack of consensus among theorists (Joyeux 2003), the added value and the merits of Transfers vis-à-vis related concepts in e.g. Postcolonial Studies, Translation Studies, transnational historiography or transcultural studies have been questioned.
What is the specificity of cultural transfers? Can it be thought outside the West European context? Can the notion of transfer help us to overcome disciplinary, national and linguistic borders? Or does it reaffirm them? How should we apprehend the (non-)linearity and asymmetry of transfer processes over various spaces and times? Is it possible to measure the impact of transfers and (how) can we evaluate their relative ‘success’?
Facing these questions and paradoxes, this conference would like to (re)think the viability of the concept of cultural transfer, its current and future challenges as well as its tools, objectives and epistemological framework(s) in an interdisciplinary perspective. The main issues we would like to discuss are related, but not limited, to four topics: (1) linearity, (2) borders/boundaries, (3) competing/connected concepts and (4) impact/success.
1) (Non-)Linearity. Transfer is a continuous process involving various moving sources and targets, such as institutions, languages, cultures, agents. How can we adequately apprehend them across time within or outside the reductionist source-target binarity, with its hierarchical and often too unidirectional frames?
2) Borders/Boundaries. Do transfers and translations create (Pym 1998), enforce (Leerssen 2014) and/or surpass borders? What is the impact of the researcher’s position on the way he/she conceives boundaries?
3) Competing/Connected concepts. Transfer is an omnipresent cultural phenomenon linked to concepts from other disciplines (e.g. hybridity, métissage, in-betweenness, transculturality, pluriculturality, translation, networks, third space, etc.). Do these related concepts go beyond purely conceptual discrepancies, and if so, can concepts from other disciplines bring insight to Transfer Studies, and vice versa?
4) Impact/success. (How) can we evaluate the function(s), impact and success of transfer processes over time? What can we learn from failed transfers? What are the consequences of misunderstandings and how to deal with them? How and when do researchers define a transfer as ‘successful’ or not?
Program
See the abstracts
Wednesday 22 May
Venue: Sénat académique
08.30 - 09.00 : Registration & Coffe
09.00 - 09.30 : Welcome word & Official Opening Véronique Bragard (Présidente du centre de recherche Écriture Création Représentation, UCLouvain), Elies Smeyers (F.R.S.-FNRS/UCLouvain) & Stéphanie Vanasten (UCLouvain)
09.30-10.30 : Keynote Elke Brems (KULeuven) : Reluctant rendezvous. The curious lack of literary transfers in Belgium (Chair: Stéphanie Vanasten (UCLouvain))
10.30-11.00 : Coffee & Tea Break
11.00-13.00 : Panel 1 Alternative approaches and perspectives to (re)write cultural history: defying borders and linearity (Chair: Julie Crombois (F.R.S.-FNRS/UCLouvain))
- Núria Codina (KULeuven): Generation and Rhizome: Two Complementary Approaches to Transcultural Literary History
- Raluca Tanasescu (University of Groningen): Translation and Network Science: Or How Can we Measure the Effects of Transfers in Cultural Diplomacy?
- Antje Dietze (Universität Leipzig): Cultural mediators and global history
13.00-14.00 : Lunch
14.00-15.30 : Panel 2 Multi-/trans- & heterolingualism: multicultural contexts against the background of 19th-century nationalism (Chair: Elies Smeyers (F.R.S.-FNRS/UCLouvain))
- Beatrijs Vanacker & Tom Verschaffel (KULeuven): Multilingual patterns and cultural transfer in Flemish journals in the 18th century Southern Low Countries
- Marjet Brolsma (University of Amsterdam) & Francis Mus (ULiège / KULeuven): Cultural transfers in literary internationalism. The case of De Nieuwe Europeesche geest in kunst en letteren (1920)
- Svetlana Cecovic (Université Nationale de Recherche - École Supérieure d'Économie, Moscou): Conflit vs. conciliation: quelques cas particuliers de la médiation culturelle franco-belgo-russe
15.30-16.00 : Coffee & Tea Break
16.00-18.00 : Panel 3 Translating/transferring knowledge, science and philosophy: impact and success (Chair: Francis Mus (ULiège/KULeuven))
- Martin Dutron (UCLouvain) : La théologie comme objet de circulation, transformation et resémantisation dans la Revue des Sciences Religieuses de l’Université de Strasbourg dans l’entre-deux-guerres (1921-1933). Malentendus et « transferts culturels » des savoirs théologiques entre Allemagne et France.
- Stefania Caristia (Sorbonne Université): Succès, anomalies, malentendus. Quelques réflexions sur les transferts culturels à partir du cas de Sartre théoricien et critique littéraire dans l’Italie de l’après-guerre (1945-1970).
- Laurent Béghin (Université Saint-Louis / UCLouvain) : La création de la slavistique italienne et belge : un transfert culturel réussi ?
- Arno Gimber (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) : Les intellectuels espagnols en dialogue avec Friedrich Nietzsche. Moments d'un transfert culturel asymétrique
18.00 : Drink at Sénat académique (salle de la Tapisserie)
Thursday 23 May
Venue: Musée L
09.30-10.30 : Keynote Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink (Universität des Saarlandes) : Penser l'échec d'un transfert culturel - malentendus, résistances, réinterprétations (Chair: Hubert Roland (F.R.S.-FNRS/UCLouvain))
10.30-11.00 : Coffee & Tea Break
11.00-12.00 : Panel 4 Translating/transferring philosophical thought: multi-directionality and non-binarity (Chair: Geneviève Warland (UClouvain/Université Saint-Louis))
- Thomas Franck (ULiège/ Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin): Pour une rhétorique des échanges culturels (Kulturaustausch) : le cas d’Adorno en France
- Charlotte Bollaert (UGent): Sartre Sovieticus or the early fate of Jean-Paul Sartre in the USSR
12.00-13.00 : Lunch
13.00-15.00 : Panel 5 From Post- to Trans-colonial. Conceptual questions and methodological reconfigurations (Chair: Véronique Bragard (UCLouvain))
- Valentina Tarquini (Université de Rome 3/ Université de Lorraine): La circulation du discours africain dans le canon littéraire français : le sujet anticolonial et transnational
- Evelyne Shamier (UCLouvain): ‘Yua olwees in mai haat’: Transcolonial perspectives on Javanese Dutchness in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Djongos + Babu (1948)
- Najib Sadikou (Europa-Universität Flensburg): Irritation et transfert culturel. Réflexions à travers la littérature contemporaine africaine et allemande
15.00-15.30 : Coffee & Tea Break
15.30-17.00 : Round table
- Lieven D’hulst (Chair, KU Leuven)
- Sébastien Fevry (UCLouvain)
- Maud Gonne (F.R.S.-FNRS/UNamur)
- Helga Mitterbauer (ULB)
- Wim Weymans (UCLouvain)
18.00 : Conference dinner
Friday 24 May
Venue: Musée L
09.00-10.00 : Keynote Diana Roig-Sanz (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) : Shaping International Literary Exchanges. Ibero-American Modernity as a Case Study (Chair: Maud Gonne (F.R.S.-FNRS/UNamur/UCLouvain))
10.00-10.30 : Coffee & Tea Break
10.30-12.00 : Panel 6 Competing/Connected concepts: Reconsidering Transfer (Chair : Arvi Sepp (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Universiteit Antwerpen))
- Pieter Boulogne (KULeuven): The road from one jail to another. The arson of the Bank of France by the Russian artist Pavlensky as self-translation and cultural transfer
- Pierre-Alexis Delhaye (Université Polytechnique des Hauts-de-France): Transferts culturels et comparatismes : une opposition (in)dépassable ?
- Grâce Ranchon (Université Jean Monnet, CELEC): Apprendre et enseigner une langue-culture non-linéaire ou paradoxale
12.00-13.00 : Lunch
13.00-14.30 : Panel 7 Transfer Through Film: Cultural Memory and Traveling Concepts (Chair : Dirk Delabastita (UNamur))
- John D. Sanderson (Universidad de Alicante): Screen Translation Sociolects and Cultural Boundaries: Transversal Film Genres and Socio-Linguistic Consequences
- Sara F. Hall (University of Illinois, Chicago): The Entanglement of Historical Reckoning in the German-American Transfer Film
- Alexandra Sanchez (KULeuven): PBS Documentaries on LatinX Migration and the Concept of Cultural Transfer: How to Map the Gap?
14.30-15.00 : Coffee & Tea Break
15.00 : Conclusions Hubert Roland (F.R.S.-FNRS/UCLouvain)
Venue
Day 1 : Sénat académique, Halles Universitaires, Place de L’université 1, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Day 2 and 3 : Auditorium du Monceau, Musée L, Musée universitaire de Louvain-la-Neuve, Place des sciences 3, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
The “Musée L” is situated at the heart of the campus.
Accessibility
By train
The Louvain-la-Neuve-Université train station is directly linked to the railway junction of Ottignies, on the Brussels-Namur railway line, with two trains per hour in each direction, including on weekends.
Attention: Do not confuse “Louvain-la-Neuve” with “Louvain”: the latter name is the French and English translation of the Flemish city of Leuven; it refers to another university city on another railway line!
Louvain-la-Neuve is approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour from Brussels-South, Brussels-Central or Brussels-North. There are direct trains to Louvain-la-Neuve; alternatively, you can change in Ottignies for the train to ‘Louvain-la-Neuve’.
Brussels South-Charleroi Airport is located 40 km from Louvain-la-Neuve. TEC buses take you from the airport to the Charleroi South station.
Brussels Airport Zaventem is located 35 km from Louvain-la-Neuve. It is possible to take a train to Louvain-la-Neuve at the airport, via the stations of Brussels-Luxembourg or Brussels-North.
If you travel from Namur, Charleroi or Luxembourg, change in Ottignies for the train to ‘Louvain-la-Neuve’ (if you take the EC 96 Iris or EC 90 Vauban train that originates in Switzerland, change in Namur for a train to Ottignies).
Schedules are available on the SNCB website (https://www.belgiantrain.be/en).
By car
Take the E 411 Brussels-Namur motorway to Louvain-la-Neuve.
If travelling from Brussels, take exit 9 Corroy le Grand, then turn right. At the first roundabout, take the exit on the right in the direction of n4 Wavre, take the second exit at the next roundabout (straight ahead) and at the third roundabout, turn left in the direction of Musée L.
If travelling from Namur, take exit 9 Corroy le Grand, then turn left. At the first roundabout, take the exit on the right in the direction of n4 Wavre, take the second exit at the next roundabout (straight ahead) and at the third roundabout, turn left in the direction of Musée L.
You can park your car on the free parking (“parking malin”) ‘Baudoin I’ (on the Boulevard Baudoin I) or the free parking ‘Rédimé’ (on the avenue Georges Lemaître):
https://llnsciencepark.be/sites/default/files/uploads/logos/parkingmalin.pdf
City Map
https://uclouvain.be/fr/decouvrir/plan-louvain-la-neuve.html
Accomodation
It is possible to book a room at the hotel ‘Martin’s Louvain-la-Neuve’, in the city centre, for a reduced price of €100,22 per single room/night (breakfast and Spa included) by contacting the conference organisation via transferts2019@uclouvain.be, before 22 April at the latest. You will subsequently receive a link from the hotel to confirm your reservation and specify your personal details.
Hotel Martin’s Louvain-la-Neuve https://www.martinshotels.com/en/hotel/martins-louvain-la-neuve
Of course you are free to book a room somewhere else at your own convenience.
Hotels
Guest chambers – B&B
Comités
Comité d’organisation :
- Julie Crombois (FNRS, UC Louvain)
- Dirk Delabastita (U Namur)
- Maud Gonne (FNRS, U Namur/UC Louvain)
- Hubert Roland (FNRS, UC Louvain)
- Elies Smeyers (FNRS, UC Louvain/U Gent)
- Stéphanie Vanasten (UC Louvain)
Comité scientifique :
- Marnix Beyen (U Antwerpen)
- Lieven D’hulst (KU Leuven)
- Jaap Grave (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
- Joep Leerssen (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
- Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink (Universität des Saarlandes)
- Reine Meylaerts (KU Leuven)
- Lut Missinne (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
- Helga Mitterbauer (ULB)
- Francis Mus (U Liège)
- Arvi Sepp (VUB/U Antwerpen)
- Michael Werner (EHESS Paris)
Références
- Bal, M. (2002). Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Brems, E., Réthelyi, O., Van Kalmthout, T. (eds.) (2016). Doing Double Dutch. The International Circulation of Literature from the Low Countries. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
- Charle, C. (2010). « Comparaisons et transferts en histoire culturelle de l’Europe. Quelques réflexions à propos de recherches récentes », in S. Baby, M. Zancarini-Fournel (eds.), Histoires croisées : réflexions sur la comparaison internationale en histoire (Cahiers IRICE 5 : 1), pp. 51-73.
- D’hulst, L. (2012). « (Re)locating translation history : from assumed translation to assumed transfer ». Translation Studies 5 (2), pp. 139-155.
- Espagne, M. (2013). « La notion de transfert culturel ». Revue Sciences/Lettres [online].
- Even-Zohar, I. 1990. «Translation and transfer ». Poetics Today 11 (1), pp. 73–78.
- Folaron, D. Buzelin, H. (eds.) (2007). Translation and Network Studies (Meta 52: 4).
- Gonne, M. (2015). « Recyclages, croisements et transferts dans l’oeuvre de Georges Eekhoud ». Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France 115 (2), pp. 391-407.
- Göpferich, S. (2007). « Translation Studies and Transfer studies. A plea for widening the scope of Translation Studies », in Y. Gambier, M. Shlesinger, R. Stolze (eds.), Doubts and Directions in Translation studies. Amsterdam/Philadelphie: John Benjamins Publishing, pp. 27-39.
- Joyeux, B. (2002). « Les transferts culturels. Un discours de la méthode ». Hypothèses, pp. 151-161.
- Leerssen, J. (2014). « Networks and patchworks: Communication, identities, mediators », in T. Lobbes, M. Gonne (eds.), Crossing Borders, Borders Resisting (Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 92: 4), pp. 1395-1402.
- Lüsebrink, H.-J. (2010). „Kulturtransfer und Übersetzung. Theoretische Konfigurationen und Fallbeispiele (aus dem Bereich des Theaters)“, in E. Mengel, L. Schnauder, R. Weiss (eds.), Weltbühne Wien – World Stage Vienna (Approaches to Cultural Transfer 1, Trier), pp. 21-35.
- Lüsebrink, H.-J. (2008), Interkulturelle Kommunikation: Interaktion, Fremdwahrnehmung, Kulturtransfer (2., aktualisierte und erweiterte Aufl edn). Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler.
- Middell, M. (ed.) (2014). Cultural Transfers, Encounters and Connections in the Global 18th Century. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag.
- Middell, M., Roura, L. (eds.) (2013). Transnational Challenges to National History Writing. Houndmills/New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Middell, M. (2016). « Kulturtransfer, histoire croisée, cultural encounters ». Docupedia Zeitgeschichte.
- Pym, A. (1998). Method in Translation History. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
- Roland, H. (2016). „Kulturtransfer und Nachdichtung. Über Autoren des belgischen Symbolismus (Maurice Maeterlinck, Émile Verhaeren) und ihre Beziehung zur deutschen Literatur“. Germanistische Mitteilungen 42/2, pp. 45-62.
- Roig-Sanz, D., Meylaerts, R. (eds.) (2018). Literary Translation and Cultural Mediators in 'Peripheral' Cultures. Customs Officers or Smugglers? New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Solte-Gresser, Chr., Lüsebrink, H.-J., Schmeling, M. (eds.) (2013). Zwischen Transfer und Vergleich. Theorien und Methoden der Literatur- und Kulturbeziehungen aus deutsch-französischer Perspektive. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
- Tymoczko, M. (2003). « Ideology and the Position of the Translator – In what Sense is a Translator ‘In Between’», in Calzada Pérez, M. (ed.), A propos of Ideology. Translation Studies on Ideology – Ideologies in Translation Studies. New York: Routledge.
- Vanasten, S. (2010). „Hugo Claus, heimlicher Hölderlin-Übersetzer“, in H. van Uffelen (ed.), An der Schwelle. ‘Eigen’ und ‘fremd’ in der niederländischen Literatur. Vienne: Praesens, pp. 221-240.
- Weissbrod, R., « From Translation to Transfer ». Across Languages and Cultures 5: 1 (2004), pp. 23-41.
- Werner, M. (2012). « Apports et limites de la triangulation. Le Maghreb dans les relations scientifiques franco-allemandes au XIXe siècle », in A. Adbelfettah et al (eds.), Savoirs d’Allemagne en Afrique du Nord. Saint-Denis: Editions Bouchène, pp. 275-286.
- Werner, M., Zimmermann, B. (2003). « Penser l'histoire croisée: entre empirie et réflexivité », Annales. Histoire, sciences sociales (58: Éditions de l'EHESS), pp. 7-36.
- Werner, M., (2013). „Konzeptionen und theoretische Ansätze zur Untersuchung von Kulturbeziehungen“, in N. Colin et al. (Hrsg.), Lexikon der deutsch-französischen Kulturbeziehungen nach 1945. Tübingen: Narr, pp. 23-31.
Registration :
The participants of the conference are kindly asked to register before May 5, 11.59 PM at the latest.
The registration fee amounts to €10/day; this covers coffee breaks and the evening drink on the first night (on Wednesday 22/05). An optional contribution of €15/day needs to be paid to cover lunch costs, but you are free to make your own lunch arrangements.
Participation in the conference dinner, which takes place on Thursday evening, is optional and costs €50.
Any additional costs related to bank transfers are to be paid by the participants. It is possible to pay cash at the conference register desk (however, foreign currencies will not be accepted). Please inform the organisers in advance if you wish to pay cash.
Participants who wish to apply for a financial aid are kindly invited to register before April 7, 11.59 PM at the latest and to indicate this in the online registration form. They are asked to send a cost estimate to the organizing committee, who will examine each application and decide on its eligibility, taking into account the number of requests and the available budget. Only tickets (airplane, train, public transport) in economy class will be considered for partial reimbursement and only those tickets and accommodation costs of which the price has been communicated in advance. Taxi costs will not be reimbursed.