Two Voices Salon: Karen Emmerich on Contemporary Greek Literature
Center for the Art of Translation | 582 Market Street, Suite 700 | San Francisco, CA
On February 17 we’ll host Karen Emmerich, the English-language’s pre-eminent Greek translator. A timely discussion considering recent events in Greece.
We’ll talk about Karen’s many translation projects, but the main topic will be her new title, The Scapegoat. Out February 3 from Melville House Books, it was written by Greek author Sofia Nikolaidou, who has never before been translated into English.
The Scapegoat is a potent novel about journalism, how history is recorded, and the situation in Greece today. From Melville House’s description: “Based on the real story of famed CBS reporter George Polk—journalism’s prestigious Polk Awards were named after him—who was investigating embezzlement of U.S. aid by the right-wing Greek government, Nikolaidou’s novel is a sweeping saga that brings together the Greece of the post-war period with the current era, where the country finds itself facing turbulent political times once again”.
Audio Table of Contents
00:00 Introductions
1:35 Translators sharing projects they’re working on & exciting books they’ve read
10:45 How Karen began translating works
15:05 How people reacted to her first translation
16:13 Karen discussing her latest translation with Melville House, The Scapegoat
17:30 The personal, political and historical aspects of the novel
21:39 Explaining the title, The Scapegoat
24:00 Historical aspects and demands of the novel
26:23 Traditions of Greek publishing and translation editorial work – added perspectives from present translators
39:00 Arguments of the novel: The book’s reprisal of power relations such as the U.S. and the EU playing similar roles in Greece
40:55 Audience Question: I was wondering how you deal with mannerisms that are taken for granted in Greek culture? – Added perspectives from present translators
54:03 What Greek books have you taught in your lit courses?
-Follow-up Audience Question: From the time you had the idea for the book to the time it was printed –how long did it take?
57:38 Discussing the economics of translation
1:03:04 Discussing a future novel’s publication process
1:07:04 Audience Question: The average Greek reader – how would they experience the Pontian Greek in the novel. Is that something you know or had to research?
1:11:27 Audience Question: I’m curious about your focus on current Greek writing and the depth of the Greek crisis – do you feel like it’s starting a new literary movement in Greece?
1:14:30 Audience Question: I have the feeling that more readings and more of a community through poetry is present in Greece –is that what you feel, too?
1:16:30 Discussing very recent changes in the Greek political climate
Karen Emmerich is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University and a translator of (modern) Greek poetry and prose. Her monograph Literary Translation and the Making of Originals is due out next fall from Bloomsbury Academic. She has translated 11 books of Greek literature, including Yannis Ritsos’s Diaries of Exile, co-translated with Edmund Keeley, which won the PEN Poetry in Translation Award. She has received grants and awards from PEN, the NEA, and the Modern Greek Studies Association.