Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar

Unconditional Hospitality? Translation, Travel and Telling Tales

2018-02-13 12:00:002018-02-13 13:00:00Asia/Hong_KongUnconditional Hospitality? Translation, Travel and Telling Tales

Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar
Unconditional Hospitality? Translation, Travel and Telling Tales

Dr. Harriet Hulme
The Society of Fellows in the Humanities, The University of Hong Kong

Date: February 13, 2018 (Tuesday)
Time: 12:00 – 13:00
Venue: Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
Enquiry: (852) 3917-5772, ihss@hku.hk

Abstract
From Odysseus narrating his story to the Phaeacians to expediate his return to Ithaca, to Scheherazade in The Arabian Nights telling tales to receive a perverted and perilous form of hospitality, storytelling operates as a central element within the exchange between guest and host. But what happens when we knock on a door and we don’t share a language? What role does translation – its possibility and impossibility – play in the dynamic between hospitality and storytelling? Drawing on examples from literature (Homer’s The Odyssey, Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese – English Dictionary for Lovers) and travel (a 16,500km cycle journey from the UK to Thailand) Dr. Hulme explores the precarious but powerful relationship between hospitality, storytelling, silence and speech.

About the Speaker
Dr. Harriet Hulme is a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at The University of Hong Kong. She completed her PhD in Comparative Literature in 2016 at University College London: the monograph arising from her thesis, entitled Ethics and Aesthetics of Translation: Exploring the Work of Atxaga, Kundera and Semprùn (under contract with UCL Press), explores the ethical theories of translation offered by Benjamin, Deleuze, Derrida and Ricœur as part of an interrogation of ethical as well as political thought within the work of three bilingual European authors. Her current research project at HKU draws on examples from contemporary literature and the work of Levinas and Derrida to investigate the ways in which the tension between home and homelessness informs our contemporary response towards hospitality.

    2018-02-13 12:00:002018-02-13 13:00:00Asia/Hong_KongUnconditional Hospitality? Translation, Travel and Telling Tales

    Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar
    Unconditional Hospitality? Translation, Travel and Telling Tales

    Dr. Harriet Hulme
    The Society of Fellows in the Humanities, The University of Hong Kong

    Date: February 13, 2018 (Tuesday)
    Time: 12:00 – 13:00
    Venue: Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong
    Enquiry: (852) 3917-5772, ihss@hku.hk

    Abstract
    From Odysseus narrating his story to the Phaeacians to expediate his return to Ithaca, to Scheherazade in The Arabian Nights telling tales to receive a perverted and perilous form of hospitality, storytelling operates as a central element within the exchange between guest and host. But what happens when we knock on a door and we don’t share a language? What role does translation – its possibility and impossibility – play in the dynamic between hospitality and storytelling? Drawing on examples from literature (Homer’s The Odyssey, Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese – English Dictionary for Lovers) and travel (a 16,500km cycle journey from the UK to Thailand) Dr. Hulme explores the precarious but powerful relationship between hospitality, storytelling, silence and speech.

    About the Speaker
    Dr. Harriet Hulme is a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at The University of Hong Kong. She completed her PhD in Comparative Literature in 2016 at University College London: the monograph arising from her thesis, entitled Ethics and Aesthetics of Translation: Exploring the Work of Atxaga, Kundera and Semprùn (under contract with UCL Press), explores the ethical theories of translation offered by Benjamin, Deleuze, Derrida and Ricœur as part of an interrogation of ethical as well as political thought within the work of three bilingual European authors. Her current research project at HKU draws on examples from contemporary literature and the work of Levinas and Derrida to investigate the ways in which the tension between home and homelessness informs our contemporary response towards hospitality.

      Overview

      Title:

      Unconditional Hospitality? Translation, Travel and Telling Tales

      Speaker:

      Dr. Harriet Hulme (Post-doctoral Fellow, The Society of Fellows in the Humanities, The University of Hong Kong)

      Date:

      February 13, 2018

      Time:

      12:00 nn – 1:00 pm

      Venue:

      Room 201, 2/F, May Hall, The University of Hong Kong (Map)

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      (Tel) (852) 3917-5772
      (Email) ihss@hku.hk

      Abstract

      From Odysseus narrating his story to the Phaeacians to expediate his return to Ithaca, to Scheherazade in The Arabian Nights telling tales to receive a perverted and perilous form of hospitality, storytelling operates as a central element within the exchange between guest and host. But what happens when we knock on a door and we don’t share a language? What role does translation — its possibility and impossibility — play in the dynamic between hospitality and storytelling? Drawing on examples from literature (Homer’s The Odyssey, Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers) and travel (a 16,500km cycle journey from the UK to Thailand) Dr. Hulme explores the precarious but powerful relationship between hospitality, storytelling, silence and speech.

      About the speaker

      Dr. Harriet Hulme is a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at The University of Hong Kong. She completed her PhD in Comparative Literature in 2016 at University College London: the monograph arising from her thesis, entitled Ethics and Aesthetics of Translation: Exploring the Work of Atxaga, Kundera and Semprùn (under contract with UCL Press), explores the ethical theories of translation offered by Benjamin, Deleuze, Derrida and Ricœur as part of an interrogation of ethical as well as political thought within the work of three bilingual European authors. Her current research project at HKU draws on examples from contemporary literature and the work of Levinas and Derrida to investigate the ways in which the tension between home and homelessness informs our contemporary response towards hospitality.

      Poster