Bohemicum – The Center for Czech Studies at the University of Regensburg and Institute of the Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences are organizing the conference “Literature in Exile between ‘Authorship’ and ‘Translation’: The Central and Eastern European Experience” on 18–19 September 2025 in Prague.
This conference aims to examine the complex relationship between ‘authorship’ and ‘translation’ in the work of the 20th-century Central and Eastern European writers in exile who were also translators. In the context of the reassessment of ‘literariness’ in the latter half of the 20th century, the conference is particularly focused on the overlapping relationship between both these concepts, which are seen as interrelated, historically variable categories of literary creativity of exiled writers in redefining themselves against the nationalist narratives. The workshop will thus contribute to the discussion on cultural translation and post-national literature in general.
Submission guidelines: Please send your abstract of max. 1800 characters/300 words to dobias@ucl.cas.cz (Dalibor Dobiáš) and marek.nekula@ur.de (Marek Nekula) by 30 April 2025. We expect the final submissions to be 20 minutes long. The preferred language is English. You will be notified about the selection of submissions by 15 May 2025.
— more information (pdf)
The workshop is organized with the financial support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the AV21 Strategy Research Program ‘Identities in a World of Wars and Crises’ at the Czech Academy of Sciences.
