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2011 Short Film Competition for Students of German in New Zealand
Three students from GERM316 have won first prize in the tertiary category of the 2011 Short Film Competition for Students of German in New Zealand. "Die Alphabet-Morde" ("The Alphabet Murders"), a detective spoof made by Fran Gleisner, Damian Granich and Jarrod Henderson, beat stiff competition from around the country to take out the prize. The competition has run every year since 2006 and has three categories: two for secondary schools and one for universities. Sponsors include the Goethe-Institut and the German Embassy. This year's theme was ABC-Deutschland and ties in with the theme of the Goethe-Institut exhibition “Germany 101” held in Wellington earlier in the year. The short film project is integrated into the course work of GERM316, and students have the option of entering their films in the competition. The awards ceremony, featuring screenings of short-listed films in all three categories, was held at the NZ film archive on 2 December.
Celebrating the centenary of Polish writer and Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz
The Polish Embassy, the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation (NZCLT) and Wai-te-ata Press collaborated in an exhibition and book launch at Wai-te-ata Press on Friday to celebrate the centenary of the Polish writer and Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz.
Pictured above are Polish ambassador Mrs Beata Stoczynska (left) and NZCLT Director, Dr Marco Sonzogni. The Milosz centenary exhibition continues until 18 November at Wai-te-ata Press, which is located in the Rankine Brown Library, Kelburn, Level 0.
Polish-American author translator and critic Czeslaw Milosz was born in 1911 and died in 2004. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. Milosz's poetry and essays are a mixture of autobiographical confessions dealing with the effects of exile, religious or metaphysical fragments, historical and literary analyses.
School of Languages and Cultures Inaugural Postgraduate Symposium
The School of Languages and Cultures held its inaugural Postgraduate Symposium on Tuesday 18 October to showcase the research work of Honours, MA and PhD students from all language and culture programmes in the School. There was a full and varied programme, with papers grouped around key themes including gender studies, issues of reception and cross-cultural representation and language and translation studies, and sessions chaired by academic staff from the School. The symposium was opened by Assoc Professor Peter Whiteford (Deputy Dean, FHSS), who highlighted the importance of such events for the research culture of the School, the Faculty and the wider University. SLC is planning to publish a selection of papers from the symposium as a book, to be launched in early 2012.
Annual Lecture of The New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation
The Annual Lecture of The New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation was held on Wednesday 5 October at the historical venue of Old St Paul's. Organised by the School of Languages and Cultures in conjunction with the School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies, this year's lecture was part of the worldwide celebration for the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible (1611-2011).
The keynote speaker was renowned Bible scholar David Norton (pictured), a Professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington, who enlightened and entertained over a hundred guests with his scholarship and sense of humour. Titled 'The King James Bible: the Making of a Translation', Professor Norton's lecture addressed the literary and linguistic issues underpinning what remains one of the most defining moments in the history of mankind. The lecture also examined the historical, social and religious context behind one of the world's most enduring and influential translations.
The lecture was introduced by Professor Paul Morris, UNESCO Chair in Interreligious Understanding and Dialogue in New Zealand and the Pacific, Victoria University of Wellington, and was attended, among others, by Mr Ian McKinnon, Deputy Mayor of Wellington and Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington and by Dr Tom Brown, Bishop of Wellington, who opened the evening with a reading from the Second Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians.
A commemorative bookmark was published by Wai-te-ata Press in a limited edition (copies available from nina.cuccurullo@vuw.ac.nz).
View the Annual Lecture of the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation via our Mediasite.
- Part 1: The King James Bible - The Making of a Translation
- Part 2: The King James Bible - The Making of a Translation
Indonesian Literary Evening
In late September, the NZ Centre for Literary Translation, in conjunction with the Asian Studies Institute and the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia held an "Indonesian Literary Evening". The well-attended festivities featured the launch of Associate Professor Stephen Epstein's translation of the novel Telegram, by noted Balinese author Putu Wijaya. The event also included, a brief introduction to Indonesia's literary culture by His Excellency Agus Sriyono, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia and readings of excerpts of the novel and another Indonesian short story that Stephen had translated by students from Toi Whakkari, the New Zealand Drama School, as well as welcoming remarks from the NZCLT's Director, Dr Marco Sonzogni.
Ministry-sponsored visit to Indonesia
Last month, Associate Professor Stephen Epstein, the director of Victoria's Asian Studies Programme, (pictured here shaking hands with the President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), represented the University in a visit sponsored by Indonesia's Ministry for Foreign Affairs for Presidential Friends of Indonesia'.
The visit included numerous meetings to discuss Indonesia's current role as the chair of ASEAN and a state dinner at the presidential palace in celebration of Indonesia's Independence Day on 17 August.
On 28 September, Stephen's translation of the novel Telegram, by noted Balinese author Putu Wijaya, was launched at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Wellington.
Rose Ausländer, “Mutterland Wort” – “Motherland Word”: Exhibition, Workshop, Competition
Fate drove Rose Ausländer, one of the greatest women poets of the 20th century, halfway around the world. For her, writing meant “living! surviving!”
Born in 1901 in Czernowitz/Bukovina (then part of Austria, today in the Ukraine), as a Jew she was hounded by the Nazis, but managed to survive World War II in the Czernowitz ghetto. In 1946 she emigrated to New York and eventually settled in Düsseldorf in 1965, at which time very few people knew she had been writing poetry for 50 years.
An exhibition in commemoration of Rose Ausländer’s 110th birthday anniversary ran in July at St James Theatre. The exhibition was a collaboration between the Wellington Goethe Institute, the New Zealand Centre of Literary Translation and Victoria’s German Programme.
The exhibition was opened on 13 July by Austrian Consul Peter Diessl. Over 80 guests admired the beautiful photos on display and were moved by Ausländer’s short yet powerful poems, the latter accompanied by English translations skilfully produced by students of the German Programme.
Dr Monica Tempian and Dr Richard Millington of the German Programme made the exhibition dynamic and interactive by inviting students, professional translators and acclaimed New Zealand writers to come up with their own English versions of the poems exhibited and enter them in a competition.
Listed in alphabetical order, the winners were:
“On being a poet” by Navina Clemerson
“Astonished” by Lloyd Jones
“No more light” by Sue McRae
“Bukovina I” by Kerry Nitz
Hon Christopher Finlayson visits the School of Languages and Cultures
Pictured are Dr Philippe Martin-Horie, Dr Nicola Gilmour, Prof Rob Rabel, Hon Christopher Finlayson, Assoc Prof Sarah Leggott and Dr Marco Sonzogni.
On July 26th, the School of Languages and Cultures (SLC) was honoured to welcome the Hon Christopher Finlayson, Attorney-General for New Zealand, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, to the School for an informal lunch. The Minister who is a VUW alumnus and former lecturer was welcomed by Prof. Rob Rabel, PVC International, and by Assoc Prof Sarah Leggott, Head of School, and by representatives of the different language programmes in SLC. A lover of modern languages and cultures, and a firm supporter of language learning in NZ and in the wider community of a global society, Chris Finlayson shared his interests and views with staff. The visit was also an opportunity for the Minister to reminisce about his own days studying languages in the von Zedlitz building at Victoria! The PVC International and the Head of School thanked the Minister for his time and support, and we look forward to further opportunities for dialogue and exchange.
Translation Award for Italian Lecturer
A poem translated by Dr Marco Sonzogni, Senior Lecturer in Italian, School of Languages and Cultures, has won an international translation award. Over the last two years, Dr Sonzogni, who is also the Director of the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, has been translating the poetry of Holocaust survivor Primo Levi into English with US poet, editor and translator Harry Thomas. One of their translations, 'The Thaw', has won the first prize at this year's Der-Hovanessian Translation Award run by the prestigious New England Poetry Club. The winning translation is published in the current issue of the US literary magazine Salamander (15, 2: 74). More translations will be published in the next issue of PN Review and in the next issue of Modern Poetry in Translation.
Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language
Victoria University's Spanish Programme has recently been accredited by Spain's Ministry of Education and Culture as an official examination centre for the prestigious DELE exams (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language).
The DELE is the sole standardised accreditation system for Spanish language students, accepted in over 100 different countries around the world. A DELE qualification provides students with a formal recognition of their level of competence in both written and spoken Spanish that is recognised worldwide by private companies, chambers of commerce and public and private educational institutions. There are six levels of DELE exams available, ranging from A1 (Basic) to C2 (Advanced), in line with the six levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Victoria is only the second institution in New Zealand to be accredited as an examining centre.
The exams will be offered at Victoria for the first time in the May 2011 examination round. More information about the exams is available from the School of Languages and Cultures; contact Associate Professor Sarah Leggott, address.
Events
'The King James Bible: The Making of a Translation' a public lecture by Prof. David Norton
This event was organised by the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation in association with the School of Languages and Cultures and the School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies to mark the 400th anniversary (1611-2011) of the King James Bible.
David Norton, FNZAH, FRSNZ, is a professor of English at Victoria University of Wellington. He is author of A History of the Bible as Literature and A Textual History of the King James Bible, and is editor of The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible and the Penguin Bible. His latest book, written for the 400th anniversary, is The King James Bible: a Short History from Tyndale to Today.
Book Launch for Italian Lecturer
On 12 April 2011, Dr Marco Sonzogni, Lecturer in Italian at VUW, will launch his new book This Way: Covering/uncovering Tadeusz Borowski's This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. Published by Dunmore Publishing in association with the Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre, the launch will be held at the Wellington Jewish Community Centre.
International Conference on Literary Translation
From 11 to 13 December 2010, The New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation hosted a major conference on literary translation, 'Writing Past Each Other? Literary Translation and Community', which focused on the ways in which literary translation can create communities (and conversely, how its absence can prevent their formation). There was a focus on the Pacific and Asian regions, but the conference also attracted interest from translators, writers and theorists across a wide range of geographical and literary areas. Keynote speakers were Lawrence Venuti, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Paulo Britto.
For further information about the Literary Translation and Community Conference 'Writing Past Each Other? Literary Translation and Community' please see the NZCLT conference webpage.