OxTalks is Changing
OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
OCCT Discussion Group: Translating Turn-of-the-Century Sex Work for the Contemporary Stage
In this talk, Minna Jeffery will be discussing her in-progress translation of Finnish playwright and journalist Elvira Willman’s Kellarikerroksessa [The Basement Flats] (1907). This sprawling, revolutionary play focuses on the lives of the poorest inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Helsinki, and unflinchingly addresses sexual morality, incarceration, poverty, and political corruption. Jeffery will use this play as a case study for the exploration of how class and sexuality have been, and might be, presented in translation on the historic Finnish and contemporary British stages. She is particularly interested in how sex work and those that undertake it are represented in this play, and in considering how, via translation, this representation can be put in conversation with contemporary discourse around sex work and theatrical explorations of it. Willman depicts the lives of sex workers with honesty and empathy. In this talk, Jeffery will examine the considerations and responsibilities facing the translator of this text. How can this work be approached in an ethical, politically engaged way? In particular, her interest is in what it means to translate this play for contemporary performance; how the performance situation both complicates matters and offers opportunities. This work builds on her broader, practice-based research into feminist theatre translation practice.
occt.web.ox.ac.uk/event/discussion-group-translating-turn-of-the-century-sex-work-for-the-contemporary-stage
Date:
4 March 2024, 12:45
Venue:
St Anne's College, Woodstock Road OX2 6HS
Venue Details:
Seminar Room 10, St Anne's College
Speaker:
Minna Jeffery
Part of:
Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Katy Terry
