Pathways to Translating Body, Consciousness, and Desire

with Jenna Tang
Sunday June 23rd from 5pm-7pm Pacific over Zoom
(A recording will be made available to all registrants for a limited time afterwards.)

What does it mean to explore our own writing through works in translation––especially by reading them and translating narratives from another language and culture? What do we consider when translating texts that involve descriptions about body, stream of consciousness, one’s emotional landscape, and desire? How do elements of translation and our writing inform and support each other in the literary world?

Over the course of this webinar, I’ll be sharing my experience as a literary translator who has worked on translating narratives from both Mandarin Chinese and Spanish into English, with a focus on texts that are personal, strange and surreal, ones that speak deeply about a narrator’s interiority. I will be referencing my forthcoming Taiwanese novel in translation, Lin Yi-Han’s Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise, which involves a delicate balance in rendering vulnerability, trauma, invisible violence, and the search for belonging. We’ll also look at other short stories from Latin American authors, including poems and texts that revolve different aspects of body, consciousness, and desire.

Besides exploring the world of literature in translation, in our session together, we’ll be doing a few language exercises together to help participants generate new writings through the lens of different languages. You don’t have to be proficient in a non-English language to take part. It is more about introducing us to the idea of translation, to engage with different languages in a new way, and for us to have a chance to reflect/reshape the language that tells our stories.

Jenna Tang is a Taiwanese writer, educator, and translator who translates between Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French, and English. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Her translations and essays are published in The Paris Review, Latin American Literature Today, AAWW, Catapult, Mcsweeney’s, and elsewhere. She translated Lin Yi-Han’s novel, Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise, one of the most iconic #MeToo movement titles from Taiwan.

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Pricing:

The following payment model is inspired by and borrowed from the payment model of Bayo Akomolafe’s class, We Will Dance With Mountains: Into the Cracks.

This workshop offers a sliding scale based on your relative financial standing. In an effort to reflect disparity in economic condition and access to wealth, the following payment system is designed for those with more wealth to help cover the costs of those with less access to wealth and resources. We trust your discernment of your current financial situation and how you fit into the global economic context.

As you decide what amount to pay, please consider your present-day financial situation governed by income, but also the following factors: historical discrimination faced by your peoples; your financial wealth (retirement/savings/investments); your access to income and financial wealth, both current and anticipated (how easily could you earn more income compared to other people in your community, country, and the world; are you expecting an inheritance); people counting on your financial livelihood including dependents and community members; the socio-economic conditions of your locale (relative to other places in your country and in the world); your relationship to food & resource scarcity.

$200 Partner

$150 Supporter (Note: This amount reflects the “real” value of this course.)

$125 Companion

$100 Friend

A limited number of scholarships are also available for anyone needing further financial assistance. Please email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com for more info, or if you are feeling challenged in any way by the financial requirements of participation.

Testimonials:
K-Ming Chang, author of Bestiary
"Jenna Tang is doing incredible and important work as a translator and writer. She is so generous and always opens the door for others. Her work challenges the status quo and creates a space for resonant stories and writers to find many audiences and communities across languages and borders. She helps us see what is possible in the literary world and how to find our way toward it. I can't think of anyone I'd rather learn from more!"

Jeremy Tiang, Literary Translator and Singaporean Writer
“Jenna Tang works tirelessly and generously to promote literature in translation and to build community within the translation sphere. As a translator from Taiwan now based in the US, she moves fluidly between the cultures she translates from and to, probing the bounds of the English language and seeking out voices who have hitherto not received sufficient attention.”

Mike Fu, Literary Translator of Sanmao’s Stories of the Sahara
“Jenna is a thoughtful translator and creative spirit who works from multiple lineages and myriad inspirations, toggling between the minutest of details and big-picture issues in a text with ease. Warm and inquisitive, she's committed to community in all senses and brings passion and energy to every one of her endeavors.”

Nadia Bongo, Writer & Poet
"Jenna is a fantastic instructor! Her workshop was so engaging. She expertly mixed questions of languages, poetic, inspiration, and translation. That’s something I had been looking for a long time in a workshop. I learned new tools to write about languages. Jenna’s constructive feedback encouraged me to keep writing about languages and exploring migration in organic ways. The discussions resonated throughout my week outside the online meeting: I kept feeling engaged, researching, and writing."