Translation can be seen as producing a text in one language that counts as equivalent to a text in another. It can also be seen as a release of multiple signifying possibilities, an opening of the source text to Language in all its plurality. The first view sees translation as a channel, the second as a prism.

Our strand explores the conceptual and creative consequences of the prismatic view. By tracking texts in detail across several languages and scripts, we pursue comparative cultural, literary, linguistic and cognitive research; and we explore creative possibilities in collaboration with school students and practising translators. 

Projects

Prismatic Jane Eyre

Inspiring Pupils: Multilingual Poetry in Schools

Blog posts on Prismatic Translation

Poems capture pupils' arrival in the UK using adaptation and translation

The power of creative multilingualism: inspiring pupils with poetry

Jane Eyre translated: 57 languages show how different cultures interpret Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel (via The Conversation)

Mapping Jane Eyres across the world

68 ways to say ‘plain’: translating Jane Eyre

Finding poetry in a new language

Korean pop: BTS and fan translation

Research update: tracing prismatic rays of translation

On the road: Prismatic Translation’s Swahili workshop

Poetry workshops: celebrating community languages

“Reader, I went through a wedding ceremony with him”: Translating Jane Eyre

Portuguese creative writing workshop with Hélia Correia

Oxford pupil wins Foyle Young Poets competition

Inspiring pupils: multilingual creative writing

Polish poet fosters creativity at Oxford Spires Academy

Mapping translation – on the trail of Jane Eyre

Raw and impassioned: writing multilingual poetry in an Oxford school

Iraqi poet encourages Oxford Spires students to nurture their poetic creativity

Publications

Park, S; Habjan, J. “World Literatures”. Oxford Bibliographies. 2019.

Park, S. “Scriptworlds.” The Cambridge Companion to World Literature. Ed. B Etherington; J Zimbler. 2018.

Philippou E. “Commissioning Political Sympathies: Jane Eyre in Greece.” Close-Reading a Global Novel Across Languages: Prismatic Jane Eyre.

Reynolds, M. “Prismatic Translation and the Hum of Buzz of Tongues”. Traduction et Textualité. Ed. C Sabiron; C Chauvin. 2020.

Reynolds, M, ed. Prismatic Translation. Legenda. 2019.

Reynolds, M. “Introduction”. Prismatic Translation. Ed. M Reynolds. Legenda. 2019.

Reynolds, M. “Prismatic Agon, Prismatic Harmony: Translation, Literature, Language”. Prismatic Translation. Ed. M Reynolds. Legenda. 2019.

Reynolds, M. “Babel: Curse or Blessing”. Babel: adventures in translation. Eds. D J B Duncan; S J Harrison; K M Kohl; M Reynolds. The Bodleian Library. 2019.

Reynolds, M. “Translating the Divine”. Babel: adventures in translation. Eds. D J B Duncan; S J Harrison; K M Kohl; M Reynolds. The Bodleian Library. 2019.

Reynolds, M. “Translating ‘I’: Dante, Literariness and the Inherent Multimodality of Language”. Translation and Multimodality: Beyond Words. Eds. M Boria; Á Carreres; M Noriega-Sánchez; M Tomalin. Routledge. 2019.

Reynolds, M. Prismatic Jane Eyre: An Experiment in the Study of Translations. Online.

Reynolds, M. “Fiction plurilingue and Monolingual Criticism”. Proceedings of XLth Congress of the French Society of General and Comparative Literature. 2017.