Project Ginsberg and Me: Reflections on an Experimental Translation
Anuj Gupta
Publication: Volume 1 Issue 2
Abstract
This paper is a preface that was written for an experimental translation project which was carried out in the summer of 2016. In this project, a series of extracts from poems by Allen Ginsberg were collated that swivel around the idea of “freedom” (a word that gained immense semantic intensity due to the political environment in JNU in February 2016) and then translational procedures were performed on them at multiple levels (of mode, media, culture, and form). The purpose of this project was to explore the signifier of “freedom” across historical formations, using translation as a research method. The audio-visual translation itself was published in the 26th issue of Café Dissensus (https://cafedissensus.com/2016/06/16/project-ginsberg-me-ruminations-on-freedom/) on 16th June, 2016 and must be referred to in order to make sense of the current paper, which is a reflection based on it.
Keywords: Translation, Ginsberg, JNU, Freedom, Polysystem Studies.
Anuj Gupta (mettalrose@gmail.com) is a doctoral candidate in English Literature from the Center for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research interests are based on his fascination for how language and reality shape each other. He has been exploring this phenomenon from different perspectives in both his research and other practices. He has worked on creative, pedagogic, and research related projects with the Daya Foundation, the Deepalaya Community Library, the Poets & Pints group in Delhi, the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Dharamshala, and Ashoka University.