Out of Practice, no 1: On showing rather than telling
- Event type
- Seminar
- Series
- Out of Practice Seminar (Oops)
- Address
- Bedford Room, G37, Ground Floor, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
- Speakers
- Timothy Mathews (UCL), Mathelinda Nabugodi (UCL)
- Event dates
- Contact
- IESEvents@sas.ac.uk Email only
Out of Practice – what comes out of thinking approached as a practice of expression and formulation? What disappears as we lose the practice of critical form in all its range, allow it to become instrumentalised, abstract it from its creative impetus and disciplinary interactions, its familiarity with the range of critical forms and privilege?
In this first seminar, Timothy Mathews and Mathelinda Nabugodi will be in dialogue about two recent projects.
Timothy Mathews will present his translation of Guillaume Apollinaire’s Seated Woman (1920) - a witty, melancholic, lyrical and satirical, indulgent and impatient, imaginary and speculative testimony to the psychological, aesthetic, and societal threads in the catastrophe of World War 1. Tim’s translation – recently published by Shearsman Books – is accompanied (like a musical accompaniment…?) by a translator’s memoir, by further translations, and an interweaving of translation and subjective response. The book invites readers to reflect on some of the elements in the affective and existential situation of the translator, which is constantly shifting, refusing to cohere, and questioning the nature of subjecthood. Reading from the book and in discussion, Tim hopes to illuminate the contiguity of translation, creativity, and criticism – showing how all three combine in producing a translated text.
Mathelinda Nabugodi will present her first monograph, Shelley with Benjamin: A Critical Mosaic (UCL Press, 2023). The book is an experiment in comparative reading that started life as a PhD in Creative Critical Writing. In addition to revealing unexpected poetic and philosophical affinities between these two writers, the book aims to foreground the personal and ethical stakes of literary criticism. The critic jostles for attention with the writers being criticised. In this session, she will read a few passages from the book and reflect on the process of getting from PhD thesis to published book, and the role of the creative and critical in this Mathelinda Nabugodi
Open Access Download of Shelley with Benjamin: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/194242
Unless stated otherwise, all our events are free of charge and anyone interested in the topic is welcome to attend. Registration is required for all events.
In this first seminar, Timothy Mathews and Mathelinda Nabugodi will be in dialogue about two recent projects.
Timothy Mathews will present his translation of Guillaume Apollinaire’s Seated Woman (1920) - a witty, melancholic, lyrical and satirical, indulgent and impatient, imaginary and speculative testimony to the psychological, aesthetic, and societal threads in the catastrophe of World War 1. Tim’s translation – recently published by Shearsman Books – is accompanied (like a musical accompaniment…?) by a translator’s memoir, by further translations, and an interweaving of translation and subjective response. The book invites readers to reflect on some of the elements in the affective and existential situation of the translator, which is constantly shifting, refusing to cohere, and questioning the nature of subjecthood. Reading from the book and in discussion, Tim hopes to illuminate the contiguity of translation, creativity, and criticism – showing how all three combine in producing a translated text.
Mathelinda Nabugodi will present her first monograph, Shelley with Benjamin: A Critical Mosaic (UCL Press, 2023). The book is an experiment in comparative reading that started life as a PhD in Creative Critical Writing. In addition to revealing unexpected poetic and philosophical affinities between these two writers, the book aims to foreground the personal and ethical stakes of literary criticism. The critic jostles for attention with the writers being criticised. In this session, she will read a few passages from the book and reflect on the process of getting from PhD thesis to published book, and the role of the creative and critical in this Mathelinda Nabugodi
Open Access Download of Shelley with Benjamin: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/194242
- Timothy Mathews’s other recent books are There and Not Here, Chronicles of Art and Loss, Ma Bibliothèque, 2022; and with Patrick ffrench, Roland Barthes’ Fragments of a Lover’s discourse: translating again, writing again, a special issue of CounterText, 2023.
- Mathelinda Nabugodi is a lecturer in Comparative Literature at UCL. She is now working on her second book, The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive as well as a critical edition of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Complete Verse Translations.
Unless stated otherwise, all our events are free of charge and anyone interested in the topic is welcome to attend. Registration is required for all events.
