Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR)

Profile

My PhD project seeks to re-evaluate the relationship between creative writing and translation through a consideration of the work of Lydia Davis, American translator of Proust, Blanchot, Leiris and others, and writer of short texts and a novel. Going against traditional notions of translation as training for writing, I propose that both are creative activities that require different, though complementary, processes. Translation is thus viewed as a mode of writing, with translations being seen as part of a writer's larger œuvre.

My academic interests are mainly centred around literature and translation, more especially twentieth century short fiction and poetry. I am interested in modern literature in English, French, Spanish and Scandinavian languages, especially writers such as Tor Ulven or Maurice Blanchot. I am also interested in the relation between translation and other forms of adaptation.

Qualifications 

• BA (Hons) English and Comparative Literature, University of East Anglia, 2004
• MA Literary Translation, University of East Anglia, 2007

Current Research Projects

• PhD Thesis 'Lydia Davis and the Work of Translation'

Journal Articles

• Buchta, M., J. Evans & K. Nakayama (2006) ‘Talking About Translation’, In Other Words, 27 (Summer 2006), 71-76

Book Chapters

• Evans, J. (2009) 'Cover Songs: Metaphor or Object of Study?' in I. Kemble (Ed.) The Changing Face of Translation: Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Portsmouth Translation Conference held on 8th November 2008 (pp. 154-161) Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth
• Evans, J. (2008) 'When Domestication is an Estranging Effect: Adriana Hunter's Translation of  Beigbeder's 99 Francs'. In R. Hyde Parker, & K. Guadarrama García (Eds.) Thinking Translation: Perspectives from Within and Without (pp. 87-94). Boca Raton, FL: Brown Walker Press
  

Other Publications

• Zanzotto, Andrea (2007) 'Four poems' tr. by Jo Catling and others, Modern Poetry in Translation 3:7, 118-27 [Co-translator]

Papers Given

• 'Knots of Meaning? Lydia Davis's abusive translation of Michael Leiris's Rules of the Game' at the fifth International Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Interpreting (IPCITI), Heriot-Watt University, 21st-22nd November 2009.
• Translation as Writing: The Curios Case of Lydia Davis and Marie Curie' at the Ninth Annual Portsmouth Translation Conference 'The Translator as Writer', University of Portsmouth, 7th November 2009
• "Tante Leonie's Inheritance: influence, affinity, translation" at the CEISR/PBS Postgraduate Half Day, University of Portsmouth, 13th May 2009.
• ''Cover Songs: Metaphor or object of study?' at The Eighth Portsmouth Translation Conference 'The Changing Face of Translation', University of Portsmouth, 8th November 2008.
• 'Beyond Bildung: towards a new approach to the relationship between writing and translation' at the 'With/out Theory' Postgraduate Translation Conference, University College London, 17-18 April 2008
• 'When Domestication is an Estranging Effect: Adriana Hunter's Translation of Beigbeder's 99 Francs', at the 'Translation: Theory and Practice' Postgraduate Translation Symposium, University of East Anglia, 23-24 February 2008

Grants Received

• CEISR PhD Studentship 2007
• Anglo Norse Society Dame Gillian Brown Postgraduate Scholarship 2005-06
• UEA James McFarlane Fund Grant 2005-06