Our panel for the MLA at the end of this year is now official. The title of the panel is Translating Language and Space in the Work of Yoko Tawada. Doug Slaymaker, Bettina Brandt, Hiltrud Arens, and myself will read papers, both from Yoko's Japanese side and her German side.
It was back in 2000 that I first talked about Tawada using my own concept of "omniphone," at Literary Translation conference at Stevens Tech, Hoboken, New Jersey. The WTC towers were dominating the skyline across the Hudson River. Stevens Tech is the alma mater of Alexandre Calder, the "mobile" artist.
Now I am getting a little tired of repeating the same old mantra of "omniphony," I will have to come up woth something radically new. AND I need to make money to finance a trip over an ocean, a continent, and half the rotation of annual seasons!
