This session will discuss the concept of ‘untranslatability’ and constraints in literary translation – and, in particular, the translation of constrained writing. What happens in translation when the original text has been ‘restricted’ through the use of constrained writing techniques? And what do you do when the original has been written to be purposefully untranslatable?! These questions and broader issues of language potentialities will be explored by a panel of translation and constrained writing experts, with a special focus on Oulipo, the experimental French literary movement.

Speakers: Prof Jürgen Ritte, German–French translator, literary critic, writer, academic at the Sorbonne. Ian Monk, poet, translator and member of the Oulipo movement. Olivier Salon, mathematician, writer, comedian and member of the Oulipo movement.

Moderator: Dr James Hadley, Ussher Assistant Professor, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin.

Organised by the French Embassy in Ireland, the German Embassy Dublin, the Goethe-Institut Irland and Literature Ireland within the framework of the French- German cultural funds.

Organised by the French Embassy in Ireland, the German Embassy Dublin, the Goethe-Institut Irland and Literature Ireland within the framework of the French- German cultural funds.