Wednesday, January 29, 2014

CFP: "Translating a Liberal Codex: The Cadiz Constitution of 1812"

Via H-Law, we have the following Call for Papers:
This Call for Papers is for the opening session of the conference ‘Roots of restlessness? Translations in Times of Disruption’ organized by the Oxford University Research Network TRANSLATIONS IN TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXTS (10 May 2014, Merton College) supported by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) and the Modern European History Research Centre (MEHRC).
The Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy, commonly known as the Constitution of Cádiz, was once famously described by the historian Raymond Carr as the ‘Liberal Codex’ of the nineteenth century. It was drafted by representatives from Iberian Spain, Spanish America and the Philippines gathered in Cádiz (hence, its common name) during much of the Napoleonic wars. It was promulgated there on 19 March 1812. As a Western symbol of political freedoms and rights, this text was studied – through its various translations - by Thomas Jefferson, Jeremy Bentham, and Karl Marx, among others. The political content of the Constitution has been analysed from numerous perspectives. Our research focuses rather on the outcomes arising from the process of its transfer and translation to other political cultures.
This session will be opened by Prof. Horst Dippel (University of Kassel), editor in chief of the renowned series 'Constitutions of the World from the late 18th Century to the Middle of the 19th Century' and 'Constitutions of the World 1850 to the Present'. He will be addressing the challenges of translating constitutions in general to then focus on German versions of the Cádiz text. This will be followed by contributions by Prof. David Hook (Modern Languages, Oxford) and Dr. Graciela Iglesias Rogers (History, Oxford) on Italian and English (British) translations respectively. We are, therefore, particularly interested in proposals that will cover other European and non-European languages, including those on which it is known that versions were produced [e.g English (American), French and Russian] and others on which there have been mere references, yet it is possible that versions may exist, such as in Danish, Dutch and/or Flemish, Gaelic, the indigenous languages of Mexico and the Philippines, Arab, Bengali, Mandarin, etc.
We are also interested in translations into visual and oral media. The network welcomes proposals from scholars at all stages of their academic careers and particularly those that cross disciplinary boundaries in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Innovative formats of research communication (including 10-minute presentations) are welcome along with traditional 20-minute papers. Please send your 250 word proposal including name, affiliation, and contact details to the following email address.
For more information contact any of the coordinators: Dr. Graciela Iglesias Rogers (graciela.iglesiasrogers@history.ox.ac.uk) and/or Professor David Hook (david.hook@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk) and/or Dr. Jonathan Thacker (jonathan.thacker@merton.ox.ac.uk). Or visit our blog.