Month: February 2017
Radicals and Art in Weimar Germany
Panel discussion in conjunction with the exhibition
Changing Visions: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs during the Weimar Republic and After
Friday, February 17, 2017 at 12:00 noon
Fisk Hall, 262 High Street, Room 208
Speakers will include Erik Grimmer-Solem, Associate Professor of History; Ulrich Plass, Associate Professor of German Studies; and Krishna Winston, Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature.
Moderated by Clare Rogan, Curator, Davison Art Center, and Iris Bork-Goldfield, Chair and Adjunct Professor, German Studies.
Lunch will be served and the panel discussion will begin at 12:20 pm.
The event is sponsored by the German Studies Department and Davison Art Center
Krishna Winston receives the Order of Merit
The German Consul General will bestow the Order of Merit to Professor Krishna Winston on Monday, February 13. The Order of Merit, in Germany also referred to as the Bundesverdienstkreuz, was instituted by Federal President Theodor Heuss in 1951. It is the highest tribute the Federal Republic of Germany pays to individuals for services to the nation or contributions to enhancing Germany’s standing abroad and its relations with other countries. The Order of Merit may be awarded to Germans as well as to foreign citizens for achievements in the political, economic, social, or intellectual spheres and for outstanding service to the nation in the field of social, charitable, or philanthropic work. In awarding the Order of Merit, the Federal President wishes to draw public attention to achievements that he believes are of particular value to society in general. Krishna Winston will receive this honor for her excellent translations, her work with Fulbright, the German Exchange Board (DAAD), and the Baden-Württemberg exchange as well as for her advancing the role of German language and culture in the U.S. for many years.
Laudatio given by Mr. Ralf Horlemann, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany on February 13, 2017 at Wesleyan University.
Handke’s Moravian Night translated by Krishna Winston
Krishna Winston, the Marcus L. Taft Professor of German Language and Literature, translated The 
Moravian Night: A Story by German novelist Peter Handke. The American translation was published in December 2016 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.
Reviews of the translation have appeared in The New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and Kirkus.
Win
ston specializes in literary translation and has translated more than 35 works of fiction and non-fiction from Handke, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Günter Grass, Christoph Hein, Golo Mann, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Hans Jonas. Her translations make available to the entire English-speaking world works originally written in German, and she has received three major literary prizes for her translations. She also was awarded the The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Moravian Night, as summarized by the book’s publisher, explores the mind and memory of an aging writer, tracking the anxieties, angers, fears, and pleasures of a life inseparable from the recent history of Central Europe.
Mysteriously summoned to a houseboat on the Morava River, a few friends, associates, and collaborators of an old writer listen as he tells a story that will last until dawn: the tale of the once well-known writer’s recent odyssey across Europe. As his story unfolds, it visits places that represent stages of the narrator’s and the continent’s past, many now lost or irrecoverably changed through war, death and the subtler erosions of time. His story and its telling are haunted by a beautiful stranger, a woman who has a preternatural hold over the writer and appears sometimes as a demon, sometimes as the longed-for destination of his travels.
by Olivia Drake
Gutekunst Prize for Emerging Translators
To all our German students, and recent GRST graduates! Here is an exciting opportunity in German-English literary translation. Applicants will translate a text from a contemporary German novel into English and compete to win a $2,500 prize. Past winners have gone on to publish distinguished book-length translations. More information at: https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/ser/uef/gut.html
The Gutekunst Prize for Emerging Translators is open to all translators under the age of 35 who, at the time the prize is awarded, have not yet published, nor are under contract for, a book-length translation. Applications will be accepted only from permanent residents of the United States. Team translations will not be accepted.
Each applicant is required to translate a literary text of approximately 18 pages, available on request from the Goethe-Institut New York. To receive the text and the application form, please send an email to: GutekunstPrize@newyork.goethe.org
The translation and application form must be mailed electronically to the Goethe-Institut New York by Friday, March 17, 2017 11:59pm EST. Full information on the submission procedure is included on the application form.
Translations will be submitted to a jury consisting of three experts in German literature and translation. The winner will be notified in early May 2017. The jury’s statement and the name of the winner will be published on the website of the Goethe-Institut.
The winner of the Gutekunst Prize will be invited to an award ceremony to take place at the Goethe-Institut New York. The $2,500 prize will be awarded at this time and the winner will have the opportunity to present his or her translation and network with professionals from the translation and publishing world.