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Cultural Translation 11
th
December 2009 Programme1
Cultural Translation: An Interdisciplinary Conference
 
Bute Building, Room 1.50, Cardiff University
10.00-11.15Mieke BalKeynote Presentation11.15-11.30 15 min break 11.30-13.00Sharif Gemie The Veil: A Bridge Between Cultures? Rebecca Beirne Diasporic and Local Representations of Same-Sex Female Desires in Indian, Indian-Canadian,Indian-Scottish and Indian-American cinema’ Floriana Bernardi Fatema Mernissi and cultural translation 
 
13.00-14.00 1 hour lunch14.00-15.00Veronica O’Neil Kinship in Walter Benjamin’s Task of the
 
Translator Ruth J. Owen Death by Cultural Translation 
 
15.00-15.10 10 min break 15.10-16.10Ariela Grosz-Rophe Intellectuals as Culture Transmitters  Caterina Sinibaldi Dangerous comic strips 
 
16.10-16.20 10 min break 16.20-17.20Paul Bowman Fists of confusion: Bruce Lee and MonolingualCultural TranslationDavid Huddart  Emblems of cultural translation  17.20-17.20 10 min break 17.30-18.30Sarah Maitland First do no harm: Power, agency and cultural translation in the post-colonial context Alexis Nuselovici,GlennDavidson,Wyn Mason  The moiré effect  
 
School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies
,
Race Representation and Cultural Identity Research Group
;
School of European Studies
,
Representing Migration and Mobility in European Cultures Network 
 
 
Cultural Translation 11
th
December 2009 Programme2
11.30-13.00Sharif GemieThe Veil: A Bridge Between Cultures?Rebecca BeirneDiasporic and Local Representations of Same-Sex Female Desires in Indian, Indian-Canadian,Indian-Scottish and Indian-American cinema’ Floriana BernardiFatema Mernissi and cultural translation 
 
13.00-14.00 1 hour lunch
Sharif Gemie
•
 
The ‘Veil’: a Bridge Between Cultures?
Western interest and concern about Muslim veiling practices seems inexhaustible. In thewestern media, the veil has become a common cliché: an instantly recognizable signifier forthemes such as exclusion, oppression, reactionary thinking and the separation of cultures. Suchpoints have a certain validity, but they are almost exclusively based on outsiders’ perspectives.While accepting that compulsory veiling constitutes an unacceptable breach of humanrights, this paper will explore other dimensions of veiling in western and Muslim societies. It will discuss the Muslim veil as fashion statement, as ‘passport’ between different worlds, and assymbol of a new, globalized, trans-national Islam. Some specific examples will be drawn fromFrench experience, where the presence of veil-wearing women has become a contentious andpoliticized issue, and from Iranian society, where the varieties and nuances of veil-wearing aremore complex than often supposed. The paper will conclude by suggesting a post-Orientalist perspective on this issue.
Rebecca Beirne
•
 
Diasporic and Local Representations of Same-Sex Female Desires in Indian,Indian-Canadian, Indian-Scottish and Indian-American cinema
This paper examines the similarities and differences in the depiction of same-sex femaledesire in films from both Indian and Indian diasporic contexts. It will seek to determine what level of cultural translation is being undertaken in the representation of both female same-sexdesire and Indian cultural identity in six films:
Fire
(India/Canada, Deepa Metha: 1996),
Chutney Popcorn
(USA, Nisha Ganatra: 1999),
Girlfriend 
(India, Karan Razdan: 2004),
The Journey 
(India,Ligy J. Pullappally: 2004),
Nina’s Heavenly Delights
(UK, Pratibha Parmar: 2006) and
The World Unseen
(UK/South Africa, Shamim Sarif: 2007); exploring the role directorial nationality andsetting play in translating how lesbian desire is represented across cultural contexts. When theearliest of these films,
Fire
, was released in India, it was met with so much indignation on behalf of the public that some cinema theatres were destroyed as audiences rioted during the film’sscreenings. A later, more mainstream, Indian film featuring a lesbian relationship,
Girlfriend 
 (India, Karan Razdan: 2004), was protested by both the religious right and Indian gay andlesbian activists for its negative depiction of female homosexuality.
The Journey 
(India, Ligy J.
 
Cultural Translation 11
th
December 2009 Programme3
Pullappally: 2004), released in 2004, while directed by a filmmaker who had lived in the U.S. forher adult life, was based upon a series of same-sex desiring youth suicides in the Kerala district,and was shot on location in the local language, with efforts made within the film to emphasise asense of localism. The films
Chutney Popcorn
and
Nina’s Heavenly Delights
represent a different context, set within Indian communities in diaspora in the United States and Scotlandrespectively. What representational impact does this diasporic context have upon the narrativeand the ways in which both lesbian desire and Indian culture are articulated? Each of these filmsshare a more classically Westernised narrative structure than films set in India, such as
Fire
,
Girlfriend 
or
The Journey 
, following the clear generic conventions of romantic comedy and thecoming out story.
The World Unseen
takes on yet another context that situates the Indiancommunity and its female protagonists in a liminal space in 1950s South Africa. Culturaltranslations take place in each of these films to reflect the contexts of their directors, cast andcrew, and intended audiences.
Floriana Bernardi
•
 
Fatema Mernissi and cultural translation. Women and cyber-Islam.
 My paper is intended to survey and describe the role of the Moroccan sociologist andwriter Fatema Mernissi as a cultural translator between the East and the West. Focusing onMoroccan cultural specificities and deconstructing the several stereotypical representation of her community as far as gender, media and education concerns, Fatema Mernissi has beentranslating the actual system of values and cultural practices of the Moroccan society (and, moregenerally Eastern societies) destroying those betrayed senses and common places which bothmedia and the different forms of art have engendered and transmitted throughout time.Particularly, the paper will focus on the crucial role of IT, satellite televisions and the Internet todeconstruct the stereotype of Arab women, mainly represented in the western imagery asdowntrodden, subdued to the patriarchal power and as sex symbols in tv commercials andvideo clips. On the contrary, according to Fatema Mernissi, a mind-blowing civilizational shift ishappening in the Arab world and internet cafès are the places and means to foster it. In Internet cafès people can access IT, socialize and discuss about political issues and ru’ya, that is a “clearvision of the future where [the youth] have a role to play as defenders of an ethical planet (Mernissi 2005:http://www.mernissi.net/books/articles/digital_scheherazade.html
 
). There,besides, young bloggers and social networkers meet to assure the circulation of internationallyrelevant news – often protecting them from dictatorial censorship – and promote participationto civic initiatives, which inevitably influence mainstream public discourse.
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