Translating the Odyssey: Why and How

This event is free and open to the public. 

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Emily Wilson’s research interests include tragedy, epic, gender, genre, and philosophy, as well as the reception of classical literature. She has published verse translations of Seneca, Euripides, and most recently, Odyssey. She will talk about her goals in re-translating this much-translated poem, including her approach to verse form, style, pace, repetition, and characterization. She will also discuss the ways she aimed to be responsible to the literary, psychological, and ethical complexity of the original poem, bringing out its diverse, contradictory voices and points of view; she will consider what it means to say that translations are always interpretations. She will also talk about the media reception of her translation, analyzing the benefits and costs of coverage that seemed, for a while, to focus exclusively on the author’s gender.

If you have any questions about the event, please e-mail Julian Shendelman at juliansh@upenn.edu. 

Since 2005, expert faculty from the University of Pennsylvania have shed a light on their research at the Penn Lightbulb Cafe.  Lectures are free and open to the public. Each talk begins at 6 p.m. and is followed by an audience Q&A session.  This lecture series is presented by the School of Arts & Sciences in partnership with the Office of University Communications.