Paraphrasis Podcast

During the 2024-25 academic year, the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard celebrated its departmental anniversary—and Paraphrasis is launching a series of summer special episodes to commemorate the occasion. In our first edition of the series, guest host Lara Norgaard sits down with Spencer Lee-Lenfield and Sandra Naddaff, two members of the Comp Lit faculty who are also alumni of Harvard College. Together, they discuss the past, present, and future of Translation Studies at Harvard. Along the way, Spencer and Sandra speak to their own journeys into the discipline and how translation developed from something seen as a technical skill into a critical practice and dynamic area of study in North American academia. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

What is a title? For Anton Hur, it’s “the most liberated thing” in a translator’s toolkit. Listen in on how Your Utopia got its name, as a blunt-sounding gerund in the English was traded in for something with sharper edges. Anton explains why the Korean title To Meet Her (Geunyeoreul Mannada), though thematically crucial, didn’t sit right on the tongue, and how his suggestion, “Your Utopia,” skewers the tech-bro fantasy of sleek, bloodless progress. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Anton Hur, a talented translator and debut novelist, discusses his journey with Bora Chung’s genre-bending collection 'Your Utopia.' He shares how he carefully curated the stories to create a seamless flow between humor, horror, and fantasy. The conversation dives into the intricate balance of translating with authenticity while enhancing humor and emotion. Anton reflects on the solitary art of translation versus collaborative publishing, and reveals fascinating snippets about chilling tales involving bizarre diseases and the push-pull of literary translation.

Why do German nouns seem to bristle with energy while English ones feel flat? And how did he land on Overstaying—a title that’s as pushy and off-kilter as the novel itself? Damion takes us behind the decision to swap a dense German noun for a lopsided English gerund. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Damion Searls reflects on his translation of Overstaying, Swiss author Ariane Koch’s surreal debut novel (Dorothy Project, 2024). He talks through the book’s oddball humor and syntactic sleights—from “brushy fingers” to the German impersonal pronoun “man”—while unpacking the slipperiness of the German word for “visitor” and the politics of hospitality. This episode ends with Damion discussing an encounter with the most inaccurate—and most insightful—review of his work he’s ever read. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

In the last full episode of our first season, we hear scholar, translator, and performer Gitta Honegger discuss her German to English translation of The Children of the Dead, written in 1995 by the Nobel Prize winning author and playwright, Elfriede Jelinek. Considered to be Jelinek’s magnum opus, the 666 page novel takes place at dingy Alpine resort swarming with lacivious, reanimated corpses. Anna dives into the sinuous linguistic body of the translation, reaching the difficult question of collective guilt at its heart. The episode ends with a special reading by Jelinek and Honegger. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

How can a translator convey a text that contains troubling, archaic language while still engaging with contemporary readers? Listen in on how Fiona dealt with the historical nuances and present-day challenges posed by a character’s predilection for antisemitic language in her recent translation of Avdotya Panaeva’s 1848 novel, The Talnikov Family. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

In this episode, Fiona Bell discusses her translation of The Talnikov Family by Avdotya Panaeva, now out with Columbia University Press. Originally published in 1848, The Talnikov Family fictionalizes Panaeva’s precarious childhood in a family of actors in St. Petersburg. Fiona and Anna discuss bringing 19th century literature to life (if not the 19th century author) and the place of women in the Russian literary canon then and now. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

“Truco,” a card game popular in Argentina, is a game of tricks, deception, and power plays. It is also a structuring feature of Martín Kohan’s Confession. Can a translator teach English-language readers the rules? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com

Daniel Hahn reflects on his translation of Martín Kohan’s Confession (Charco Press), a slim volume that wrestles with personal passions and political complicity. Focused on the legacies of Argentina’s last military dictatorship, the novel opens with the intimate desires of a young girl only to spiral into assassination plots, suppressed memories, and card games played with sky-high emotional stakes. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.paraphrasispodcast.com