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"Tibetan Literature in Translation: Pema Tseden’s Stories of Tibet"

April 25, 2019
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
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“Tibetan Literature in Translation: Pema Tseden’s Stories of Tibet”

Join us for a discussion with the translators of Enticement, the first English-language anthology of short stories by Pema Tseden.

About this Event

Pema Tseden is Tibet’s most prestigious filmmaker and an accomplished fiction writer. Enticement: Stories of Tibet translates his stories originally written either in Tibetan or in Chinese. His writing uses a variety of literary styles and sources ranging from traditional Tibetan oral tales to magical realism, surrealism, and the theater of the absurd to speak with empathy and humor about the Tibetan experience in the age of globalization.

He has released six major feature films to date winning prestigious awards in China, Japan, and Taiwan. His most recent film, Jinpa, won an award for best screenplay at the 75th Venice International Film Festival in 2018.

The discussion will include writer and scholar, Pema Bhum, translators of Enticement, Michael Monhart and Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani, moderated by Lauran Hartley.

Participants

Pema Bhum is author of two Tibetan memoirs of the Cultural Revolution, Six Stars with a Crooked Neck and Remembering Dorje Tsering. He was an associate professor of Tibetan Literature at the Northwest Nationalities Institute, PRC, and visiting assistant professor of Tibetan Language at Indiana University. At present, he is director of Latse in New York City and Lecturer in Tibetan at Columbia University.

Michael Monhart is an alumnus of the Tibetan Studies Department at Columbia University. In addition to his translation work, he is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City.

Patricia Schiaffini-Vedani is one of the pioneers in the study of Sinophone Tibetan literature. Her volume Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change, co-edited with Lauran Hartley, was published in 2008. She teaches Chinese language and China and Tibet related courses at Texas State University. Dr. Schiaffini is also the President and Founder of Tibetan Arts and Literature Initiative, an NGO devoted to training Tibetan teachers and promoting Tibetan-language education and literacy in China.

Lauran Hartley is Tibetan Studies Librarian for the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University, and also serves as an affiliated lecturer in Tibetan Literature for the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. She received her Ph.D. in Tibetan Studies from Indiana University and is co-editor of the book Modern Tibetan Literature and Social Change. Her current research focuses on Tibetan literary production and intellectual discourse from the eighteenth century to the present.

Co-sponsored by: Modern Tibetan Studies, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, and the Italian Academy at Columbia University.