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Karen Emmerich

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My current research focuses on the overlap in the tasks of the editor and the translator, particularly with regard to the instability of literary works. My forthcoming book, Translation and the Making of Originals, brings recent work in field of textual scholarship to bear on discussions of translation. I argue that translation is not a mere transfer of a given “original” from one language into another, but a process by which an original is, in a sense, “fixed” or created, as translators often have to adjudicate between multiple editions or versions of a text. I have also published articles on the visual and material poetics of Greek poets including C. P. Cavafy, Miltos Sachtouris, and Eleni Vakalo, and on the ways translators and editors have approached the challenges presented by the visual idiosyncrasy and textual instability manifested by these and other works. Before joining the Department of Comparative Literature at Princeton, I was on the faculty of the University of Cyprus (2011-2012) and the University of Oregon (2012-2014) .

My academic commitment to translation as a mode and model for comparative work in the humanities is complemented by my work as a translator of modern and contemporary Greek literature. I have translated eleven books of Greek poetry and prose, and have received translation awards and grants from PEN, the NEA, and the Modern Greek Studies Association.