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Between Cork and France: Ireland’s First Chair of Poetry John Montague in French translation

Melbourne Irish Studies Seminar Series 

image.pngPhoto: John Montague and Samuel Beckett in Paris in the 60s

When: Wednesday 11 September, 4.30pm – 5.30pm

Where: Jabiru Room, Newman College (enter via main gate and follow signs); and via Zoom

Speaker: Dr Elizabeth R Pearce, School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne

John Montague (1929 – 2016) became Ireland’s First Chair of Poetry in 1998. While living in Paris in the early 1960s Montague became friends with the Irish writer Samuel Beckett, as well as numerous French poets, writers and translators of the era, and in later years divided his time between Cork and Nice. Montague strengthened Franco-Irish connections and a thriving interest in poetry translations and readings in Paris, particularly at the Université de la Sorbonne. This talk will explore Montague’s early poem ‘All Legendary Obstacles’, followed by an exploration of the French translation, ‘Tous les obstacles légendaires’ by Claude Esteban, a contemporary of Montague in Paris.

SPEAKER

Elizabeth Pearce is a researcher in literary translation in the School of Languages and Linguistics, the University of Melbourne, where her doctorate Rhythm, poetry and meaning: Seamus Heaney and Louis MacNeice in French translation was conferred in 2019. Her research interests include contemporary Irish poetry in English and its translation into French, as well as translation of the sonnet form. In June 2023 she was invited to address the ‘John Montague Memorial Conference’ organised by Université de la Sorbonne with the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. She collaborates with TRACT (Traduction et communication transculturelle), Université de la Sorbonne Paris 3, and is a member of the research group La Société ETC: Écrire, Traduire, Créer, Université d’Aix-Marseille.

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