Feminist Surrealism: Joyce Mansour and Meret Oppenheim in Translation | Deutsches Haus At New York University
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La Maison Française, World Poetry Booksand Deutsches Haus at NYU present “Feminist Surrealism: Joyce Mansour and Meret Oppenheim in Translation” with a reading and conversation with the translators Kathleen Heil and C. Francis Fisher, moderated by Effie Rentzou ( Princeton University). C. Francis Fisher will read from her recent translation of Joyce Mansour’s In the Glittering Maw: Selected Poems (World Poetry, 2024) and Kathleen Heil from her translation of Meret Oppenheim’s The Loveliest Vowel Empties (World Poetry, 2022). A moderated conversation will delve into the lives and work of these two important and often overlooked Surrealist poets and the many ways in which their lives and life work overlap and intersect. About the books: Joyce Mansour’s In the Glittering Maw: Selected Poems:
The first English-language collection focused on the later works of Joyce Mansour, an Arab-Jewish Surrealist poet who was exiled from Egypt in the 1950s and settled in Paris. Mansour’s late poems chart constellations of desire, femininity, and dream. Considered by Andre Bréton to be the preeminent Surrealist of the post-war period, Mansour brings this masculine movement into a feminine realm never-before-imagined. She insists on a forgotten or perhaps vehemently denied eventuality of women’s equality: their ability to do harm, to be violent: “Why tear fire from the impalpable sky / When it already grows and smolders in me / Why throw your glove into the crowd / Tomorrow is a livid stump.” In the Glittering Maw is poet C. Francis Fisher’s first published translation and includes a preface by eminent Surrealism scholar Mary Ann Caws. Meret Oppenheim: The Loveliest Vowel Empties:
The Loveliest Vowel Empties presents for the first time in English the collected poems of legendary Swiss Surrealist Meret Oppenheim, printed with facing-page originals in German and French. Oppenheim’s poetry—49 poems written between 1933 and 1980—moves beyond Surrealism to inhabit a voice all her own, with imagery and sound that, as the Herald Tribune wrote, “express witty and poetic responses to the surprises of life.” A key figure of the Paris art scene in the 1930s, Oppenheim moved in a circle that included André Breton, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, and Elsa Schiaparelli. Writing for the Village Voice about her work, Gary Indiana noted that “the singularity of Meret Oppenheim’s work is such that nothing seems dated … the range of the work and its quirky self-assurance are striking.” The publication of her collected poems coincides with a major retrospective exhibition of her artwork at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. About the authors: The Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim (1913–1985) was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg and died in Basel. Best known for Object, her fur-lined teacup from 1936, her expansive body of work included painting, works on paper, and object constructions, as well as jewelry designs, public sculpture commissions, and poetry. From 2021–2023 her work was the subject of a major exhibition, the first transatlantic retrospective of her work, a collaboration between MoMA, The Menil Collection, and Kunstmuseum Bern. One of the most important female Surrealist writers, Joyce Mansour (1928–1986) was born in England to Syrian-Jewish parents. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Cairo, where Mansour lived until she was forced to emigrate. She settled in Paris in 1953, where she continued writing and became a key member of the postwar Surrealist milieu. Mansour published sixteen books of poetry in her lifetime as well as prose and theater pieces. She died of cancer in Paris in 1986. About the participants: C. Francis Fisher received her MFA in poetry from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, The Yale Review, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Her poem, Self-Portrait at 25 was selected for the 2021 Academy of American Poets Prize. She has been supported by fellowships from Brooklyn Poets and the Vermont Studio Center. She curates Colloquy, an event series that provides a forum for translators to engage with live audiences in an exploration of the art of translation. In the Glittering Maw is her first book of translations. Kathleen Heil is an artist working with languages of the body and written word, whose practice encompasses dance/performance and the writing and translating of poetry and prose. Her work appears in The New Yorker, Fence, Two Lines, The Threepenny Review, and other journals. She is the recipient of grants from the NEA, German Translators' Fund, and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, among others. Originally from New Orleans, she lives and works in Berlin. Attendance: While NYU has ended COVID-19 related restrictions and policies, we continue to remind and recommend to members of the NYU community that they stay up-to-date on their boosters and stay home if they feel sick. Masks are always welcome. “Feminist Surrealism: Joyce Mansour and Meret Oppenheim in Translation” is funded by the DAAD from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA). Additional support and thanks goes to Matvei Yankelevich of World Poetry Books for all of his organisational support.
Information Source: Deutsches Haus at NYU | eventbrite