Translating Dialect

Saturday, 13 June 2026, 11.30am to 1pm

How to translate dialect? This task is often deemed to be impossible. Dialect can be used to great effect in literature, yet it challenges everyone: writers, readers and translators. The challenges are not only linguistic (how do you translate likesay in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting?), but also inevitably raise political, social and cultural issues. And yet, many inventive and acclaimed literary translations show that translating dialect is not only possible, but can open up unique creative possibilities and reveal affinities even between the most distant language pairs. This workshop will explore dialect through text and sound, hands-on exercises and examples from a wide range of languages.

Dr Kotryna Garanasvili is a writer, translator, and interpreter working with English, Lithuanian, French, German, Russian, and Georgian. She is an Assistant Professor of literature and translation, teaching and researching at Vilnius University and University of East Anglia, where she has received a PhD in literary translation and serves as a member of the BCLT Research Group. She is a mentor as well as a previous mentee of the Emerging Translator Mentorship at the National Centre for Writing and has been awarded traineeships at the EU Council and the European Parliament.

Speaker(s): Dr Kotryna Garanasvili

Series: OCCT

Venue: St Anne's College - Woodstock Road Oxford

Department: English (Department)

Organiser: OCCT

Host: OCCT

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/translating-dialect-tickets-1987797528919?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true