Valerie Henitiuk

Valerie Henitiuk is an award-winning scholar researching aspects of the intersection of translation studies, world literature, Japanese literature and women's writing. She is a Canadian citizen, currently on the faculty of the University of East Anglia (UK). Henitiuk has been a visiting scholar at both Harvard and Columbia Universities in the USA and at Kokugakuin University in Japan. She is also Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) and editor of the journal In Other Words[1].

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Early years

Henitiuk was born in Manning, Alberta in 1963, and grew up in various locations in western and northern Canada. An interest in acting led her to participate in a number of drama workshops while in her teens. Following extensive travels in USA and Central America she completed a BA (French + Latin, 1985) and MA (French Translation, 1988), was then employed by the Alberta Government Translation Bureau, and operated a freelance translation business. Ms. Henitiuk subsequently returned to the University of Alberta, obtaining an MA in Japanese Literature in 2000 and a PhD in Comparative Literature in 2005.

Educational background

Dr. Valerie Lynne Henitiuk has a PhD (Comparative Literature) from the University of Alberta. She also holds a Diplôme d'études linguistiques françaises, Université de la Sorbonne-Nouvelle. Her PhD was supported by Killam and SSHRC fellowships, the Dorothy J. Killam Memorial Graduate Prize[2], as well as an award allowing her to spend a year at Kokugakuin University in Japan conducting research (2002–03). Upon the completion of the PhD in 2005 Dr. Henitiuk was awarded the prestigious Governor General's Gold Medal as the foremost graduate at the University (all faculties).

In 2011, her name was included on the Faculty of Arts Recognition Wall[3], commissioned to mark the Faculty's centenary at the University of Alberta, honouring those who have received awards for teaching excellence.

In September 2005, Dr. Henitiuk began a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at The Center (now Institute) for Comparative Literature and Society[4], directed by Gayatri Spivak. Her sponsor was David Damrosch[5]. This research project investigated the process by which national literature becomes world literature. Her fellowship was funded by SSHRC and she was awarded the inaugural SSHRC Postdoctoral Prize[6][7].

Professional background

Dr. Henitiuk is a Senior Lecturer in Literature and Translation at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, UK. She is (since August 2011) Director of the BCLT[8] at UEA, and previously held posts as acting Director and Associate Director of the BCLT[9]. From August 2010 to August 2011 she was a visiting scholar at Harvard University[10] funded by a fellowship[11] from the Leverhulme Trust. She specializes in the study of: World Literature, Comparative Literature, Translation Studies, East-West Cultural Exchange, and Women’s Writing.

Valerie Henitiuk is editor of In Other Words: the journal for literary translators[12] and serves on the editorial board for a new transdisciplinary journal to be titled translation. She is also on the advisory council for the Nida School of Translation Studies[13], a research symposium held annually in Italy.

Published works

Dr. Henitiuk has published scholarly articles on a variety of subjects including women's writing, the introduction of classical Japanese literature into the west, and comparisons between eastern and western texts. Her first major, and most frequently cited, article is "Translating Woman"[14], an analysis of gender translation issues which she has continued to explore during her research[15]. She has also discussed feminist aspects of literature in the context of magic realism[16]. Recent scholarship has concentrated on examinations of the way translations of 10th-century Japanese women’s writing has entered the western consciousness[17][18][19] and the political/cultural dimensions of translation of such works[20]

Henitiuk has authored a monograph on liminal imagery in a cross-cultural selection of women’s writing[21] and a forthcoming book, designed to assist in the teaching of translation, looks at some fifty different translations from Japanese of a single passage from The Pillow Book[22]. She has also edited, with Supriya Kar, a collection of stories by women from India[23].

Book chapters have analyzed boundary metaphors in Elizabeth Inchbald[24] and rape as a motif in literature[25]. Other chapters discuss gender aspects in The Tale of Genji[26], The Kagerô Nikki[27] and The Pillow Book of Sei Shônagon[28].

Public service

Besides her academic work, Dr. Henitiuk has been deeply involved in the promotion of literary translation as a professional discipline through a variety of organizations[29], serving on national and international committees. As well she has been quoted regarding funding cuts to the arts[30] in the UK and Canada, and has made pedagogical contributions[31].

References

  1. ^ Booktrust review of journal edited by Valerie Henitiuk
  2. ^ Dorothy J. Killam Memorial Graduate Prize website
  3. ^ U of A Arts Recognition Wall
  4. ^ The Institute for Comparative Literature and Society
  5. ^ David Damrosch - Harvard profile
  6. ^ SSHRC Postdoctoral Prize
  7. ^ Article about Valerie Henitiuk winning post-doctoral award
  8. ^ British Centre for Literary Translation
  9. ^ Article on Valerie Henitiuk becoming BCLT Acting Director
  10. ^ Harvard University - Comparative Literature website
  11. ^ Leverhulme fellowship announcement
  12. ^ In Other Words: the journal for literary translators
  13. ^ Nida School
  14. ^ “Translating Woman: Reading the Female through the Male.” META 44.3 (September 1999) 469-84.
  15. ^ “Seeking Refuge in Prepubescent Space: The Strategy of Resistance Employed by The Tale of Genji’s Third Princess.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 28.2-3 (June-Sept. 2001) 193-217.
  16. ^ “Step into my Parlour: Magic Realism and the Creation of a Feminist Space.” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 30.2 (June 2003) 410-27.
  17. ^ “‘Easyfree translation?’ How the Modern West Knows Sei Shônagon’s Pillow Book.” Translation Studies 1.1 (2008) 2-17.
  18. ^ “Squeezing the Jellyfish: Early Western Attempts to Characterize Translation from the Japanese.” Thinking through Translation with Metaphors. Ed. J. St. André. Manchester: St. Jerome, 2010. 144-60.
  19. ^ “Going to Bed with Waley: How Murasaki Shikibu Does and Does Not Become World Literature.” Comparative Literature Studies 45.1 (2008) 40-61.
  20. ^ “A Creditable Performance under the Circumstances? Suematsu Kenchô and the Pre-Waley Tale of Genji.” In TTR : traduction, terminologie, redaction, Vol. XXIII, no. 1, p. 41-70.
  21. ^ Embodied Boundaries: Images of Liminality in a Selection of Woman-Authored Courtship Narratives Studies in Liminality and Literature Vol. 7. Madrid: Gateway Press/ Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2007. ISBN 8493184357
  22. ^ Worlding Sei Shônagon: The Pillow Book in Translation. ISBN 9780776607283 Forthcoming from University of Ottawa Press.
  23. ^ One Step towards the Sun: Short Stories by Women from Orissa. Ed. Valerie Henitiuk and Supriya Kar. Bhubaneswar: Rupantar, 2010. ISBN 9788190672917
  24. ^ “To Be and Not To Be: The Bounded Body and Embodied Boundary in Inchbald’s A Simple Story.” Romantic Border Crossings. Ed. J. Cass and L. Peer. Aldershot, Hampshire and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2008. 41-52. ISBN 9780754660514
  25. ^ “The Innovation of Rape? The Motif of Bodily Integrity Functioning as a Feminine Discourse System.” Writing after the Gaze: the Rupture of the Historical. Ed. A. Chilewska and S. Wilson. Edmonton: M.V. Dimic Research Institute, 2007. 49-68. ISBN 0921490153
  26. ^ “Virgin Territory: Murasaki Shikibu’s Ôigimi Resists the Male.” Rpt. in Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion. Vol. 1 [of 6]: Antiquity-18th Century. Topics & Authors. Ed. J. Bomarito and J.W. Hunter. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005. 90-96. ISBN 9780787675745
  27. ^ “Walls, Curtains and Screens: Spatio-Sexual Metaphor in the Kagerô Nikki.” Secret Spaces, Forbidden Places: Rethinking Culture. Ed. F. Lloyd and C. O’Brien. Polygons: Cultural Diversities and Intersections. 4. NY and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2000. 3-16. ISBN 9781571817884
  28. ^ “Prefacing Gender: Framing Sei Shônagon for a Western Audience, 1875-2006.” Translating Women. Ed. L. von Flotow. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2010. 247-69. ISBN 9780776607276
  29. ^ European Network for Comparative Literary Studies profile
  30. ^ Valerie Henitiuk quoted in Eastern Daily Press regarding arts funding cuts
  31. ^ “Resources.” Teaching World Literature. Ed. D. Damrosch. Options for Teaching series. NY: Modern Language Association, 2009. 401-16. ISBN 9781603290340

External links