On 29 April, Ástráður Eysteinsson, Professor of Comparative Literature and Literary Translator (University of Iceland / Háskóli Íslands) gave a talk entitled “The Task of the Translator: Kafka In Icelandic”, based on his own experience as a (co-) translator of a large part of Franz Kafka’s work into Icelandic.
Professor Eysteinsson graduated with a BA in German and English from the University of Iceland in 1979. He studied literature and translation studies at the University of Warwick in the UK and finished an MA there in 1981. In the years 1980-82 he was a student of German, English and Scandinavian studies at University of Cologne in West-Germany, before moving to the USA in 1982 where he took up doctoral studies at the University of Iowa alongside teaching there. He finished his PhD in 1987. During his years of study abroad Eysteinsson started translating literature into Icelandic. He has been active in that field ever since – he has, for example, translated Franz Kafka’s oeuvre into Icelandic in collaboration with Eysteinn Þorvaldsson. Eysteinsson has published his research results in both Icelandic and English, furthermore, he has been an academic editor nationally and internationally.
Organized by: NETEC (Negociacións Textuais e Culturais / Textual and Cultural Negotiations)