Karlijn Waterman (Nederlandse Taalunie): PETRA-E

Karlijn Waterman (Nederlandse Taalunie): Petra-e 

Petra-e is an Erasmus+ supported European literary translation project, initiated and facilitated by the Nederlandse Taalunie and seven European partners. EFNIL is one of the ‘dissemination’ partners of Petra-e. The president of EFNIL sent a letter of support for the project for the dissemination of the results.

I will provide a short summary of the aims, development and outputs of the project. The short term aim is to develop a Framework of Reference for Literary Translation. The longer term aim is to enable stronger collaboration in the field of education and training of literary translators in Europe.

The road to becoming a literary translator is unpredictable. All translators agree that their profession involves many different skills. The aim of the Petra-e Framework of Reference for the Education and Training of Literary Translators (in short: PETRA Framework) aims to identify these particular skills that have never been systematically mapped out.  

In the longer term, agreement on the skills and competences and different levels of literary translation also enables collaboration between schools, universities and other training institutions. This is essential because this field is a highly dispersed, small-scale field of formal, informal, academic and non-academic programs and courses. Stronger collaboration will improve the quality of education.

I will give you a glance at the last draft of the Framework and the introductory text. I am asking for your support in the distribution and dissemination of the Framework, which will be available in print and digital by May 2016.