School of Arts

Ileana Dimitriu

Ileana Dimitriu

Professor

Cluster/DisciplineDrama

Emaildimitriu@ukzn.ac.za

Contact Number031-260-2316

CampusHoward College Campus

Office AddressMTB E124

Bio

  • Ileana Dimitriu is a professor of English at UKZN, Durban. She is also an NRF-rated researcher and a SATI-accredited translator. Her research, teaching and supervision focus on South African literature, postcolonial and comparative literary studies.
  • Prof. Dimitriu has served as an assessor for rating applications and research projects for the NRF (National Research Foundation), and has also been invited to be a referee for numerous peer-reviewed specialist journals and books. She has served on a number of advisory and specialist panels in her field.
Selected

Publications

Books, Chapters, Large Editorial Projects

  • 2014. “The Splendour and Misery of Translation: Interview with Antjie Krog.” In: Coullie, Judith and Andries Visagie (eds). Antjie Krog: An Ethics of Body and Otherness. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu Natal Press: 263-290.
  • 2013. “Representing the Unpresentable: Between the Secular and the Spiritual in Gordimer’s Fiction.” In: Viljoen, Hein (ed.). Crossing Borders: Dissolving Boundaries. Amsterdam/ New York: Rodopi: 1-27.
  • 2011. “Silenced by Freedom? Nadine Gordimer after Apartheid.” In: Chapman, Michael and Margaret Lenta (eds). SA Lit Beyond 2000. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press.
  • 2010. “Activism and the Intensity of the Local: Translation and Cultural Politics”. In: Boeri, Julie and Carol Maier. Translation and Social Activism. Granada: ECOS: 48-58.
  • 2009. “Translation and Shifting Identities in Post-apartheid South Africa: Re-thinking Teaching Paradigms in Times of Transition”. In: Inggs, Judith and L. Meintjes (eds). Translation Studies in Africa. London: Continuum: 180-203.
  • 2008. “Which World? Whose World? Postcolonialising Gordimer”. In: Chapman, Michael (ed.). Postcolonialism: South/ African Perspectives. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars: 149-170.
  • 2006. “ ‘Symbolic Power’ and ‘World-Making’ in Politically Over-Determined Times: Translation and Social Practice under Dictatorship”. In: Wolf, Michaela (ed.). Ubersetzen, Translating, Traduire: Towards A Social Turn. Vienna/ Berlin/ Hamburg/ Zurich/ London: LIT Verlag: 55-65.
  • 2004. “Carnivalesque Rituals of Renewal: The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist and The Man Died.” In: Coullie, Judith and JU Jacobs (eds). Aka Breyten Breytenbach: Critical Approaches to His Writings and Paintings. Amsterdam/ New York: Rodopi: 117-150.
  • 2004. “Along the North/ South Axis: Interview with Mihai Sora in South Africa”. In: Sora, Mihai ed). Locuri Comune. Bucharest: Universalia: 81-134.
  • 2002. Guest-editorship of Special Issue – Current Writing 14 (2): Translation, Diversity and Power.
  • 2001. “A New Sense of Social Space: Gordimer’s Civil Imaginary”. In: Wilson, Rita (ed). Spaces and Crossings. Frankfurt/ New York: Peter Lang: 335-48.
  • 2001. “Academic Restructuring in the Humanities: The Role and Meaning of Translation in the South African Context”. In: Thelen, Marcel (ed). Translation and Meaning. Maastricht University Press: 207-16.
  • 2000. Art of Conscience: Re-reading Nadine Gordimer. Timisoara: Hestia.
  • 1993. Un strigat indepartat din Kensington (A Far Cry from Kensington, by Muriel Spark). Bucharest: Univers [169 pages].
  • 1993. Fete sarmane (The Girls of Slender Means, by Muriel Spark). Bucharest: Univers [101 pages].
  • 1989. “Between Usurpation and Tradition”: Critical Introduction to my translation of Peter Abrahams’s novel, A Wreath for Udomo: 1-35. [See below].
  • 1989. O cununa pentru Udomo (A Wreath for Udomo, by Peter Abrahams). Bucharest: Univers Publishing House [421 pages].
  • 1988. N-am hoinarit chiar fara rost (Loitering with Intent, by Muriel Spark). Bucharest: Univers Publishing House [239 pages].

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • 2014. “Crossing and Dwelling: Home as A State of Mind in Aboulela’s Minaret and Gordimer’s The Pickup. In: Scrutiny2 19(1): 119-134.
  • 2014. “JM Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus: A Postmodern Allegory?” In: Current Writing 26(1): 70-81.
  • 2014. “ ‘Home in Exile’ in Aboulela’s Fiction”. In: B.A.S. (British and American Studies) 22(1): 71-80.
  • 2012. “Novelist or Short Story Writer? New Approaches to Gordimer’s Short Fiction”. In: British and American Studies 17: 91-100.
  • 2012. “The Writer as ‘Ragpicker’: The Auratic Power of the Mundane in Nadine Gordimer’s Recent Fiction”. In: Current Writing 24 (2): 138-148.
  • 2012 (with T. Jansen). “A Spirit of Home and Exile: A Re-evaluation of Breyten Breytenbach’s Memory of Snow and of Dust”. In: Literator 32(3): 1-16.
  • 2011. “Beyond the Mono-Cultural Mind: ‘Translating’ English Studies”. In: Current Writing 23(1):2-16.
  • 2011. “Living on a Frontierless Land: Nadine Gordimer and Cultural Globalization.” In: British and American Studies 17(1): 9-20.
  • 2010. “A ‘Translated’ Discipline: English as Intercultural Communication”. Journal of Literary Studies 26(2): 12-32.
  • 2010. “Why Are We Suddenly Talking about God?” Current Writing 22(1): 123-145.
  • 2009. “Nadine Gordimer: Getting a Life after Apartheid”. Current Writing 21 (1 &2): 117-137.
  • 2008. “Postmodernism and/ as Postcolonialism”. B.A.S. (British and American Studies) 14: 33-49.
  • 2008. “ ‘Unsettled and Unsettling Others’: The Double Vision of Local and Global in Breytenbach’s Later Travelogues”. EAR English Academy Review 25(1): 89-103.
  • 2007. “Creation and Translation”. In: Current Writing 19(1): 21-52.
  • 2007. “The Unbearable Simulacrum of Being: The ‘Double Vision’ of Home and Exile in Kundera and Breytenbach. Scrutiny2 12(1): 107-118.
  • 2007. “Translating and Being Translated: Interview with Antjie Krog. Scrutiny2 12(2): 135-153
  • 2006. “Postcolonialising Gordimer: The Ethics of ‘Beyond’ and Significant Peripheries in the Recent Fiction”. In: English in Africa 33(2): 159-180.
  • 2005. “The Writer in Prison: Black Humour and/ as Incarceration”. In: Romanian Journal of English Studies (2): 336-347.
  • 2005. “Gordimer’s Short Fiction: Story-Telling under Apartheid”. In: Current Writing 17(1): 90-107.
  • 2003. “‘The End of History’: Reading Gordimer’s Post-Apartheid Novels”. In: Current Writing 15(1): 17-37.
  • 2002. “The Civil Imaginary in Gordimer’s First Novels”. In: English in Africa 29 (1): 27-54.
  • 2002. “Expanding English: The Case for Cultural and Linguistic Translation”. In: The English Academy Review 19: 33-50.
  • 2002. “Translation, Diversity and Power: An Introduction”. In: Current Writing 14(2): 1-14. [Guest-editorship of special issue: Translation, Diversity and Power].
  • 2002. “Translation and Existential Awareness”. In: Current Writing 14 (2): 83-102.
  • 2001. “First Novels and New Beginnings: Artistic Coherence amid Shifting Political Contexts”. In: British and American Studies. 7(1): 71-81.
  • 2000. “A Bakhtinian Reading of Prison Writing”. British and American Studies 5(1): 94- 107.
  • 1999. “Re-reading Strategies for the Post-Totalitarian Condition”. British and American Studies. 4(1): 73-80.
  • 1998. “Translation at the Crossroads of History”. Current Writing 10(2): 62-83.
  • 1997. “Approaches to Translation”. Current Writing. 9(1): 68-96.
  • 1996. “Translations of the Self: Interview with Breyten Breytenbach”. Current Writing 8(1): 90-101.
  • 1995. “The Trickster and the Prison Space: The Bakhtinian Dimension of the Carnivalesque in Breytenbach’s True Confessions of An Albino Terrorist”. Literator 16(1): 127-138.
  • 1993. “The Significance of Allusion and Intimation in Ezra Pound’s ‘Hugh Selwyn Mauberley’”. Studii de limbi si literaturi straine. Universitatea Timisoara: 5-16.
  • 1992. “The Relationship Fiction/ Reality in the Novels of Muriel Spark”. Analele Universitatii din Timisoara: 30-42.
  • 1986. “Emily Dickinson, the Poet of Ardent Devotion and Sceptic Independence”. Studii de limbi si literaturi straine. Unversitatea din Timisoara: 1-25.

Conference Papers/Refereed Proceedings

  • 2014. ISRLC (17th Biennial International Conference for the Society of Religion, Literature and Culture), Leuven Catholic University/ Belgium, 18-20 Sep. Paper: “Re-Imagining the ‘New Man’ in JM Coetzee’s Recent Fiction.”
  • 2014. EACLALS International Conference (European Association of Commonwealth Literary and Language Studies). Innsbruck University/ Austria, 14-18 April. Paper: “Uncommon Riches and Postmodern Quests for Meaning.”
  • 2014. International Conference of British and American Studies. Timisoara University/ Romania, 15-17 May. Paper: “Attachment with Detachment: A Post-Secular Reading of JM Coetzee’s Recent Fiction.”
  • 2013. International Conference of British and American Studies. Timisoara, May. Paper: “The Diasporic Condition in Select South/African Fiction”.
  • 2012. ISRLC (16th Biennial International Conference for the Society of Religion, Literature and Culture), Copenhagen/ Denmark, 19-21 October. Paper: “Spiritual Certainties Lost and Found: Coming-to-Faith Stories in Select Postcolonial Novels from South/ Africa”.
  • 2012. International Conference of RNI (Region, Nation and Identity). Pecs/ Hungary, 20-24 June. Paper: “Transnational Identities and Imagined Geographies in Recent African Fiction”.
  • 2011. International Conference EACLALS (European Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies), Istanbul/ Turkey, 26-30 April 2011. Paper: “Pathway under Construction: A ‘Spiritual’ Turn to the Postcolonial.”
  • 2011. International Conference of British and American Studies, Timisoara/ Romania, 19-21 May. Paper: “Postmodern Holism: The Auratic Power of the Mundane.”
  • 2011. AUETSA Conference (Association of University English Teachers of Southern Africa), Grahamstown, 12-15 July. Paper: “The Writer as ‘Ragpicker’: Spirituality in Unexpected Places.”
  • 2011. International Symposium: Boundaries in Literature and Culture, NWU (Potchefstroom Campus), 21-22 October, Paper: “Between the Secular and the Spiritual in Recent Fiction”.
  • 2010. International Conference ACLALS (Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies), Nikosia/ Cyprus. 6-11 June. Paper: “Silenced by Freedom: Where is Gordimer after Apartheid?”
  • 2010. International Conference BAS (British and American Studies), Timisoara, 20-22 June. Paper: “A Spiritual Turn in Recent South African Writings”.
  • 2008. International Conference of British and American Studies, Timisoara, May. Paper: “Literary Studies Today: Shifting Sites, Comparative Perspectives”.
  • 2008. International Conference on the Humanities in Southern Africa, Pretoria, June. Paper: “Whither Inter-Disciplinary Studies? The Case of English, Translation and Intercultural Studies”
  • 2007. International Conference: Translation and Social Activism. Granada/ Spain, April. Paper: “Activism and the Intensity of the Local: The East European Translation Scene Today”.
  • 2007. International Conference of British and American Studies, Timisoara/ Romania, May. Paper: “Home and Exile in the Work of Milan Kundera”.
  • 2007. AUETSA, Durban, July. Paper: “Unsettled and Unsettling Others: The Later Fiction of Breyten Breytenbach”.
  • 2006. AUETSA, Stellenbosch, July. Paper: “The Unbearable Simulacrum of Being: The Double Vision of Home and Exile in the Work of Kundera and Breytenbach”.
  • 2006. International Conference: IATIS (International Association of Translators and Interpreters),
  • Cape Town/ UWC, July. Paper: “Post-Communist Nervous Conditions: Translation in the East European Post-Conundrum”.
  • 2005. International Conference of British and American Studies. Timisoara/ Romania, May. Paper: “Literary Translation: Art or Social Practice? ”.
  • 2005. AUETSA, Cape Town, July. Paper: “Postcolonialising Gordimer: The Ethics of ‘Beyond’ and Significant Peripheries in the Recent Fiction”.
  • 2005. International Conference: Translating and Interpreting as a Social Practice. Graz/ Austria, May. Paper: “Versions and Subversions: Translation as Social Practice”.
  • 2004. International Conference of British and American Studies. Timisoara/ Romania, May. Paper: “The Incarcerated Imagination Writing Back: A Postcolonial Reading of the Prison Memoir”.
  • 2004. International PEN Conference: The Diaspora and Post-Totalitarian Literatures. Invited to coordinate a workshop on literary translation. Neptun/ Romania, June.
  • 2003. AUETSA. Pretoria, July. Paper: “Inter-Disciplinary Approaches to English Studies: Re-Writing and Translation as Cultural Practices”.
  • 2003. International Conference on CTS (Corpus Translation Studies). Pretoria, July.
  • 2002. International Conference: Versions and Subversions. Centre for African Studies/ Humboldt University/ Berlin, May. Paper: “Re-reading Gordimer after Apartheid”.
  • 2002. 9th International Conference on RNI (Literature of Region, Nation and Identity). Durban, August. Paper: “Beyond Binaries: A Reappraisal of Gordimer”.
  • 2001. AUETSA. Johannesburg, July. Paper: “Expanding English: The Case for Cultural and Linguistic Translation”.
  • 2001. Fifth Language International Conference. Bloemfontein, July. Paper: “Restructuring and the Role of the Humanities”.
  • 2000. International Translation Studies Conference: Global Links, Linguistic Ties. New York University, March. Paper: “Academic Restructuring in the Humanities: Modular Teaching in Translation Studies”.
  • 2000. Colloquium: Intercultural Communication: Perspectives on Language and Culture. University of Zululand, June. Paper: “Market-related Teaching Strategies in Translation”.
  • 2000. ICLA (International Comparative Literature Association) Conference. Pretoria, August. Paper: “Transgressing the Margin: Text and Anti-Text in Select Prison Memoirs on the North/ South Axis”.
  • 1999. International Conference: History and Memory. Sighet/ Romania, June. Paper: “Negotiating Memory in Post-Totalitarian Fiction”.
  • 1998. SAVAL Conference. Johannesburg, June. Paper: “A New Sense of Social Space”.
  • 1995. AUETSA. Pietermaritzburg, July. Paper: “Re-reading Gordimer in the 1990s”.