Sworn Virgin – An evening with translator Clarissa Botsford

Sworn virgins are women who take a vow of chastity and wear male clothing in order to live as men in the patriarchal northern Albanian society. Translated to English by Clarissa Botsford, the novel Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones, explores this cultural practice and has recently been made into a film and new English edition was published in October 2015.

Clarissa will read excerpts from the book, discuss the challenges of translating it, and introduce the Sworn Virgin tradition, while exploring some of the themes inherent in the book such as cultural and sexual disorientation and transitions, gender identity and uncertainty, intercultural misunderstanding, emigration, and language as appropriation of identity.

About Sworn Virgin:

Abandoning her literature studies in Tirana to look after the aunt and uncle who had brought her up, Hana is forced by her uncle’s imminent death to take an oath and assume the persona of Mark, a hardened mountain peasant, rather than accept an arranged marriage. Mark’s decision, after 14 years, to shake off the oath – and re-appropriate what was left of Hana’s body and mind by moving to the United States – makes for powerful narrative. The transition to a new life there, as a woman wanting to shed the deadweight of her virginity, is fraught with challenges.

About the author Elvira Dones:

Elvira Dones first became interested in Sworn Virgins when she was a student in Albania. These women had the same rights as men, and were respected by other men as equals, or even as superiors.

The author wrote the novel, Sworn Virgin (published by And Other Stories, May 2014, in English for the first time), as fiction, but years later, when she made a documentary on the subject, discovered that it was closer to the truth than she could ever have imagined. A film based on the book, directed by Laura Bispuri, was released in 2015 and has won accolades at independent film festivals.

Booking

This free event is for women only and suitable for 16+.

Please book below (you will be taken through the shopping cart but no charge will be made) or you can call us on 0141 550 2267. If you have booked a place and are no longer able to attend please let us know so that we can make your place available to someone else