Translating Taboos - From Text to Film

Stanley Kubrick (film director) and Vladimir Nabokov (author) agreed to make the 1955 novel LOLITA into a farcical film in 1962, leaning towards humor and playfulness rather than eroticism. They believed this was the best way to get around censorship. Director Tatiana Huezo and writer Jennifer Clement, in contrast, did not collaborate on the film adaptation, and their visions on mixing tragedy and comedy, what Charles Dickens famously called writing "streaky bacon" differed profoundly.

Join award-winning writers, Jennifer Clement, Tony Barnstone, and Sholeh Wolpé as they lead us through a captivating discussion of challenges and implications of translation from text to film, with the focus on translating “taboos,” such as sex, deviance, linguistic anathemas, and other unthinkables.


Jennifer Clement is an award-winning author and the only woman President of PEN International. Some of her best known novels, such as Prayers for the Stolen, have been adapted into films.

Tony Barnstone is a prolific poet, author, essayist, and literary translator and professor of English at Whittier College. He is the author of 23 books and a creativity tool in the form of a tarot deck.

Sholeh Wolpé is the Writer-In-Residence at UCI. Her literary work includes 15 books, several plays, a screenplay as well as librettos and lyrics for the choir and opera.

Illuminations: The Chancellor's Arts & Culture Initiative | Website | View More Events

Contact the organizers