Sibelan Forrester
Kohlberg 340
tel. (610-328-) 8162
sforres1@swarthmore.edu>
SF home page
Office Hours, Fall 2008:
Translation is a fundamental human activity that occurs between languages, cultures, and forms of expression. Without translation, most readers would have limited acquaintance with literature. Translation practice provides rich data for psycholinguistics, and stimulating possibilities for creative writers. This course will combine theory and practice, approaching translation in its full complexity as art and science. Our reading, discussion and practice will draw on the points of view of creative writing, linguistics, and literary theory.
The course can be taken for either Social Science (Linguistics) or Humanities (Literature; Russian) credit. Be sure you know the requirements your registration choice entails (see below), and adjust in time if necessary.
Required Texts (for sale in Bookstore; backup copies on Reserve in McCabe):
Also, you are required to join the American Literary Translators' Association (ALTA). It provides the ALTA Newsletter, the journal TR (Translation Review), and a great conference (NOT required, though this year itís in Minneapolis, MN, October 15-18, during fall break). For $10 youíll get a special part-year $10 membership, lasting through the end of 2008. After that, you may renew at the regular student rate of $20.00 per year. Join on their web site or mail them the completed form (printed from http://www.utdallas.edu/alta/info.htm) with a check.
The ALTA Administrative Assistant is Lindy Jolly.
Contact info:
ALTA Office
The University of Texas at Dallas
MC35, Box 830688
Richardson, TX 75083-0688
(972) 883-2093
lindy.jolly@utdallas.edu
Membership in ALTA brings all kinds of information and rewards (calls for contributions, info on prize competitions, stimulating discussions, contact with other translators, if you put in some time and energy (read the materials, the ALTA blog at http://literarytranslators.blogspot.com, join the ALTAlk list, etc.).
Some of our course work can be done electronically, but we'll generate a lot of paper. Plan to store it in a convenient way. Always make enough copies of your drafts for workshopping (the syllabus will specify: enough for the whole class, or for a smaller group), so you can get written comments.
"At each class session we may discuss required readings, present and critique work in progress, do a focused exercise (on-the-spot translation; editing a brief text, etc.), and, after the first couple of weeks, present of work and research topics. Your participation will determine the quality of everyone's experience.
In the past I've arranged frequent bilingual readings for this class, but this year I want to try fewer but more splashy events: a big lecture and a big reading. You are urged to attend and participate, but participation in the public events is not required. Let me know if you must miss either for some good reason (e.g., illness, Jazz Ensemble rehearsal); otherwise, absence will impact your grade.
In addition, on a more private scale, we'll schedule a bilingual reading outside class at which we'll all present a favorite piece in the original and in translation. This can be open to the public if people desire, or can be a private rehearsal for the final reading(s) where you'll present your own work.
For the last three weeks of the semester or so, you will organize and perform in readings, ideally using material from the fourth written assignment (see below), so if you have good ideas at any point please note them down and bring to class. Translators tend to be more diffident than poets or fiction writers -- even if theyíre also poets or fiction writers themselves! -- so think in terms of excitement: how to present your work and your author effectively.
Three other Oral Assignments:
1-2) At some point during the semester, present and lead discussion of two books or articles chosen from the Reserve/Suggested list (or found elsewhere, with the instructor's approval), that you read with close attention. Study the list and choose ahead of time to get something you'll care about and enjoy. Ask provocative questions, help field questions from class members. Start with: what do you agree or disagree with, and why? What does this teach you about translation, what is its point of view? What does it omit? What is useful; what merely interesting? How does it relate to the other readings we have done, or to other important cultural opinions? Sign up for presentations in advance. Let me know if youíd like suggestions based on your interests.
3) In the second part of the semester, give an outline of your work in progress -- your final paper topic, or your portfolio of annotated translations, the major project you're preparing. Sign up to do this early enough that comments or suggestions could still be helpful.
Four Written Assignments:
Any written project may be done in the form of a web page, if you prefer, though in-class workshopping must be on paper (unless everyone has a laptop to bring to class). A final project on the web (- or a blog about your struggles with The Book of Genji?) can give readers immediate access to your work. With permission, I can link to your pages from the syllabus page, and the whole thing will be a delightful edifice of art & knowledge. (This may suit a research paper or translations of work now out of copyright more than translations of recent writing. Getting permission to make a translation can be a big hairy issue...)
In brief:
| Assignment | Due | percent of your grade |
|---|---|---|
| first translation | September 29 | 5% |
| second translation | November 3 | 10% |
| bibliography | November 24 | 10% |
| portfolio or final paper | December 19 | 30% |
| 1st presentation of reading | TBA | 5% |
| 2nd presentation of reading | TBA | 5% |
| presentation of final project | TBA | 5% |
| presentation at final reading | TBA | 10% |
| attendance, participation | always! | 20% |
On Reserve (in McCabe):
Recommended Readings (all should be available in Tripod):
Online:
(earn points by suggesting other online translation resources!)
And in McCabe reference section:
Peter France, ed., The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation (PR131 .O94 2000). Besides info on individual languages and literatures, there's a sizable section on History and Theory of translation into English.
September 1: What makes you start translating?
Introduction to the course; overview of readings and assignments; establish small groups for the first assignment; Bly's Eight Stages; work on a sample translation draft
Readings, Week 2: "Introduction," The Craft of Translation, vii-xvi; "Introduction," The Translation Studies Reader, 1-9; "Foundational Statements,' TSR 13-20; Jerome, "Letter to Pammachuis," TSR 21-30; Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt, "Prefaces to Tacitus and Lucian," TSR 31-37; John Dryden, "From the Preface to Ovid's Epistles," TSR 38-42; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Translations," TSR 64-66.
By Sept. 8: find a native speaker, choose a poem, bring information
September 8: Which famous writers began their careers as translators?
Guest Professor Michael Pesenson!
Introduce people who weren't here last week; "false" translation; in small groups present and describe text chosen for first project (description or even the first rough draft); Goethe's system and other readings; the history of translation in Russia
September 15: No class this week. Meet with your small group at a time and place convenient to you and workshop your drafts of the first project. Start choosing text(s) for your second project.
Readings, Week 3: Gregory Rabassa, "No Two Snowflakes Are Alike: Translation as Metaphor," Craft, 1-12; Friedrich Schleiermacher, "On the Different Methods of Translation," TSR 43-63; Friedrich Nietzsche, "Translations," TSR 67-68; "1900s-1930s," TSR 71-74; Walter Benjamin, "The Task of the Translator," TSR 75-85.
For Sept. 22, bring enough paper copies of your first project in progress to workshop it.
September 22: Why don't translators (usually) use pseudonyms?
Work up poem draft from a trot; Rabassa; Nietzsche; Benjamin; small groups: workshop first project poem.
Presentations:
Readings, Week 4: Margaret Sayers Peden, "Building a Translation, the Reconstruction Business: Poem 145 of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz," Craft, 13-27; Ezra Pound, "Guido's Relations," TSR 86-93; Jorge Luis Borges, "The Translators of The One Thousand and One Nights," TSR 94-108; "1940s-1950s," TSR 111-14; Vladimir Nabokov, "Problems of Translation: Onegin in English," TSR 115-27.
For Sept. 29, find someone's translation you like (1-2 pages, or an excerpt), bring in enough photocopies for everyone. First translation project is due!
September 29: How is translating related to creative writing?
Choose articles/works to present; Peden; Pound; Borges; Nabokov; present final versions of first project, discuss your experience and results; another "false translation;" bring in someone else's translation that you like, present and critique them.
Presentations:
Readings for Week 5: Burton Raffel, "Translating Medieval European Poetry," Craft, 28-53; Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet, "A Methodology for Translation," TSR 128-37; Roman Jakobson, "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation," TSR 138-43.
For Oct. 6, choose a well-known poem or paragraph from a well-known prose work, find 3-4 translations, make enough copies (one page of each translation) for everyone, bring to class and present.
October 6: How have theories of translation evolved over the centuries?
Look at everyone's comparative translations; Raffel; Vinay and Darbelnet; Jakobson; describe your second project; in small groups: workshop part of second project (bring enough copies, for comments)
Presentations:
Readings for Week 6: Edmund Keeley, "Collaboration, Revision, and Other Less Forgivable Sins in Translation," Craft, 54-69; "1960s-1970s," TSR 147-51; Eugene Nida, "Principles of Correspondence," TSR 153-167; Katharina Reiss, "Type, Kind and Individuality of Text: Decision Making in Translation," TSR 168-79; James S. Holmes, "The Name and Nature of Translation Studies," TSR 180-192.
For Oct. 20, bring 4-5 copies of drafts of your second project for workshopping. Start thinking about your final project.
October 20: What if the text to be translated is religious?
Work up a draft translation from a ìtrotî I'll provide, read and critique our versions; Keeley; Nida; Reiss; Holmes; small groups: present more drafts from second project (bring sufficient copies)
Presentations:
Readings for Week 7: Donald Frame, "Pleasures and Problems of Translation," Craft, 70-92; George Steiner, "The Hermeneutic Motion," TSR 193-98; Itmar Even-Zohar, "The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem," TSR 199-204; Gideon Toury, "The Nature and Role of Norms in Translation," TSR 205-18.
For Oct. 27, find a text you like, make a trop of 8-12 lines of it, bring in info about the author and the tradition it comes from. Start annotated bibliography.
October 27: What if the writer's so GREAT that the text might as well be religious?
Make a "trot" from 8-12 lines of a text you've read, work up in small groups, trade back and critique; Frame; Steiner; Even-Zohar; Toury; present what's ready from your second project, due next week.
Presentations:
Readings for Week 8: John Felstiner, "'Ziv, that light': Translation and Tradition in Paul Celan," Craft, 93-116; "1980s," TSR 221-26; Hans J. Vermeer, "Skopos and Commission in Translational Action," TSR 227-38; André Lefevere, "Mother Courage's Cucumbers: Text, System and Refraction in a Theory of Literature," TSR 239-55.
For Nov. 3: find a translation you like, bring enough copies of 1-3 pages for everyone, to present in class. Second project is due!
November 3: What is your relationship to past and future translators?
Present second project work, if you didnít read it in completed form last week (2nd project due today!); Felstiner; Vermeer; Lefevere; present a translation you like, with 1-3 pages as an example.
Presentations:
Readings for Week 9: William Weaver, "The Process of Translation,"
Craft
, 117-24; Philip E. Lewis, "The Measure of Translation Effects," TSR 256-75; Antoine Berman, "Translation and the Trials of the Foreign," TSR 276-89; Shoshana Blum-Kulka, "Shifts of Cohesion and Coherence in Translation," TSR 290-305.For Nov. 10, find a translation you find problematic, make enough copies of 2-3 illustrative pages and bring to class.
November 10: What if your translation will most likely be "the last word"?
Present a translation you find problematic, with 2-3 pages of text to illustrate your points; Weaver; Lewis; Berman; Blum-Kulka; briefly describe final projects; in small groups: discuss final project shape in more detail.
Presentations:
Readings for Week 10: Christopher Middleton, "On Translating Günter Eich's Poem 'Ryoanji'," Craft, 125-41; Lori Chamberlain, "Gender and the Metaphorics of Translation," TSR 306-21; "1990s and Beyond," TSR 323-35.
For Nov. 17: bring enough copies of part of final project to workshop.
November 17: What theories have sprung from translation practice or theory?
Middleton; Chamberlain; present part of final project for workshopping in small groups; discussion of helpful theories; strategize, schedule and plan student bilingual readings; briefly describe topic of annotated bibliographies.
Presentations:
Readings for Week 11: Edward Seidensticker, "On Trying to Translate Japanese," Craft, 142-53; Annie Brisset, "The Search for a Native Language: Translation and Cultural Identity," TSR 337-68; Gayatri Chakrovorty Spivak, "The Politics of Translation," TSR 369-88.
For Nov 24.: complete the annotated bibliography; bring enough copies of another part of final project to workshop.
November 24: What is the translator's relationship to the writer?
Present another draft from final project in small groups; discuss shapes for large projects (including final portfolios), comments and suggestions.
Presentations:
Readings for Week 12: Kwame Anthony Appiah, "Thick Translation," TSR 389-401; Keith Harvey, "Translating Camp Talk: Gay Identities and Cultural Transfer," TSR 402-422; Jacques Derrida, "What Is a 'Relevant' Translation?" TSR 423-46.
December 1: How are translation theory and practice gendered?
Discuss/critique first student bilingual reading, individual pieces and overall impressions; Appiah; Harvey; Derrida; discuss the translation biz; creative exercise
Presentation:
Readings for Week 13: Abé Mark Nornes, "For an Abusive Subtitling," TSR 447-59; Venuti, "Translation, Community, Utopia," TSR 482-502.
December 8: Who is your favorite translator?
Nornes; Venuti; readings from final projects
Final project is due December 19 to my office, Kohlberg 340.