WRCT 255 - Translation: Theory and Practice

Institution:

Wesleyan University

Subject:

Writing Center

Description:

This course treats the reading of theoretical texts on translation and the production of creative texts in the literary mode of translation as complementary heuristic procedures for opening an investigation into certain problems of language and meaning. Readings will include literary, philosophical, historical, and linguistic accounts of translation in conjunction with (and sometimes directly paired with) influential and experimental translations from a range of 20th-century writers. We will familiarize ourselves with the practical choices that face a translator, from classical distinctions between free and literal translation through contemporary concerns regarding domestication and foreignization, (post-)colonial power relations, and translation across media. Written assignments will consist of intra- and interlingual translations that will provide firsthand experience with the choices a translator must make and the resistances that language can offer, as well as a space for exploring the limits of rewriting, manipulation, and transformation within a rubric of translation. Final projects will be hybrids of creative and critical writing, with students producing readings of their chosen foreign-language texts through some interaction between translation and more conventional forms of criticism. Students who are working on a longer translation project (e.g., as part of a senior thesis) will be allowed to focus on this text for many of the assignments during the semester.

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Seminar

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wesleyan.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 685-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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