COML 3811 - Theory and Practice of Translation

(HB) (LA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

This course can be used to satisfy the literature requirement of the Russian Minor and can also be used to satisfy the COML Major Theory Course requirement. Knowledge of languages other than English is welcome but not required.

N. Pollak.

The modern field of translation studies overlaps most closely with literary studies, but it intersects also with fields such as linguistics and politics. The intense work in translation studies in the last few decades follows a long history of thinking about translation. The activity of translation has been viewed over many centuries as betrayal, as an inferior form of literary production, as extending the life of the literary work, as a creative process equal to the original. In this course we will examine various approaches to the translation of literary texts, both prose and verse. We will read texts by theorists and by translators, possibly including Cicero, Schleiermacher, Benjamin, Nabokov, Jakobson, Nida, Toury, Venuti, Bassnett and others. We will also read and analyze translations of literary works, with a focus on classics of Russian literature. Practical translation work will illuminate theoretical readings.