Sample Course Descriptions

Translation Workshop | Translation Touchstones | Critical Approaches to Translation

The craft of translation fosters critical and creative thinking, and it can be considered a model for introducing students to the practice of interdisciplinary research. At all times the question will be asked: what sources of information and what disciplines have to be engaged to do justice to the interpretation of a text?

The distinctive features of the Translation Workshop are its fusing of critical analysis with creative writing, its emphasis on the process by which we come to understand the making and the interpretation of a work of art. Learning the art and craft of translation will be of intrinsic interest to those students who are re-creating works from one language into another and for those who are involved in creating their own works. The interaction of translators, creative writers, and poets in the workshop will open up the dialogue about how writers reflect their critical and creative thinking through the medium of words. The translator learns from the writer how to refine the expressions of linguistic subtleties, and the writer learns from the translator what the power and semantic resonances are within the possibilities of language. Translators and writers need to learn how to reconstruct through the process of interpretation the complex interactions inherent in a literary text. Translators give form to their interpretations of a text in the new language, and writers explore the horizon of their visions within the inherent possibilities of the word.

Students will discuss the drafts of their own translations or poems during the workshops. In addition, readings will include texts on the craft and theory of translation and the practice of interpretation.

Required Readings:
Edwin Honig, The Poet's Other Voice: Conversations on Literary Translation; Schulte/ Biguenet, The Craft of Translation; Schulte/ Biguenet, Theories of Translation: An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida; John Felstiner, Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu; The World of Translation, PEN American Center, New York, with a new introduction by Gregory Rabassa; William Arrowsmith & Roger Shattuck, The Craft and Context of Translation; and articles from Translation Review