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Core Modules


 

Core Course 1(Michaelmas Term): Theory & Methodology
Course Coordinator: Peter Arnds
This core course is shared with the MPhil in Comparative Literature, and explores some key theoretical issues raised by the activities of comparing and translating literatures. Recognition of the difference of other languages, literatures and cultures is arguably what initiates the projects of comparison and of translation. But, having acknowledged difference, what then authorises comparison, or translation? What are the conditions of comparability, or translatability? What continuities have to be presumed in order to claim that a given text is like (or unlike) another? or that a given text is equivalent to another? The course examines different ways in which we might conceive of the relationships and the divergences between texts, cultures and traditions, as well as between disciplines. For, while inviting the students of Literary Translation and Comparative Literature to explore their shared concerns, the course is also an invitation to consider what distinguishes translation and comparison, and therefore to engage with the still very current debates around the legitimacy of Comparative Literature as a distinct field of inquiry. Students study a range of historical and more contemporary theoretical and literary texts with a view to acquiring an understanding of Literary Translation and Comparative Literature as inherently self-reflective critical practices, where the grounds for translation and for comparison are always open to question.

Core Course 2 (HilaryTerm): Theory & History
Course Coordinator: Peter Arnds
This course is taken only by students of Literary Translation and is made up of a series of two-hour lectures by different members of faculty. The lectures explore the theory and practice of translation in the context of a specific historical moment. The aim of the course is to provide students with a sense of the diversity of approaches to thinking about translation (linguistic, socio-linguistic, philosophical, literary and so on), and the diversity of contexts in which these reflections appear, as well as a broad introduction to key moments in the history of translation theory (the Medieval and Early Modern periods, the Renaissance, Romantic Germany, etc.).
Possible topics include (please note these are subject to change due to faculty availability):

Texts and Translations: (Michaelmas & Hilary Terms)
Course  Coordinator:  Susana Bayó Belenguer & Peter Sirr
Through a series of seminars on literary text types (involving different periods and languages) and their translation(s) into English, students will familiarize themselves with the art of literary translation, with some of the major problems encountered in translating literary texts, and with a variety of translation strategies to resolve such difficulties. The course will examine issues of foreignization, domestication, stylistics and genre, and students will be encouraged to develop advanced skills in close-reading and literary criticism. This course feeds into preparation of the dissertation and the portfolio of translations.

Week 1

Susana Bayó Belenguer

We first consider what constitutes a successful translation in the light of various theories and of translators’ perceptions; then, we focus on the particularities of translating for the Theatre with examples from Lorca’s plays into English.

Bibliography:
Aaltonen, S. Time – Sharing on Stage. Drama Translation in Theatre and Society. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, Topics in Translation, 17, 2000
Anderman, Gunilla. “Drama Translation.” In Mona Baker (ed). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies.  London: Routledge, 1996: 71-74
Barthes, Roland. “Theatre and  Signification.” Theatre Quarterly 9.33 (1979): 25-30
Johnston, David. Federico García Lorca. 2004
Modern Drama (special issue on  translation) 41.1 (Spring 1998)
Zatlin, Phyllis. Theatrical Translation and Film Adaptation: A Practioner’s View. 2005

Week 2

Gilbert Carr

A brief introduction includes an overview of key theoretical statements on literary translation (from Goethe to Susan Sontag), with practical examples of literary translation problems from German (from Goethe to Kafka). Problems of poetry translation are approached in more detail in a practical session, with reference to examples from Goethe and Rilke.

TRANSLATION, POETRY TRANSLATION

  1. Bachmann-Medick, Doris: “Übersetzung als Medium interkultureller Kommunikation und Auseinandersetzung”, in: Handbuch der Kulturwissenschaften. Vol.2: Paradigmen und Disziplinen, ed. by Friedrich Jaeger and Jürgen Straub, Stuttgart, Weimar 2004, pp. 449-65 ; 6 REF 830 P4.2 Bd.2
  2. Gray, Ronald: An introduction to German poetry. Cambridge U.P 1965. R 831 K5
  3. Morgan, Bayard Q.: “On translating feminine rhymes”, in: Merkel, Gottfried F. (ed.): On romanticism and the art of translation: studies in honor of Edwin Hermann Zeydel. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1956, pp. 163-9.                                                                                  150.r.6
  4. Raftery-Skehan, Mark/ Scott, David: “Introduction”, in: Mallarmé, Stéphane: Sonnets, translated by David Scott. Exeter: Shearsman 2008, pp. 9-35.
  5. Salinger, Herman: “On translating lyric poetry”, in: Closs August (ed.): Reality and creative vision in German lyrical poetry, (Proceedings of the 15th symposium of the Colston Research Society held in the University of Bristol, April 1st-4th, 1963) London: Butterworths 1963, pp. 14-29.
  6. Sontag, Susan: „The world as India“, in: TLS 13.6.2003, pp. 13-15.
  7. Steiner, George: After Babel. Aspects of language and translation, London, Oxford, New York 1975.
  8. Venuti, Lawrence (ed.): The translation studies reader. 2nd ed. New York, London: Routledge, 2004. 8p18 P08*1
  9. Volkart, Barbara: “The valency of poetic imagery”, in: Petrilli, Susan (ed.): Translation. Translation, (Approaches to Translation Studies, 21) Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi 2003, pp. 487-506.
  10. Weissbort, Daniel, Eysteinsson, Astradur (eds.): Translation – Theory and practice. A historical reader, Oxford U. P. 8p10.28 P68 / PL-463-518

GOETHE

  1. Hinz, Stella M.: Goethe's lyric poems in English translation after 1860, Madison: University of Wisconsin 1928. (Studies in language and literature, no. 26 (Thesis University of Wisconsin, 1925) 171.e.76
  2. David Luke: “Translating Faust. A personal statement”, in: Bishop, Paul (ed.): A companion to Goethe’s Faust. Parts I and II, Rochester NY 2000, pp. 271-82.
  3. Malles, Hans-Jürgen: „Übersetzungen“, in:Witte, Bernd et al. (ed.): Goethe-Handbuch. Bd. 4/2: Personen, Sachen, Begriffe L-Z (ed. by Hans-Dietrich Dahnke, Regine Otto), Stuttgart: Metzler 1998, pp. 1067-72. LEN 838.6 GOEg N6.4: 2 Vol.4, pt.2
  4. Williams, John R.: “What gets lost? A look at some recent translations of Goethe”, in: Boyle, Nicholas/ Guthrie, John (eds.): Goethe and the English-speaking world: a Cambridge symposium for his 250th anniversary, (Studies in German literature, linguistics and culture) Columbia, S.C.: Camden House; Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2001, pp. 213-26. 838.6 GOEg P21

RILKE

  1. A miscellany of German and French poetry / transl. by Eudo C.Mason. Oliver & Boyd, 1963. 83p. 831.5 K31
  2. Rilke, Rainer Maria: Selected poems, transl. by Robert Bly. New York; London: Harper & Row, 1981. xi, 224p. ; 24cm. PL- 50-385
  3. Rilke, Rainer Maria: Selected poems; transl. by C.F. MacIntyre. Berkeley; London: University of California Press, 1997 [Orig.: 50 selected poems 1940.] PB-198-710
  4. Rilke, Rainer Maria: Selected poems; transl. by J.B. Leishman. London: Penguin 2001. (Penguin classics) PB-214-702
  5. Rilke, Rainer Maria: New poems: the German text with a transl. by J.B.Leishman. Hogarth, 1964. 306p., 838.912 RIL:2 K4
  6. Rilke, Rainer Maria: Neue Gedichte = New poems; transl. by Stephen Cohn. Rev. ed. Manchester: Carcanet, 1997. 295p. [Previous ed.: 1992. Parallel text] PL-404-428
  7. Rilke, Rainer Maria: Poems: Rilke / [sel. by Peter Washington, transl. by J.B. Leishman]. London: David Campbell, 1996. HB- 55- 85
  1. Engel, Manfred et al (eds.): Rilke-Handbuch: Leben, Werk, Wirkung, Stuttgart: Metzler 2004. LEN 838.912 RILg P41
  2. Kaplan, Steven: „Will the real Rilke please stand up? Contemporary translations of Rilke’s poetry“, in: Bauschinger, Sigrid / Cocalis, Susan L. et al (eds.): Rilke-Rezeptionen = Rilke reconsidered, (Papers from the 19th Amherster Kolloquium zur Deutschen Literatur, Apr. 28-30 1994) Tübingen: Francke, 1995, pp. 125-35.  ARTS 838.912 RILg N5

Week 3

Sarah Smyth

Primary text: Uncle Vanya [Texts are supplied in Week 2; students are expected to familiarize themselves with four translations of the opening section of the play in advance of the session.]

Question: What makes a translation different from the source text?

Week 4

Ciaran Cosgrove

This class will examine a variety of text types, particularly prose fiction and poetry which will be distributed in class in order to see the validity of differential approaches. An argument will be made that ‘domesticating’ or ‘foreignizing’ approaches will depend on the text type itself. Photocopies of selected texts from Dryden to Schleiermacher will also be distributed in order to give some theoretical foundation to the texts examined.

Week 5

Anna Chahoud

Problems in translating Latin poetry:  Linguistic Register, Poetic diction, and Context(s)

I will provide handouts.

Week 6

Peter Arnds, to be announced

Week 7

Study week

Week 8

Eileán Ni Chuilleánain, to be announced

Week 9

David Parris, to be announced

Week 10

Corinna Lonergan: Principles of Translation: the case of Leonardi Bruni

At the first meeting in Michaelmas Term (30 November) we shall discuss a theoretical text that is a landmark in the area of literary translation as it outlines fundamental principles of translation: Leonardo Bruni, De interpretatione recta (c. 1420). Subsequent theorists have played many variations on his theme, and several, for example Robert Lowell, Imitations (London: Faber, 1984), pp. xi-xii, have taken a position totally opposed.
The second meeting, in Hilary Term, will look at translations of Renaissance poetic texts in the light of Bruni’s theory. Our examples will be Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, and Lorenzo de’ Medici and Poliziano from the preceding century.

You will receive detailed information two weeks before our meetings but the basic reading is:
Leonardo Bruni, De interpretatione recta which you will find in Leonardo Bruni, Opere letterarie e politiche, ed. by Paolo Viti (Turin: UTET, 1996), pp. 150-193; the English text, translated by James Hankins, and with omissions of Bruni’s own translations from Greek, may be read in The Humanism of Leonardo Bruni: Selected Texts, ed. by G. Griffiths, J. Hankins, D. Thompson (New York: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1987), pp. 217-229. The very useful Leonardo Bruni, Sulla perfetta traduzione, a cura di Paolo Viti, Liguori, 2004 is in the Library at 85p4 P41; this is a dual language edition with extensive notes as well as Bruni’s prefaces to his many translation from Greek into Latin (they appear in their original form, not translated); Viti claims to have revised his translation, and modified it. I mention this for those who read Italian easily; it costs only €15.50.
Jane Everson, ‘Translating the pope and the Apennines: Harington’s version of the Orlando furioso, in MLR, 100.3 2005 pp. 645-58.

Week 11

David Scott: Translating the Sonnet

Reading to be announced

Week 12

Susana Bayó Belenguer

The objective will be to open up a debate based on the general topics explored during the course.

 

 

Translation Seminar
Course Coordinator: David Parris
A student seminar to which students bring their own translation (normally into English) for comparison, debate and discussion. Runs throughout through first semester and second semester, 2 hours per week. At the end of the year, students are requested to submit a portfolio of translations (Click here for details). This work is undertaken in conjunction with a tutor from the language of the student's choice, and counts for 30% of the final assessment. Although there is compensation between the different component parts of the course, students must achieve a pass on the submitted portfolio component, in order to pass overall.

Translation Seminars - Michaelmas Term
Week 5 to 6

Mr David Parris

Week 7 to 8 Dr Sandrine Brisset
Week 9 to 10

Prof Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin

Week 11 - Reading Week


Week 12 to 13

Prof Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

Week 14 Prof David Scott
Week 15 to 16

Dr John Murray

Translation Seminars - Hilary Term


Week 21

Dr Peter Arnds

Week 22 to 23 Prof Moray McGowan
Week 24 Prof Corinna Salvadori Lonergan
Week 25 to 26 Dr Justin Doherty
Week 27 - Reading Week
Week 28 to 29 Dr Susana Bayó Belenguer
Week 30 to 31 TBA
Week 32

Dr Peter Arnds

 

Reading Group in Translation Theory 

Scheduled for terms for one hour weekly in which students read and discuss together key texts in twentieth century translation theory. Students can either work through the texts that particularly interest them, or can follow the reading list provided. The aim of the reading group is to provide a forum in which students can familiarise themselves with some of the seminal contemporary texts on translation and formulate their own critical positions in relation to them. It is expected that the discussions and debates that take place in the student-led reading-group will feed back into the core courses lectures and seminars. We recommend to purchase the Translation Studies Reader edited by Lawrence Venuti (Routledge, 2nd Ed., 2004), as it contains some of the key twentieth century essays on translation.

Reading Seminar Group in Translation Theory
MT & HT (one hour a week)


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contact: sllcs@tcd.ie | last updated: Sep 28 2011.
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