Topics in World Literature and History

3 units

This course will combine practical experience in translation with close examination and comparison of existing translations of major works, including -- tentatively -- passages from the Bible, the Tao te Ching, Homer and other classical poets and playwrights, Dante, Villon, Moliere, on up to more modern writers such as Baudelaire, Dostoievski, Proust, and Szymborska. The approach will be less theoretical than analytical, focusing on the intricacies and nuances of language as they are brought into relief by the demands of translation, as well as on how translations change over time, depending on idiomatic shifts and cultural climates. For instance, we might look at Pope's translation of a passage of Homer alongside later versions, up to the present (e.g., Robert Fagles' Homer), to discover what the translators' choices indicate about changing literary values and tastes. Bi-lingual editions of certain works may be used. Issues such as the relation of translation to adaptation and paraphrase may be addressed. Guest translators will be invited occasionally to discuss their work. Each student's major seminar project will be: either a brief (10-20 page) translation to be presented in class or, for those students not sufficiently versed in a foreign language, a presentation tracing the translation history of a single work and comparing versions of a particular passage in it (which will also be submitted as a paper). Open to graduate students and well-qualified seniors. Students in The Writing Program, Comparative Literature, and Classics are especially encouraged to enroll. Knowledge of one or more foreign languages is desirable but not essential.