Theory of Traslation
Bendix profile
M 5:30-8:30
This seminar explores the fundamental role of translation in the multicultural world of past and present. It is through translation that most people's knowledge of literary classics and the the latest Nobel Prize winner's work will come. Translation is at work when Jane Austen is readied for film, when mythology inspires a sculptor, when missionaries prepare sacred texts to gain new converts. Freud translated dreams into psychological revelation. Folklorists render the spoken word in translation and print. Pete Seeger refers to himself as a translator. The course takes its departure from this most inclusive understanding of "translation." We will situate our work between disciplines, drawing from literature, folklore, philosophy, anthropology, classics, and psychology, and build on the rich, broadening field of translation studies. Our goal is to gain an understanding of what translation has meant and can mean. What human facilities are mobilized in translation? What powers does translation bestow on the translators? What ideologies motivate translation? What role does translation play in mediating between social classes, cultures, continents, between history, present and future?
updated 2006-10-05
