This course examines the far-reaching significance of translation and uses insights and practices from the field of translation to help students improve their skills. Students will be introduced to some of the most common debates among translators and translation scholars about how best to translate texts. This is a rich and complex question because translation is not just a straightforward matter of exchanging words in one language for words in another. It involves cultural, social, aesthetic, political, economic, and ethical considerations. Students will be able to explore these issues through written exercises that put theory into practice. Studying these issues will help them understand why translation matters: it helps to reflect upon our cultural values and those of others; facilitates or impedes cross-cultural communication; enables the cross-pollination of ideas and literary innovations; and reinforces or subverts established power imbalances.
Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Improve oral and written communication between or within French and English cultures and languages.
• Have knowledge about literary, critical, historical, linguistic, and cultural approaches.
• Be able to use them in text analysis and text production.
• Be able to translate texts in the light of the knowledge acquired in terms of terminology, field knowledge, source language and target language required for translations.
• Acquire research skills and to be able to include information sources effectively in the translation process.
The course is open to students with an adequate command of English, with knowledge of the literary, cultural, and translation traditions of the English-speaking world.
This course is designed to train students to translate selected texts from different genres of
discourse from French into English, with particular emphasis on how to select the proper word,
how to use nominal and verbal structures, as well as major rhetorical devices, proper
punctuation, sentence linkers, and smooth transitions between paragraphs. Lively classroom
discussions resulting from comparing different translations should ensue with the aim of
pointing out why each group of students prefers one translation to the other.
Assessment and Final Grade
Text 1 to be translated during class: 50%
Text 2 to be translated during class: 50%
Course Requirements
Students are strongly advised to have translated a text given by the teacher the previous week
for the next class. Attendance is compulsory.
Time in class is the opportunity to actively engage with the material explored. Participation is
crucial because it is an important avenue for learning. Students are therefore encouraged to
be active in every class session. To this effect, a participation grade to credit students with the
effort and work they put into the class in and out of the classroom.
Libraries
Practical information
