MCLS 61240, Spring Semester 2005: German Cultural and Literary Translation

Required and recommended texts for reading and discussion:

Venuti, Lawrence, ed. The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. This text is available in the campus bookstores.

List of articles (see Syllabus for discussion dates & details):

  1. Jacobson, Roman. "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation," pp. 113-118. 
  2. Evan-Zohar, Itamar. "The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem," pp. 192-197.
  3. Toury, Gideon. "The Nature and Role of Norms in Translation," pp. 198-211. 
  4. Borges, Jorge Luis. "The Translators of the Thousand and One Nights," translated by Esther Allen, pp. 34-48.
  5. Nida, Eugene. "Principles of Correspondence," pp. 126-140.
  6. Steiner, George. "The Hermeneutic Motion." pp. 186-191. 
  7. Chamberlain, Lori. "Gender and the Metaphorics of Translation," pp. 314-329.
  8. Harvey, Keith. "Translating Camp Talk: Gay Identities and Cultural Transfer,"    pp. 446-467.
  9. Berman, Antoine. "Translation and the Trials of the Foreign," translated by Lawrence Venuti, pp. 284-297.
  10. Venuti, Lawrence. Precise article to be announced/provided shortly.
  11. Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "Thick Translation," pp. 417-429.
  12. Brisset, Annie. "The Search for a Native Language: Translation and Cultural Identify," translated by Rosalind Gill and Roger Gannon, pp. 343-375.
  13. Simon, Sherry. "Germaine de Staël and Gayatri Spivak: Culture Brokers", from Maria Tymoczko and Edwin Gentzler, eds. Translation and Power, 2002, 122-140.
  14. Benjamin, Walter. "The Task of the Translator," pp. 15-22. (There will be at least one alternate translation of the Benjamin.)

By Sunday evening each week you are required to send to the professor in charge of the group discussion for that week an email message containing one written question and a paragraph-long comment relating to the set passage for that week. The addresses are as follows:

Supplemental Texts

Delisle, Jean; Lee-Jahnke, Hannelore; and Cormier, Monique C. 1999. Translation Terminology. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

The  Translation Terminology is a required text for the course and will be a primary source of information used in translation logs and classroom discussions. It should be used as a guide and a lexicon, but not as any kind of check list or organizational principle when writing translation analyses.

Benson, Morton; Benson, Evelyn; and Ilson, Robert. 1997. The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

BBI is a highly recommended text, particularly for non-native speakers of English. Although it is small, it provides a valuable resource on collocational patterns in British and American English. Experience has shown that native speakers of English also derive a great deal of benefit from consulting this resource.

If you do not own these texts, please check with Dr. Wright.

Texts for Translation

Text # 1:

Prosedichtung
Dylan Thomas, "A Child's Christmas in Wales," übersetzt von  Erich Fried, "Ein Kindes Weihnachten in Wales"
Text # 2:

Kinderliteratur
Janosch (zeitgenossische Kindergedichte und Kindergeschichten)

Text # 3:

Novelle, 20. Jahrhundert
Franz Kafka, "Ein Bericht für eine Akademie"

Text # 4:

Drama
Bertolt Brecht, Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder

Text # 5: Roman, 20. Jahrhundert (Märchen)
Irmtraut Morgner, Amanda: Ein Hexenroman
Text # 6: zeitgenössischer österreichischer Frauenroman
Inge Merkel, Eine ganz gewöhnliche Ehe, Fischer 1996.
Text # 8: schweizerischer Bildungsroman, 19. Jahrhundert
Gottfried Keller, Der Grüne Heinrich
Text # 9: zeitgenossischer sozio-politischer Essay
To be announced

Précis Assignments

Précis Article Assignment Due Datee
Berger, Klaus, and Nord, Christiane. ?Zur Art der Übersetzung: Zur übersetzungstheoretischen Grundlage.? In: Das Neue Testament und frühchristliche Schriften. Übersetzt von Klaus Berger und Christiane Nord. Frankfurt und Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 2001, pp. 17-32 Heinl Week 6
Gile, Daniel. ?Chapter 5. A sequential model of translation.? In: Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1995, 101-130. Pfennig Week 5
Pike, Burton. ?Translation: The Transparency and the Obstacle.? Pre-publication manuscript. Hanna Week 4
Puurtinen, Tiina. ?Dynamic style as a parameter of acceptability in translated children?s books.? In: Translation Studies: An Interdiscipline: Selected papers from the Translation Studies Congress, Vienna, 1992. Mary Snell-Hornby, Franz Pöchhacker and Klaus Kaindl, Eds. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1994, pp. 83-90 Dech Week 3
Reiss, Katherina. ?Type, Kind and Individuality of Text: Decision Making in Translation,? Trans. By Susan Kitron. In: The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. 2, pp. ?. Dünkel Week 4
Schleiermacher, Friedrich. ?On the Different Methods of Translating.? Trans. By Waltraud Bartscht. In: Rainer Schulte and John Biguenet, Theories of Translation: An Antholoogy of Essays from Dryden to Derrida. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, 36-54.
Schleiermacher, Friedrich. ?On the Different Methods of Translating.? Translated by Susan Bernofsky In: The Translation Studies Reader, Ed. 2, pp. ... 		Moore Week 6
Vermeer, Hans. "Skopos and Commission in Translational Action." Trans. Andrew Chesterman. In: Translation Studies Reader, Ed. 2, pp. ... Sohnholz Week 5

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