The Task of the Translator

The Task of the Translator is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies course taught by Norman Holland and Mary Russo.

This course requires prerequisites.

Course Description
Translation is inherently an ethical and political act, involving inevitable misunderstandings and ambiguity. Things that can be said in one language cannot be neatly transferred into another. The translator works on the border of cultures as well as languages. This gap becomes even more difficult when translating across cultures that do not share the same basic concepts and when the translator herself represents a dominant or imperialist social or political interest. The idea of translation as treachery is an old one. What does a translator have to know? How is the role of the translator (particularly the U.S. translator) implicated in political fiction from Graham Greene to Colm Toibin? This course will address what is at play and at stake in translation. Students will be required to undertake a translation project. They will do an original translation and an analysis of the difficulties they faced in the translating and in the language choices they made. Readings will include both creative texts and theoretical essays. Course requirement: students must demonstrate at least intermediate proficiency in a world language.