Course aims:

Understanding and acquiring the theories of translation and the aspects involved in this process of literary translation.
Developing a critical opinion towards the existing translations.
onsidering questions of translatability, fidelity, the hierarchical division between original texts and their translations, and the charged politics of translation.
turning in a portfolio of translation exercises, each finalized and accompanied by a critical translator’s introduction

Course Entry Requirements:

Demonstrable fluency in reading literature in a language other than English.

Course contents:

1. The Fundamentals (Why literary translation?; The uniqueness of literary translation; preparing to translate) 2h 2. Translation, community, utopia, questions and answers about being a literary translator, translation practice (English-Romanian) 2h 3. The difference that translation makes: the translator’s unconscious, translation practice (Romanian-English) 2h 4. How to read a translation? , translation practice (English-Romanian), Translation analysis 2h 2h 5. Translations on the book market, translation practice (Romanian-English) 2h 6. The poet’s version or an ethic of translation translation practice (Romanian-English) 2h 7. Towards a translation culture, translation practice (English-Romanian) 2h 8. Equivalence at word level, the problem of non-equivalence, translation practice (English-Romanian) 2h 9. Equivalence above word level, The translation of idioms-difficulties translation practice (Romanian-English) 2h 10. Grammatical equivalence, the diversity of grammatical categories across languages, translation practice (English-Romanian) 2h 11. Textual equivalence: cohesion, translation practice (English-Romanian) 2h 12. Pragmatic equivalence: coherence translation practice (Romanian-English) 2h 13. Semiotic equivalence translation practice (Romanian-English) 2h 14. Beyond equivalence: Ethics and morality, translation practice (English-Romanian) 2h

Teaching methods:

Analysis, explanation, translation analysis, debate

Learning outcomes:

Theoretical, functional and creative competences concerning the correct and coherent translation of literary texts

Learning outcomes verification and assessment criteria:

Written assessement (50%) Analysis of different registers language and functional styles of the language for transferring from one language to another; translations from selected literary texts - portfolio (50%)

Recommended reading:

Baker, Mona., In other words. A coursebook on translation, Routledge., London/New York, (1992),
Venuti, L., Translation changes everything. Theory and practice, Routledge, London, 2013,
C.M. Mayo, “On Publishing the Literary Short Story” http://www.cmmayo.com/onpublishingtheliteraryshortstory.htm (Links to an external site.) [available at the link above]