Texts in translation

Event report | Location map | Abstracts

This is a one-day seminar organised by the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, and the English Subject Centre.

This event will focus on such themes as:

• the pros and cons of teaching literature in translation
• using translations as a tool to open up literary study
• translations of literary and cultural theory
• the use of electronic texts
• modern translations of medieval texts

We hope that the day will result in the sharing of positive approaches to teaching with translations, and ideas for the development of literature curricula.

Workshop fee

Please note there is no charge for this event but we reserve the right to charge a £20.00 non-attendance fee.

Travel bursary

A travel bursary is available for this event. Closing date for applications is: 18 January 2008.

Abstracts

"We might as well be strangers?" Reflecting on texts in translation

Karen Seago, London Metropolitan University

This paper will explore the relationship of translated literature as a secondary system in the receiving culture, how it participates in canon formation and, most importantly, how translated texts are filtered through the receiving culture and what these changes consist of. I will then discuss how all this should be considered when teaching texts in translation. Examples will be drawn from a range of texts, with a particular focus on fairy tales and children's literature.

In other words... : Translation, Theory

Mark Robson, University of Nottingham

“Tell me what you think about translation and I will tell you who you are.”
(Martin Heidegger)

It is common in English departments to teach what is called in the Anglophone world ‘theory’ in translation. But what does this mean for our teaching? At first sight, teaching theory in translation runs counter to an insistence on the importance of the ‘words on the page’ frequently made by literary and linguistic scholars. But is this necessarily the case? In this discussion, I want to address these and other pedagogical and methodological questions through some theoretical texts – by Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, and others – that open up the question of translation in order to suggest that teaching with an explicit awareness of translation can lead students to examine their sense of what is important about a text (whether in translation or not). Among other things, I will ask whether or not it is reasonable to put Martin Heidegger’s name after a sentence in English as an epigraph to an abstract.

Springs and Dawns: Teaching Translation and Reception History via the Pillow Book of Sei Shônagon

Valerie Henitiuk, University of East Anglia

This paper will describe an innovative project for teaching reception and translation history, as well as engaging explicitly with issues such as authenticity, authority, subjectivity, gender, Orientalism, appropriation of voice, and the relation between self and Other. The approach is comparative, multilingual, and socio-historical, drawing on research that has uncovered 47 translations in 13 different languages, appearing over a period of 130 years, of what is arguably the single most famous passage of Japanese prose. By tracing the often convoluted trajectories by which a once wholly foreign literary work becomes domesticated, we can helpfully make our students aware of the various forces that shape our reading of literature.

The "Life and Fate" of the translated text: the struggle to “keep the quick”

Margaret Tejerizo, University of Glasgow

This short paper will examine how the translation of the novel ‘Life and Fate’ by the Soviet writer Vasily Grossman might be exploited in a creative way within the Russian component of a module dealing with Holocaust Literature. Using the terms proposed by Alison Phipps in her latest work entitled ‘Learning the Arts of Linguistic Survival’, ways of conserving both the ‘vibrancy’ and the ‘presence of life’ of the original text will be suggested and explored.

Translations and interpretations: using electronic resources to facilitate engagement, inquiry and understanding

Rhian Davies, University of Sheffield

This paper will focus on my Level 2 teaching of the novel Torquemada en la hoguera, which was written in 1889 by the major Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós. I will demonstrate how, through the use of the electronic critical edition of the novel and a learning package (developed thanks to CILASS funding), I try to dissuade students from using the English translation of this work, which often substitutes their reading of the original, and, instead focus their attention upon ‘translating’ (or rather ‘interpreting’) the text for themselves. As I hope to show, these electronic resources can be used to make the reading of a somewhat complex text much more manageable, open up new ways of reading Galdós’s novel and facilitate an appreciation of both the literary and historical contexts, as well as the creative processes involved in the writing of a literary work. In my view, they naturally invite the students to actively engage with the novel, to develop their own ideas and stimulate them to tackle additional tasks.

Teaching medieval texts in translation

Penny Simons, University of Sheffield

This discussion will start from the premise that undergraduate teaching in medieval studies nowadays will, of necessity, involve the use of texts in translation. In my experience, this then raises the question of just how feasible, and indeed how appropriate it is to adopt teaching methods that rely upon close textual readings of the material. Having tried (and failed!) with such approaches, I would like to suggest that a slightly different method, which relies upon a process of student-led, open-ended inquiry, is much more fruitful. Using the particular example of a course on medieval comic texts, I hope to show how enabling the students to explore the context of Old French fabliaux and farces, and to reflect on the ways in which these texts in fact share common features with many modern comic forms, brings them and us to a far deeper understanding of the issues surrounding the reading of texts in translation. It also raises the question of whether the traditional modes of assessment are appropriate to this kind of teaching approach and I will end with a look forward to some new assessment tasks planned for the coming semester.

The comedy of translation

Robin Kirkpatrick, University of Cambridge

In this paper, Professor Kirkpatrick will reflect on his experience in teaching Dante in the original to students lacking a training in Italian. He will also discuss his work on the Penguin verse translation of the Commedia.

Event report

by Mary Green

Excellent. I really enjoyed the small size of the event - no overload meant I could absorb and process all of the papers

- Seminar attendee

Discovery, annexation, foreignization: world literature in translation

Professor Peter France, University of Edinburgh

Peter began by offering a historical overview of texts in translation, drawing on specific examples and charting the shift from translations of predominately Latin and Greek texts during the period 1660-1760 to later translations of, for example, Russian and German texts. The limited market for translated literary texts in the UK was made evident (only 3-5% of published literature).

A brief discussion of the key theoretical terms ‘annexation’ and ‘foreignization’ was then offered, as well as the position of theorists such as Lawrence Venuti in relation to these terms.

Finally, Peter concluded by stressing that translation is a negotiation between two cultures, and that the different aims of different translations should be considered.

‘We might as well be strangers?’ Reflecting on texts in translation

Dr Karen Seago, London Metropolitan University

Karen, as a native German speaker, opened by reflecting on her first reading of Freud in English translation and the distancing effect that this induced. She then proceeded to discuss how translations of Grimm’s fairy tales have manipulated the original textual material because of didactic and moral considerations relating to children’s literature. To conclude, Karen stressed the importance of the new perceptions that translated texts can offer without necessarily alienating readers.

In other words…: Translation, Theory

Dr Mark Robson, University of Nottingham

‘Translatability’, and whether translation is possible, was the focus of Mark’s paper, which drew primarily on the work of Walter Benjamin, Paul de Man and Jacques Derrida.

Benjamin’s work was described as troubling for the notion of ‘translatability’, while for de Man, translation was seen as a ‘decanonization’ of original texts. In relation to Derrida, deconstruction as already being a translation was discussed, as well as the impossibility of translating the internal textual disruption of Derrida’s original French through translation.

Springs and dawns: teaching translation and reception history via the Pillow Book of Sei Shônagon

Dr Valerie Henitiuk, University of East Anglia

Valerie spoke on classical Japanese literature, specifically the Pillow Book, and the cultural appropriation and manipulation thrown up by the text. The complete and partial translations of this text in multiple languages were discussed, and the domestication of a foreign literary work was traced. The points raised were linked to a project for teaching reception and translation history, based on an analysis of translations of this text as a pedagogical tool.

What a brilliant day! I really enjoyed it and the food was just as good as the presentations!

- Seminar attendee

The ‘Life and Fate’ of the translated text: the struggle to ‘keep the quick’

Dr Margaret Tejerizo, University of Glasgow

This paper discussed a teaching project in Slavonic Studies at the University of Glasgow which involves an optional course on Holocaust Literature in translation, and includes a project on translation. The way in which this course has stimulated students’ interest in learning a Slavonic language was highlighted, as well as the challenge of Alison Phipps’ work on seeking ‘the quick’ of life through teaching.

Translations and interpretations: using electronic resources to facilitate engagement, inquiry and understanding

Dr Rhian Davies, University of Sheffield

In contrast to the other speakers, Rhian referred to the disadvantages of teaching in translation and spoke of her innovative project to engage undergraduate students in nineteenth-century Spanish literature in the original language. The possibilities for student learning and literary appreciation made possible through the electronic edition of Torquemada en la hoguera by Benito Pérez Galdós, developed by Rhian with technical support from the University of Sheffield, were the focus of the paper.

Teaching medieval texts in translation

Dr Penny Simons, University of Sheffield

Penny gave an overview of students’ responses to translations of medieval French texts and considered how teaching texts in translation could still be seen as good medieval practice. The use of humour in medieval French texts – how it functions and why it is used – was offered as an example of how students can be encouraged to engage with these texts through problem-based learning which seeks to exploit aspects of translation and the translation process.

The comedy of translation

Professor Robin Kirkpatrick, University of Cambridge

The focus here was Dante’s Commedia, which has been translated by Robin and is accompanied by the original Italian verse. The paper emphasized translation as the beginning of an interpretive process, primarily through an examination of the syntax and rhetoric of the Commedia, and also illustrated the complementary nature of practical criticism and language learning.