This module aims to present the role of translation in European cultures as well as the cultural aspects of the translation process in general.

• show ability to evaluate the translational dimension of culture
• show awareness of the cultural dimensions involved in the translation process
• show ability to analyse cultural components in different domains (literature, fine arts, music…)
• show understanding of the role of translation in European culture

Teaching is by 5 fortnightly lectures/seminars in the second semester

Week 1: Europe and/as Translation (K Griffiths)

Week 2: Painting as Intercultural Translation? Said's Orientalism (K Griffiths)

Week 3: European Literatures and the Vexed/Creative Question of Intertextuality: Translations of Moving Origins (K Griffiths)

Week 4: Cinema as Transatlantic Translation: Europe and the United States (K Griffiths)

Week 5: British Translational Imperialism: the BBC (K Griffiths)

One formative essay plan and one essay of 3,000 words. 

This module will study the challenges raised by the cultural dimensions of the translation process. It will explore different fields in European culture (literature, philosophy, arts, music, politics)to demonstrate diachronically how they integrated translation and how contemporary European culture continues to do so.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Susan BASSNETT and André LEFEVERE (eds.), Translation/History/Culture. A Sourcebook, London: Pinter, 1990.

Eric CHEYFITZ, The Poetics of Imperialism: Translation and Colonization from The Tempest to Tarzan, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991.

Jacques, DERRIDA, The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe (translated by Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael B. Naas; introduction by Michael B. Naas), Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 1992.

Lawrence VENUTI, The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference, London, Routledge, 1998.

READING/PREPARATION FOR EACH CLASS:

Each class will combine a variety of theories from translation and related disciplines with specific case studies from across Europe.

The reading/preparation required for each session is as follows:

Session 1-Europe and/as Translation. Please read two short theoretical essays listed here.

Steiner, ‘The Hemeneutic Motion’ in L. Venuti (ed.), The Translation Studies Reader, London: Routledge, 2004 (available as an e-book in the University Library);

Nord ‘Loyalty Revisited: Bible Translation as a Case in Point. The Translator.  7 (2), 2001: 185-202. https://www.stjerome.co.uk/tsa/abstract/175/

Session 2 – Painting as Intercultural Translation: Saïd’s Orientalism. Please read the three pieces of reading on Said’s theory which have been scanned and placed on the Learning Central Page for this module.

Session 3 – European Literatures and the Vexed/Creative Question of Intertextuality: Translations of Moving Origins. Please read The Kill, by Emile Zola. This novel is available in the library as an electronic book and also in the University book shop.

Session 4 – Cinema as Transatlantic Translation: Europe and the United States. Please watch Abre los ojos (dir. by Alejandro Amenabar) and Vanilla Sky (dir. by Cameron Crowe). I will arrange a screening of both these films.

Session 5 - British Translational Imperialism: Thérèse Raquin by Emile Zola. Please read Thérèse Raquin by Emile Zola. This novel is available in multiple copies in the library.

FURTHER BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Europe and/as Translation:

Berman, A.  ‘Translation and the Trials of the Foreign’ in L. Venuti (ed.), The Translation Studies Reader, London: Routledge, 2004 (available as an e-book in the University Library)

Breuninger, Scott and David Burrow, Sociability and Cosmopolitanism: Social Bonds on the Fringes of the Enlightenment (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2012)

Hampson, Norman, The Enlightenment (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990)

Porter, Roy, The Enlightenment (Basingstoke: MacMillan,1990)

Turner, Katherine, British Travel Writers in Europe: Authorship, Gender and National Identity (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001)

Painting as Intercultural Translation: Saïd’s Orientalism:

Harlow, Barbara and Mia Carter, Imperialism and Orientalism (Malden: Blackwell, 1999)

Macfie, A. L., Orientalism (London: Longman, 2002)

Murgia, Adelaide, The Life and Times of Delacroix (London: Hamlyn,1968)

Sardar, Ziauddin, Orientalism (Philadephia: Open University Press, 1999)

Turner, Brian S., Orientalism, Postmodernism and Globalism (London: Routledge, 1994)

Wildenstein, Ingres (London: Phaidon,1954)

European Literatures and the Vexed/Creative Question of Intertextuality: Translations of Moving Origins:

Allen, Graham, Intertextuality (London: Routledge, 2000)

Bloom, Harold, The Anxiety of Influence (Oxford: OUP, 1975)

Harrow, S., La Curée (Glasgow: University of Glasgow French and German Publications, 1998)

Nelson, B. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Zola (Cambridge: CUP, 2007) [selected chapters]

St-Pierre, Paul and Prafulla C. Kar, In Translation: Reflections, Refractions, Transformations (London: John Benjamins, 2007)

Worton, Michael, and Judith Still, Intertextuality: Theories and Practices (Manchester: MUP, 1990)

Cinema as Transatlantic Translation: Europe and the United States:

Abel, Richard, Silent Film (NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996)

Cronin, M. Translation goes to the Movies (London: Routledge, 2008)

Ricci, Stephen and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Hollywood and Europe: Economics, Culture, National Identity (London: BFI, 1998)

Shohat, Ella and Robert Stam, Multiculturalism, Postcolonialism and Transnational Media (NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003)

British Translational Imperialism:

Cousins, Russell, Thérèse Raquin (London: Grant and Cutler, 1992)

Drakakis, John, British Radio Drama (Cambridge: CUP, 1981)

Ellis, John, Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Radio (London: Routledge, 1992)

St-Pierre, Paul and Prafulla C. Kar, In Translation: Reflections, Refractions, Transformations (London: John Benjamins, 2007)