G41.

3629

Translation as a Theoretical and Cultural Practice

Schedule 001
Robert J.C. Young

Class Hours: Tuesdays 3.30-5.30 p.m. 19 University Place, 505 Office Hours: Tuesdays 10.00am1.00pm, 19 University Place, Room 514, or by appointment 212-992-9591 robertjcyoung@nyu.edu
The concept of cultural translation has received increasing attention across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities, enabling them to focus on the dynamic processes of interaction between different cultures. Derived from ideas of linguistic translation, the metaphor of translation (etymologically, translation is already itself a metaphor) has become increasingly utilised as a means of considering the wider effects of the ways in which cultures are transmitted and developed in different contexts, either historically through the operations of colonial expansion and the consequent global diaspora of millions of people, or more recently through the processes of immigration and the movements of refugees. The ways in which cultures are transported, transmitted, reinterpreted and re-aligned through local languages, and more broadly through other cultures with which they come into contact, and the realities of how individuals on both sides experience and interpret such encounters in the contact zones between different cultures, will be the focus for this seminar.

Required books: Venuti, Lawrence, ed. (2004), The Translation Studies Reader. London, Routledge 041531920X. This is the second edition (2004). Articles in this collection are marked $ NB There are also two novels on this course, Jamal Mahjoub, The Carrier (1999), V.S. Naipaul, The Enigma of Arrival (1987). You will need to obtain copies of these (Mahjoub is out of print in the US, but available for $0.2 on Amazon). Course requirements: The course will be run as a discussion seminar: students are expected to participate actively in each class throughout the semester. In addition to completing the assigned reading for class, each student will also be required to present a framing discussion of at least one of the assigned readings. Participants should highlight key features of the material and present to the class a series of questions that will develop class discussion. Written requirement: mid-term & final paper. This will consist of a 6-8 page midterm research paper, and a final research paper of 15 pages that can be a development of the midterm paper. Grade Breakdown: Class Participation and class presentations: 25% Midterm research paper 25% Final research paper 50%

Schedule for semester

September 8 Introduction: Translation as resistance, self-translation and empowerment 15 Linguistic translation: metaphor vs. metonymy $ Roman Jakobson, On Linguistic Aspects of Translation (1959) Roman Jakobson, The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles (1956) Umberto Eco, from Experiences in Translation (2001) Maria Tymoczko, Metametonymics, from Translation in a Postcolonial Context (1999) 22 Translation and historicity 1 $ Friedrich Schleiermacher, On the Different Methods of Translating $ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Translations $ Friedrich Nietzche, Translations

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Gender & translation: Domesticating vs foreignising $ Lori Chamberlain, Gender and the Metaphorics of Translation Lawrence Venuti, Translation as Cultural Politics: Regimes of Domestication in English (1998) Lawrence Venuti, The Scandals of Translation Deleuze and Guattari, Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature October 6 Translation and historicity - 2 $ Walter Benjamin, The Task of the Translator Walter Benjamin, Translation: For and Against Paul de Man, Conclusions: Walter Benjamins The Task of the Translator , in The Resistance to Theory. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 73-105 (1986) Samuel Weber, Benjamins abilities (2008) $ Jorge Luis Borges, The Translators of the Thousand and One Nights (1998) 13 Translation and historicity: difference 1 Jacques Derrida, Des Tours de Babel (1985) $ Jacques Derrida, What is a Relevant Translation? Jorge Luis Borges, Pierre Menard Translation: translation as domination Niranjana, from Siting Translation (1992) Brian Friel, Translations (1981) MID-TERM PAPERS DUE 27 Translation as resistance: transculturation and transcreation Fernando Ortiz, Introduction to Cuban Counterpoint (1940)

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Mary Louis Pratt, Introduction to Imperial Eyes (1992) Else Vieira, Liberating Caliban: readings of Antropofagia and Haroldo de Campos poetics of Transcreation November 3 Postcolonial Translation as resistance / hybridisation Homi K. Bhabha, from The Location of Culture (1994) Homi K. Bhabha, The Third Space $ Spivak, The Politics of Translation (1993)

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Cultural Translatability/Untranslatability: Translation as interculturality and transculturalism Wolfgang Iser, Coda to the Discussion, in Budick and Iser (1996) Kamau Brathwaite. Timebri (1971) Eduard Glissant, Creolizations, from Caribbean Discourse (1989, 1997) Wilson Harris, Creoleness: The Crossroads of a Civilization? Stuart Hall, Cultural Identity and Diaspora Stephanos Stefanides, Europe, Globalisation and the Translatability of Culture (2001) 17 (1899) Jean Laplanche, Psychoanalysis, Time and Translation (1992) 24 Translation as Migration, Globalisation: Anthropology Talal Asad, The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social Anthropology (1986) Ulf Hannerz, Flows, Boundaries and Hybrids: Keywords in Transnational Anthropology Charles Stewart, Syncretism and its Synonyms: Reflections on Cultural Mixture (1999) Nstor Garcia Canclini, Hybrid Cultures. Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, trans. Christopher L. Chiappari and Silvia L. Lpez. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press (1995), extract Michael Cronin, Translation and the Global Economy (1996) Nikos Papastergiadis, The Turbulence of Migration: Globalization, Deterritorialization and Hybridity (2000) 26 Thanksgiving Translation in Psychoanalysis. Untranslatability Sigmund Freud, The Dream Work, from The Interpretation of Dreams

December 1 Translation as Migration, Globalisation: Literature Jamal Mahjoub, The Carrier (1999) V.S. Naipaul, The Enigma of Arrival (1987) Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands (1991) Final Class: Discussion

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Last day of classes (Thursday schedule) FINAL PAPERS DUE

(Schedule subject to modification)