HUMA 3300 Reading and Writing Texts CBW 1.

201, Spring 2006, MW 11:00 – 12:15

Dr. Sean Cotter sean.cotter@utdallas.edu, 972-883-2037
Office: JO 5.106 Office Hours: Mondays 1:00 – 3:00, and by appointment
Hannah Swamidoss hmd031000@utdallas.edu, 972-883-2773
Office: JO 5.410b Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:30 – 1:30, and by appointment

The Translator

This course will introduce students to interdisciplinary study of the humanities through the
example of the translator. Literary translation is more than the practice of transporting a work of
literature into a new language. A translator writes and reads in an unusual way, because he exists
in more than one culture at a time. This course will use this unusual perspective to examine three
humanistic fields: aesthetic, literary, and historical studies. We will do more than study these fields:
we will participate in them. We will write mock translations, read as translators do, and study
historical translators. We will gain practical and theoretical knowledge of the complicated
negotiations of literary translation, negotiations that influence everyone's lives in a multicultural
world. We will examine how meanings change with the change of languages, how our home
cultures can become suddenly foreign, and how language and culture gain emotional and political
importance. We will better understand not only the humanities but also the roles of culture and
language in the world around us.

Policies

The following is subject to change at my discretion.

Participation

Classes begin and end at the same time for all involved. You should arrive before class-time and
stay for the entire session.

Attendance will be recorded with a roll-sheet. You must sign in to be recorded present. I
understand that occasionally circumstances arise (e. g. car trouble, childcare complications, illness)
which cause you to miss class. For this reason, you are allowed to miss three meetings over the
course of the term. Absences beyond this limit will result in a significant reduction of your final
grade, up to three letter grades.

It is your responsibility to make your presence and interest in the class known to your instructors.
You can demonstrate engagement through participation in classroom discussion, visits to office
hours, use of the writing lab, or discussions over email.
Please do not send us email via WebCT. We check that service rarely. Please do send email to the
addresses listed at the top of this syllabus.

Assignments

You will be responsible for reading all the material on the syllabus, participating in class
discussions, and completing all assignments. Assignments A – C together will count for roughly
30% of your final grade. Assignments D and E will each count for roughly 35%. I may adjust this
mathematical grade up or down to reflect your participation.

Hannah and I will both read your papers. Grading criteria will be distributed with the assignments
themselves. As a guide to the kinds of points we will look for in your writing, you should look at
Strunk and White’s book, Elements of Style. While that entire book is useful, some important
passages are on WebCT.

Assignments A, B, and C are short assignments you will need for class on the day they are due. For
this reason, they cannot be turned in late. It is possible, though not advisable, to extend the
deadlines for assignments D, E, and O, provided there is good reason. To ask for an extension,
write me an email before 5 pm the Monday before the assignment is due, giving a reason for the
extension and the date you will turn the assignment in. The maximum extension is one week past
the original date. Extensions cannot be extended. Your papers will be graded and returned roughly
in the order they arrive.

Assignment O is an optional revision of any assignment A – E, due April 24. The revision must be
accompanied by the original, graded assignment. Save all your work, therefore, until the end of
term. The revision grade replaces the original grade; the revision cannot receive a lower grade than
the original. Not turning in a revision will not harm your grade.

Any assignments not turned in either on time or by the extended deadline are late; late assignments
receive zero credit. It is better to turn something in than to turn nothing in.

Paper-Writing Guidelines, in Brief

A five-page paper ends on the sixth page. Use one to one and one-quarter inch margins (no more,
no less). Print your paper on one side of the page, double-spaced, in a twelve-point font. Use black
ink on white paper. Use a font similar to that used for this page; no sans-serif fonts. Do not use a
cover sheet, binder, or slipcover. In the upper left corner of the first page, type your name, the
course title and section number, the date the paper is turned in, and my name. The paper’s title (a
helpful title, not “The Different Translations of Kafka”) follows, centered, on the next line. The
title should not be in underlined or bolded. Starting with page two, each page has your last name
and the page number in the upper right corner. Do not “justify” your paragraphs. Indent paragraphs
one-half inch, block quotes one inch. Block quotes are double-spaced and not centered. Please
note that underlining and italics are used for exactly the same purposes. I prefer that you use italics.
Do not use footnotes.
Cite all quotations, direct and indirect, using Modern Language Association format. Any paper
suspected of plagiarism will be sent to the Dean of Students. The MLA format works through
parenthetical citations at the end of the sentence:
…as he later writes, “time and again the only meaning of ‘correct’ is ‘traditional’”
(Kenner 216).
The author’s name and the page number (or line number) of the quote are included just before the
final punctuation for in-sentence quotes, just after the punctuation for block quotes. The author’s
name refers to a “Works Cited” listing, which you should include as an appendix to your papers.
This list includes the author’s name, the book’s title, it’s translator, the city of publication, the
publishing house, and the year published:
St. Augustine. Confessions. Trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin. London: Penguin, 1961.
Kenner, Hugh. The Pound Era. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.
If you are comparing two translations, and it would be confusing to refer to them both by the
original author, use the translator’s name in the citation…
Ciardi’s version of the same passage is deceptively simple, “Midway in our
life’s journey, I went astray” (Ciardi 28).
…and on the Works Cited page:
Ciardi, John, trans. The Inferno. By Dante. NY: Mentor, 1982.

Your papers will be graded in part by the above guidelines, but primarily we will be looking for a
paper that is strongly and simply written. The argument should show serious and creative
engagement with the text. The introduction should have a clear thesis and forecast the organization
of your paper. The body paragraphs should be focused and build from one to the next. You should
explain your position using examples from the text, but only quote as much as you use. Transitions
should be smooth. The conclusion should gather together the pieces of the argument to show what
the reader has gained by reading the essay. Neither the introduction nor the conclusion should
contain general statements about “history,” “time,” “humankind,” “poetry,” or “literature.”
Proofread carefully. Trade papers with a classmate; you learn a great deal by proofreading and
commenting on another essay. Lastly, your paper will be much improved if you write a complete
draft, let it sit two days or so, and then re-write it.

Readings

Texts

Most of our readings will be posted on WebCT. When considering the cost of this course,
remember to include the price of printing out these documents. All books required for this class
may be purchased at both the on-campus and off-campus bookstores.

Required:

Friel, Brian. Translations. Faber, 1981.

Hoffman, Eva. Lost in Translation. Penguin, 1989.
Kuper, Peter. The Metamorphosis. NY: Three Rivers Press, 2003
Thuesen, Peter. In Discordance with the Scriptures. Oxford UP, 1999.

Schedule

Those writers listed without dates are our contemporaries. Use the focus questions to guide your
readings; writing out an answer to each question is a good way to prepare for class. When only one
focus question, or group of questions, is listed it applies to all the readings for that session. When
there is more than one focus, the questions apply respectively to the individual texts. Watch for
boxes that continue on the following page.

Monday Introductions

January 9

Wednesday Anna Akhmatova, all poems

(1889 – 1966) Russian poet
January 11
Focus: Do both translations of the poem tell the same story?

Monday
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
January 16

Wednesday Rainer Maria Rilke, all poems DUE: Assignment A

(1875 – 1926) Prague born, German
January 18 language poet

Charles Baudelaire, all poems

(1821 – 1867) French poet

Focus: How do the differences in each translation’s rhythm and

rhyme affect the poem’s meanings?

Monday Paul Celan, all poems

(1920 – 1970) Romanian born, German-language poet
January 23
John Felstiner, “A Fugue after Auschwitz”
American translator and literary critic
 Focus: How do the rhythms of a poem tell a story?

Wednesday Workshop, no reading DUE: Assignment B

January 25 Focus: How do different interpretations lead a translator to different

word choices?

Monday Willa and Edwin Muir, trans. “The Metamorphosis,” by Franz

Kafka
January 30
Edwin Muir (1887 – 1959) Scottish poet and translator, husband of
Willa

Willa Muir (dates unknown) Scottish translator, wife of Edwin

Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924) Prague born, German-language prose

writer

Focus: How does Gregor’s transformation help and hinder family

communication?

Wednesday A. L. Lloyd, trans. “The Metamorphosis,”

(dates unknown) American translator
February 1
Focus: How do the differences in translation affect our picture of
Gregor?

Monday Peter Kuper adapter, “The Metamorphosis”

American graphic artist
February 6
Focus: How does the way Kuper arranges each page affect our
reading of the story?

Wednesday Deleuze and Guattari, “What Is a Minor Literature?”

February 8 Gilles Deleuze (1925 – 1995) French philosopher and literary critic

Félix Guattari (1930 – 1992) French psychotherapist

 Focus: What three qualities define a minor literature? How do these
qualities affect the way Kafka writes? How do these critics connect
politics and literature?

Monday David Damrosch, “Kafka Comes Home”

American literary critic
February 13
Focus: How and why have different critics interpreted Kafka in
different ways?

Wednesday Workshop, individual readings DUE: Assignment C

February 15 Focus: What kind of Kafka does each critic see?

Monday Euripides, Medea

(480 – 406 B. C. E.) Greek playwright
February 20
Focus: What role does Medea’s foreign birth have in the play?

Wednesday Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Medea”; shown in class

(1922 – 1975) Italian writer and filmmaker
February 22
Focus: Does the background Pasolini gives make Medea seem more
or less foreign?

Monday Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Medea”; shown in class

February 27 Focus: How does Pasolini connect Jason to Greek culture?

Wednesday Discuss “Medea,” no reading DUE: Assignment D

March 1 Focus: How is adaptation like translation?

Monday
March 6
Spring Break Holiday
Wednesday
March 8
Monday Mary Louise Pratt, “Arts of the Contact Zone”
Canadian literary critic
March 13
Gloria Anzaldúa, “Chicana Artists”
Texas feminist

Focus: How does each writer understand the effect power has on
cultural contact?

Wednesday Gloria Anzaldúa, “How to Tame the Wild Tongue”

March 15 Robert Rodriguez, “Aria”

American writer and teacher

Focus: How does each writer connect language to cultural identity?

Monday Damrosch, “The Pope’s Blowgun”

March 20 Focus: In what ways, according to Damrosch, can a less powerful

culture influence a more powerful culture?

Wednesday Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation, p. 3 – 95

Polish born, English-language prose writer
March 22
Focus: How does Polish culture affect Hoffman’s self-image?

Monday Hoffman, p. 99 – 280

March 27 Focus: How does Hoffman characterize American culture?

Wednesday Paul Valéry, “Historical Fact”

(1871 – 1945) French poet, critic, diplomat
March 29
Focus: Why does Valéry believe we should study history?

Monday Lydia Liu, “Legislating the Universal”

Chinese born, American literary critic
April 3
 Focus: According to Liu, how can historical events affect
translation?

Wednesday Peter Thuesen, In Discordance with the Scriptures, p. 3 – 40

American historian
April 5
Focus: Why, according to Thuesen, is translation a particularly
important problem for Protestant theologies?

Monday Thuesen, p. 41 – 91

April 10 Focus: What makes a particular Bible translation “authoritative”?

Wednesday Thuesen, p. 121 – 155 DUE: Assignment E

April 12 Focus: How does Thuesen connect “history” and “truth”?

Monday Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland, p. xi – 39, 91 – 111

Irish historian
April 17
Focus: How has the practice of translation shaped Ireland’s history?

Wednesday Brian Friel, Translations

Irish playwright
April 19
Focus: How is a historian’s presentation of history different from a
playwright’s?

Monday Conclusions DUE WEDNESDAY APRIL 26:

Assignment O
April 24 (optional revision)