Critical Practices (411-0-20)

Topic

Translation in Theory and Practice

Instructors

Laura Brueck
847/467-4746
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Office 4-427
Office Hours: Varies quarter to quarter, please check with instructor.

Meeting Info

Kresge 5531 Comp Lit. Sem. Rm.: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Translation in Theory and Practice

This course seeks to bridge theoretical inquiry and methodological insight with practical problem-solving and collaborative workshopping. We will approach both the theoretical and practical materials of this course with a recognition of the ways in which translations - as products and processes - are central in our scholarly and creative lives. We read in translation, we teach translations, we translate. Many of you will navigate careers in an academy in which there are few established norms for the recognition and reward of translation as scholarly achievement; what kind of awareness and evaluative rigor can we cultivate to change these norms? How does the theory and practice of translation intersect with empire, nation, gender, sexuality, race, and caste in the production, circulation, and reception of literature? Throughout this seminar we will shuttle between big interpretive questions and small strategic ones and attempt to bring abstract thought to bear on pragmatic decisions. Throughout we will foreground our own positionalities vis-à-vis the materials and the authors with whom we enter into collaborative relationships as readers, teachers, and translators.