Critical Translation Studies

This course does not teach students how to translate, but rather how to incorporate translation into their critical thinking. Critical translation studies comprises wide-ranging ruminations on the complex interplay between languages, cultures, power, and identity. How can we integrate translation into our thinking about the processes that shape literary, political, ethical, and aesthetic sensibilities, and what do we stand to gain by doing so? Course readings introduce key works from inter-lingual perspectives that range across English, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Tagalog, Bengali, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, and Québécois. (Students need only have some knowledge of a language other than Standard American English to productively engage with the readings.) Class discussions and workshop assignments are designed to prepare students to integrate critical thinking about translation into their own research and intellectual interests.