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WEEKLY READINGS AND EXERCISES
29 Sept: Issues
6 Oct: A Semi-opaque process
13 Oct: Letter vs. Spirit
20 Oct: Comparing Translations
27 Oct: Process and Hermeneutics
3 Nov: Radical Translation
10 Nov: Linguistic Differences I
17 Nov: Linguistic Differences II
24 Nov: Traveling Will
1 Dec: Literary Considerations I
8 Dec: Literary Consdiderations II
13 Dec: Final Project Presentations
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Assignments and Readings for Week 3, October 13
Letter vs. Spirit
Before Class:
1) Read the introduction and Chapter 1 (up to page 5b) of Hofstadter's Le Ton Beau de Marot. Take up Hofstadter's challenge, and without looking further into the book, come up with your own translation of "Ma Mignonne." Post it by 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 13. Create a new conversation for your translation; if you get carried away and do more than one (it's easy, and a good test of whether you are going to be totally obsessed by this class or not), then put all of yours in the same conversation. This assignment will be graded. You may, if you like, comment on someone else's translation, but this is not required.
After you have posted your translation, read chapter 2, plus chapter 3 from page 43 on (the first part of chapter 3 is rather self-indulgent; you can read it if you want, but there's no particular need to).
In Class:
1) Have everyone's translations available in class, and come prepared to compare and discuss the various translations of "Ma Mignonne" that you found in the book up to page 5b, that you did yourselves and read from your classmates on the go-post, and that you read at the ends of the first three chapters of Le Ton Beau.
2) In addition to continuing our discussion about general issues in translation, we will also discuss (since I assume there are varying levels of French in the class, including the zero level) the issue of whether it makes any difference for translation how well you know the original language. This may cause us to amend the floating issues list.
3) We will assign discussants for comparative critiques of translations, due next week.
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