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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 |
Assignments and Readings for Week 9, November 24
Traveling Will
Before Class:
Read the translations of the passages from Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth into various languages, as well as Peter Szondi's essay, "The Poetry of Constancy: Paul Celan's Translation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 105," in Schulte and Biguenet's Theories of Translation, pp. 163-185. Acquaint yourself, as far as you are able, with the ways in which translators have handled the same passages in different languages. Also review Chapter 5, section 4 (pp. 361-99) of Steiner's After Babel, in which he discusses at length the different problems and opportunities faced by translators of Shakespeare into French and German.
Post a commentary on translations of Shakespeare, by 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 24. You have two options:
- If you know more than one of the languages into which we have translations, compare how well the translated passages work in those languages, making sure that you do not just stick on specific choices, but comment on how these differences reflect the differences between languages.
- If you know only Spanish among our languages, comment on how well you think the translated passages work in that language, and what Steiner might have said had he added Spanish to his comparison between French and German.
This assignment will not be graded.
In Class:
Today's class will be short, given the Thanksgiving holiday the next day. We will spend only about two hours, discussing your reactions to the Shakespeare translations.
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