: This course provides a broad overview of theoretical and practical issues encountered in the course of literary translation, at the same time exposing students to a range of sample texts from modern and contemporary Chinese literature, with an emphasis on the latter. Course content is arranged in several units in which translation texts will chosen to illustrate a particular area of focus,
including both linguistic issues (how written Chinese differs from written English in structure, grammar, and habits of discourse) and cultural issues (readers' expectations, the difficulties posed by divergent
cultural and historical backgrounds, dissimilar literary traditions).
Through class discussion and translation assignments, students should not only gain experience with practical challenges of literary translation in general, and the challenges of Chinese – English literary translation in particular, but also be exposed to the variety of styles and voices employed in Chinese writing. If we do this right, students will both improve their Chinese language skills and become more careful readers and writers of both Chinese and English.
Prerequisites:
Must be in 300-level or higher Chinese
Method of presentation:
Seminar and Practicum. This course is designed as a practicum. Each unit will begin with a talk on a particular theoretical issue and an introduction to the translation texts for that unit. Students will be given translation assignments taken from those texts, and bring their work to later classes for teacher-led group discussions on difficulties encountered.
Required work and form of assessment:
Homework assignments (20%)
Midterm Project (20%)
Final Project (30%)
Class participation (30%)
The importance of class participation really can’t be overemphasized here: everything else follows from it.
Assignments: Assume that every class will at the very least have a reading assignment for the text we’ll be working on. Both the midterm and final projects will require translation of an extract from a previously untranslated essay or novel: the midterm project can be done in pairs or groups, while the final project will be individual.
content:
(Subject to change)
Unit One: Getting Our Bearings
Class 1: Introductions. What is translation—and why is that not a rhetorical question?
Class 2: Yu Hua’s Huozhe: a first look and in-class translation
Class 3: More in-class work on Huozhe: dialogue, dialect, and register. HOMEWORK: Finish work in pairs or groups to finish the extract.
Class 4: We pit different translations of Huozhe ours and others’ against one another and examine how different translators have handled the issues we encountered. HOMEWORK: Read and translate the first paragraph of Yu Hua’s Xiongdi.
Class 5: In-class discussion of Xiongdi, and a look at other translations. HOMEWORK: Start reading Liu Huan’s Pinzui Zhang Damin de Xingfu Shenghuo, and start thinking about how to translate it.
[LONG TRIP]
Unit Two: Hitting Our Stride
Class 6: Liu Huan’s Zhang Damin: dialogue, cultural background, and reader expectations.
Class 7: More in-class work on Zhang Damin. When to use (or not to use) slang, and an introduction to the texts available for the midterm project.
Class 8: More Zhang Damin. Pick your partners/texts for the midterm project.
Class 9: Finally we lay Zhang Damin to rest. In-class work on midterm projects.
Class 10: Midterm Projects Due. In-class readings, and an introduction to Rang Zidan Fei.
Class 11: Applied translation, subtitling with the movie Rang Zidan Fei.
Class 12: Cindy Carter will visit and talk about her experiences translating novels and films.
Class 13: We finish our Rang Zidan Fei subtitles and perform as dramatic a reading as we possibly
can. Introduction to Chan Koon--‐chung’s Shengshi Zhongguo.
HOMEWORK: Read the excerpt from Shengshi Zhongguo
Unit Three: Putting it Together
Class 14: John Chan Koon – Chung’s Shengshi Zhongguo is one of the most talked-about novels of the past decade. A translation of the novel is forthcoming early next year, but we can probably beat them to it, at least with a thousand characters or so.
Class 15: More Shengshi Zhongguo. Communicating story context to readers who may not be familiar with it.
Class 16: More Shengshi Zhongguo. Handling parody, with a brief look at three translations of a passage from Wang Shuo’s Qianwan Bie Ba Wo Dang Ren.
Unit Four: Further Afield
Class 17: We’ll finish up Shengshi Zhongguo with one last read-over, and start talking about final projects.
HOMEWORK: Pick a text to do for your final project and confirm it with Brendan.
Class 18: Single‐topic class: Register. Julia Lovell’s translation of Kong Yi Ji by
Lu Xun, David Hawkes’ translation of passages from Hongloumeng, etc.
Class 19: Wordplay, puns, and other bugaboos. A look at poetry and our memento mori from the Shijing.
Class 20: We tackle poetry ourselves, with the help of David Hawkes’ Little
Primer of Tu Fu and other literal glosses.
HOMEWORK: Pick a time to meet with Brendan outside of class and go over your final translation project.
Class 21: Other forms of poetic license. When is a translation not a translation? What sort of changes are permissible?
Class 22: The last class! We’ll read our final translation projects aloud and look back over what we’ve covered this semester. High-fives all around.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Brendan O'Kane is a Beijing-based translator and writer. He has worked on various projects including subtitle and screenplay translations for a number of films. He got his start as a translator with a rendition of Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman when he was studying at Beijing University in 2001.
: This course provides a broad overview of theoretical and practical issues encountered in the course of literary translation, at the same time exposing students to a range of sample texts from modern and contemporary Chinese literature, with an emphasis on the latter. Course content is arranged in several units in which translation texts will chosen to illustrate a particular area of focus,
including both linguistic issues (how written Chinese differs from written English in structure, grammar, and habits of discourse) and cultural issues (readers' expectations, the difficulties posed by divergent
cultural and historical backgrounds, dissimilar literary traditions).
Through class discussion and translation assignments, students should not only gain experience with practical challenges of literary translation in general, and the challenges of Chinese – English literary translation in particular, but also be exposed to the variety of styles and voices employed in Chinese writing. If we do this right, students will both improve their Chinese language skills and become more careful readers and writers of both Chinese and English.
Must be in 300-level or higher Chinese
Seminar and Practicum. This course is designed as a practicum. Each unit will begin with a talk on a particular theoretical issue and an introduction to the translation texts for that unit. Students will be given translation assignments taken from those texts, and bring their work to later classes for teacher-led group discussions on difficulties encountered.
Homework assignments (20%)
Midterm Project (20%)
Final Project (30%)
Class participation (30%)
The importance of class participation really can’t be overemphasized here: everything else follows from it.
Assignments: Assume that every class will at the very least have a reading assignment for the text we’ll be working on. Both the midterm and final projects will require translation of an extract from a previously untranslated essay or novel: the midterm project can be done in pairs or groups, while the final project will be individual.
(Subject to change)
Unit One: Getting Our Bearings
Class 1: Introductions. What is translation—and why is that not a rhetorical question?
Class 2: Yu Hua’s Huozhe: a first look and in-class translation
Class 3: More in-class work on Huozhe: dialogue, dialect, and register.
HOMEWORK: Finish work in pairs or groups to finish the extract.
Class 4: We pit different translations of Huozhe ours and others’ against one another and examine how different translators have handled the issues we encountered.
HOMEWORK: Read and translate the first paragraph of Yu Hua’s Xiongdi.
Class 5: In-class discussion of Xiongdi, and a look at other translations.
HOMEWORK: Start reading Liu Huan’s Pinzui Zhang Damin de Xingfu Shenghuo, and start thinking about how to translate it.
[LONG TRIP]
Unit Two: Hitting Our Stride
Class 6: Liu Huan’s Zhang Damin: dialogue, cultural background, and reader expectations.
Class 7: More in-class work on Zhang Damin. When to use (or not to use) slang, and an introduction to the texts available for the midterm project.
Class 8: More Zhang Damin. Pick your partners/texts for the midterm project.
Class 9: Finally we lay Zhang Damin to rest. In-class work on midterm projects.
Class 10: Midterm Projects Due. In-class readings, and an introduction to Rang Zidan Fei.
Class 11: Applied translation, subtitling with the movie Rang Zidan Fei.
Class 12: Cindy Carter will visit and talk about her experiences translating novels and films.
Class 13: We finish our Rang Zidan Fei subtitles and perform as dramatic a reading as we possibly
can. Introduction to Chan Koon--‐chung’s Shengshi Zhongguo.
HOMEWORK: Read the excerpt from Shengshi Zhongguo
Unit Three: Putting it Together
Class 14: John Chan Koon – Chung’s Shengshi Zhongguo is one of the most talked-about novels of the past decade. A translation of the novel is forthcoming early next year, but we can probably beat them to it, at least with a thousand characters or so.
Class 15: More Shengshi Zhongguo. Communicating story context to readers who may not be familiar with it.
Class 16: More Shengshi Zhongguo. Handling parody, with a brief look at three translations of a passage from Wang Shuo’s Qianwan Bie Ba Wo Dang Ren.
Unit Four: Further Afield
Class 17: We’ll finish up Shengshi Zhongguo with one last read-over, and start talking about final projects.
HOMEWORK: Pick a text to do for your final project and confirm it with Brendan.
Class 18: Single‐topic class: Register. Julia Lovell’s translation of Kong Yi Ji by
Lu Xun, David Hawkes’ translation of passages from Hongloumeng, etc.
Class 19: Wordplay, puns, and other bugaboos. A look at poetry and our memento mori from the Shijing.
Class 20: We tackle poetry ourselves, with the help of David Hawkes’ Little
Primer of Tu Fu and other literal glosses.
HOMEWORK: Pick a time to meet with Brendan outside of class and go over your final translation project.
Class 21: Other forms of poetic license. When is a translation not a translation? What sort of changes are permissible?
Class 22: The last class! We’ll read our final translation projects aloud and look back over what we’ve covered this semester. High-fives all around.
Brendan O'Kane is a Beijing-based translator and writer. He has worked on various projects including subtitle and screenplay translations for a number of films. He got his start as a translator with a rendition of Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman when he was studying at Beijing University in 2001.