EC Translation and translation studies

This course focuses on landmarks in Western translation theory and practice in their historical, literary and cultural contexts. Beginning with the early translations of the Bible and the contrasting approaches we see there, it focuses on some of the major translations and theories – les belles infidèles, German romanticism, traveller-translators, Pound’s paideuma… – that paved the way over the centuries for the discipline that burgeoned as translation studies in the 1970s. We will end with Clive Scott’s conception of translation in relation to the phenomenology of reading (2018), and the significance of translation as process rather than outcome in the AI era.

Bassnett, Susan. Translation Studies. London: Routledge, 1980 (3rd edition 2012).

Bellos, David. Is That a Fish in Your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2011.

Berman, Antoine. L’épreuve de l’étranger. Culture et traduction dans l’Allemagne romantique. Paris : Gallimard, 1984.

Ladmiral, Jean-René. Traduire : théorèmes pour la traduction. Paris: Payot, 1979.

Prete, Antonio. A l’ombre de l’autre langue: Pour un art de la traduction. Danièle Robert (trad.), les éditions chemin de ronde, 2013 (Original title: A l’ombra dell’altra lingua. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2011.

Robinson, Douglas. Western Translation Theory, from Herodotus to Nietzsche. London & New York: Routledge, [1997] 2002.

Scott, Clive. The Work of Translation. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Steiner, George. After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. London & New York: O.U.P., 1975.

Venuti, Lawrence (ed.). A Translation Studies Reader. London: Routledge, 2000.

Weissbort, Daniel & Astradur Eysteinsson (eds). Translation: Theory and Practice. Oxford University Press, 2006.