History and Theory of Translation
Code
722160001
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Línguas, Culturas e Literaturas Modernas
Credits
10
Teacher in charge
Helena Agarez Medeiros
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
1) To trace the history of translation from Classical Antiquity to the first decades of the twentieth century.
2) To identify and to put into context elements of continuity, innovation and dissent in the various periods of the history of translation.
3) To describe and explain the core precepts of the different theories of translation that make up the \"pre-history\" of Translation Studies.
4) To cast a critical eye over the evolution of the concept of translation.
5) To identify the central issues of translation theories from a diachronic perspective.
6) To establish a relationship between the different roles of translators and the historical contexts in which their were active.
Prerequisites
Subject matter
1. Classical Antiquity
1.1. The \"word-for-word\" and \"sense-for-sense\" Debate: Aristotle, Horace, Cicero, Quintilian
1.2. The Septuagint: the Meaning of a Myth
2. Hermeneutics and Translation in the Early Middle Ages: Jerome and Augustine
3. Late Middle Ages and the Classical Cultural Heritage: the School of Toledo
4. Translation in the Renaissance: Reformation, Rhetoric, Rulers and Rules
5. Main Trends in Translation in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
5.1. France: the \"Belles Infidèles\" Translation and Cultural Supremacy
5.2. England: Translating as if the Authors were lived Here and Now (Dryden and Pope)
5.3. Germany: Ideological Motivations Underlying the Controversy over Translation (Gottsched, Bodmer, Vensky and Breitinger)
6. Romanticism: Translation as Cultural Mediation (Schleiermacher, Goethe and Mme. de Staël)
7. Late Nineteenth Century: Before and After the Berne Convention
8. Early Twentieth Century: Translation Linguistic Utopia (Rosenzweig and Benjamin)
Bibliography
1) Parker, Jan and Timothy Mathews (2011). Tradition, Translation, Trauma: The Classic and the Modern. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2) Baker, Mona and Gabriela Saldanha (eds) (2011). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. 2nd edition. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
3) Weissbort, D. and A.Eysteinsson (eds) (2006). Translation Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4) Venuti, Lawrence (ed) (2004). The Translation Studies Reader. 2nd edition. London: Routledge.
5) Hayes, Julie Candler (2009). Translation, Subjectivity & Culture in France and England, 1600-1800. California: Stanford University Press.
6) Deslisle, Jean (ed) (1995).Translators through History. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
7) Ballard, Michel (2013). Histoire de la traduction: repères historiques et culturelles. Bruxelles: De Boek.
8) Carne-Ross , D.S. (2010).Classics and Translation. Cranbury: Bucknell University Press.
Teaching method
The introduction to each item of the syllabus will consist in an oral presentation (by the teacher) accompanied by a PowerPoint, containing essential information and/or quotations which is intended to help students understand a particular sequence of contents. After this introduction, each seminar will proceed with the joint analysis and discussion (teacher/students) of one or more texts (depending on their length) which the students have read beforehand. At the point when students have gained some experience in critical analysis, they will be asked to present (individually or in pairs, depending on the size of the class) a theoretical text chosen from a list prepared by the teacher and consistent with the goals and contents of the syllabus.
Evaluation method
The assessment criteria are the following: participation in each seminar´s activities, i.e., mainly in the analysis and discussion of texts (20%), oral presentation of a theoretical text (30%) and production of an essay (50%).