Literary Translation Practice (English-Portuguese)
Code
711121058
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Línguas, Culturas e Literaturas Modernas, Secção de Estudos Ingleses e Norte-Americanos
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
João Paulo Pereira da Silva, Maria Conceição Castel-Branco
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) understanding the main concepts and problems of current translation studies in reference to literary texts, so as to manage resources and methodologies of text analysis and interpretation in Literary Translation.
b) developing translational competence through intensive practice of literary translations from English into Portuguese, considering the main literary genres.
c) applying analytical criteria and evaluation skills regarding literary translation both as process and product, from a critical and professional angle.
d) Identifying and applying translation strategies according to text type and function(s) and with the structural constraints of transference in the Portuguese-English language pair.
Prerequisites
Very good competence in Portuguese and English.
Subject matter
1. Terminology and main concepts: specificity of the literary text, equivalence, translational competence, (in)translatability, cultural context, adequate and acceptable translations. Discussion of notions of fidelity, fluency, transparency and coherence.
2. Handling the complexity of the literary translation process and its main problems / challenges.
3. Intensive practice in translating different literary genres and subgenres; close reading and discourse analysis, textual interpretation and reconstruction of the source language cultural context; adaptation to target language norms (linguistic, stylistic, pragmatic and cultural).
4. Contrastive assessment of different translations of the same source text..
5. Production of thoughtful appreciations of translations produced in class, in articulation with basic theories and strategies of literary translation.
Bibliography
- Baker, Mona and Gabriela Saldanha (eds.) (2011). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. 2nd ed. London/ New York: Routledge.
- Barrento, João (2002). O Poço de Babel. Para uma poética da tradução literária. Lisboa: Relógio d’Água Editores Lda.
- Bassnett, Susan. Reflections on Translation (2011). Topics in Translation. Multilingual Matters.
- ECO, Umberto (2003). Dire Quasi La Stessa Cosa. Esperienze di Traduzione. Milano: Bompiani. Tradução portuguesa: (2005). Dizer Quase a Mesma Coisa. Sobre a Tradução. Tradução de José Colaço Barreiros. Miraflores: Difel.
- García, Consuelo Garcia y Yebra, Valentín Garcia (eds.) (2005) Manual de Documentación para la Traducción Literária. Madrid: Arco/Libros.
- Grossman, Edith (2011). Why Translation Matters. Why X Matters. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
- Landers, Clifford (2001). Literary Translation: A Practical Guide. Topics in Translation. Clevedon/Buffalo/Toronto/Sydney: Multilingual Matters.
Teaching method
Expository in the communication of theoretical notions; student and process-oriented in their application, with teacher supervision of group and/or individual projects. Discussion of literary translations, analysis of the translation process and comparison and review of available translations of the same original. Presentation of ways of approaching literary texts and strategies to overcome translation problems.
Evaluation method
- production of annotated translations, identifying the main linguistic, stylistic and cultural difficulties as well as literary textual features; attendance, active participation in classwork and contribution to groupwork (50%);
- two written tests (50%).