Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2025 - WL 404W D100

Literature and Translation (4)

Class Number: 6139

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 6 – Apr 9, 2025: Fri, 12:30–4:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Apr 17, 2025
    Thu, 7:00–10:00 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    60 units including two 300-level courses in world literature, English, or humanities.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores the translation of texts into new cultural contexts, their reception, and the theory and practice of literary translation. May compare several texts or focus on a single work that has been reconceived in several cultures. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Use of the prefix “trans” has burgeoned in the 21st century across the realms of technology, politics, infrastructure, and especially gender and identity. This course on how literary translations cross linguistic boundaries will focus on poetry, narrative, drama, and film productions that thematize gender fluidity. The linkage between the “trans” in translation and the “trans” in gender identities emphasizes the understanding of human culture as constantly going “across,” “beyond,” or “on the other side of” while retaining a sense of identity.

The course will begin by surveying fundamental texts in translation theory by Benjamin, Steiner, Qu Qiubai and Lu Xun, Casanova, and Munday. We’ll read concurrently the Arabic-English and German-English translations contained in the provocative book, What Makes a Man? The second half of the course will lean into adaptation theory by Linda Hutcheon, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, and Robert Stam while reading Euripides’s Bacchae and then Wole Soyinka’s adaptation of the same canonical play. The course will conclude with an introduction to the thriving new field of localization studies with a text by Miguel Jiménez-Crespo and the film Transamerica.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • Understanding how meanings are negotiated in translation
  • Gaining familiarity with several theoretical framings of translation and adaptation
  • Acquiring an upper-level undergraduate grasp of one theory of translation
  • Expressing ideas and arguments orally and in writing

Grading

  • In-class midterm essay 15% + rewrite 15% (1250 words) 30%
  • First draft 10% + Final essay 15% (2500 words) 25%
  • Oral report on final essay 10%
  • Participation 10%
  • Final exam 25%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED TEXT(S)/READINGS (all others will be provided by the instructor)

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.