Courses in Translation and Related Topics at Yale
Undergraduate Courses
Peter Cole
CPLT 3005/ENGL 3415/ HUMS 1997/ JDST 3843
Advanced Literary Translation
A sequel to LITR 348 or its equivalent, this course brings together advanced and seriously committed students of literary translation, especially (but not only) those who are doing translation-related senior theses. Students must apply to the class with a specific project in mind, that they have been developing or considering, and that they will present on a regular basis throughout the semester. Discussion of translations-in-progress are supplemented by short readings that include model works from the world of literary translation, among them introductions and pieces of criticism, as well as reflections by practitioners treating all phases of their art. The class is open to undergraduates and graduate students who have taken at least one translation workshop. By permission of the instructor.
Nichole Gleisner
FREN 3012
Literary Translation: Contemporary Workshop
This course will focus on translating contemporary literature by exploring concerns of writers and translators working in the French and Francophone field today. Each week, students will translate an excerpt from a wide variety of texts written in French: prose, poetry, graphic novels, YA, science fiction, long-form journalism. We will also read and craft literary criticism, paying special attention to reviews of books in translation as we seek to understand and define the role of the translator in our current day. How does literary criticism complement the work of translation? In what ways is the current mode of approaching translations in reviews lacking? How can we develop criteria to evaluate works in translation that acknowledge the role of the translator ? How do these activities – both translating and reviewing – enrich scholarly communities, webs of thought, networks of writers, students’ own ways of approaching and understanding a text? Students will translate and workshop selections each week as well as undertake the translation of a significant portion (25-35 pages) of a contemporary text of their own.
Evren Savci
WGSS 2206
Transnational Approaches to Gender & Sexuality
Examination of transnational debates about gender and sexuality as they unfold in specific contexts. Gender as a category that can or cannot travel; feminist critiques of liberal rights paradigms; globalization of particular models of gender/queer advocacy; the role of NGOs in global debates about gender and sexuality.
Peter Cole
CPLT 1960
Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Spain
Introduction to the Golden Age of Hebrew poetry in Muslim Andalusia from the tenth century through the twelfth. Major figures of the period and the cultural and philosophical questions they confronted. The Judeo-Arabic social context in which the poetry emerged; critical issues pertaining to the study and transmission of this literature. Readings from the works of several poets.
Peter Grund
ENG 3150
Dialect Diversity in English literature
Eliza Doolittle (in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion), Huckleberry Finn (in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Joseph (in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights), and Janie Crawford (in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God) are examples of speakers who use a non-standard dialect in English literature. While these are well-known examples, the use of such dialects (including Cockney, Southern American English, Yorkshire English, and African American English) is common throughout the history of English literature when representing certain characters’ voices; and some works are written entirely in non-standard dialects. In this course, we explore the use and function of dialects of English in a range of literary genres across history (from Old English to Present-Day English) and across the English-speaking world. We use tools and interpretive frameworks from literary scholarship and linguistics to analyze, understand, and explain the use of dialect. We answer questions such as what types of features are used and created to signal dialect; how accurate the usage is in terms of representing actual dialect; and what social, literary, and aesthetic purposes dialect usage may serve. This exploration also makes it necessary to consider critically what it means to write in standard English, why some dialects are evaluated negatively and others positively, and what the implications are of such evaluations for speakers both inside and outside the fictional world.
AFST 203
English in Post-Colonial Africa and the African Diaspora
This course explores the importance of the English language in Post-colonial Africa. By examining the historical, socio-political, and cultural contexts that have influenced the evolution and adaptation of the English language, students will acquire insights into the linguistic diversity found in post-colonial Africa and its practical implications. The course explores the relationship between English and indigenous languages, focusing on their continuing influence in education, governance, literature, and identity formation. We also look at the linguistic structure of African American Vernacular English and explore possible connections to the languages of Africa and English-based creoles such as Gullah, spoken in the Caribbean and off the South Carolina coast.
Robyn Creswell
CPLT 4730
Politics and Literature in the Middle East
This course considers the relationship between literature and politics in Turkey, Iran, and the Arab world since the late 19th century. We read novels, short stories, poetry, essays, play scripts, and comics, and watch movies, while situating them in their artistic and political contexts. This course considers the ways that an artwork can intervene in the political debates of its time, while taking seriously the distinctive modes of political thought that are possible only through art. Topics include gender relations, the legacies of European colonialism, modernization and modernism, revolutionary movements, the role of religion in society, experiences of violence and trauma, and the drastic changes to Middle Eastern societies wrought by the oil boom. All readings are in English translation, but if sufficient students with relevant language skills enroll, an additional biweekly session may be arranged for selected course readings in the original languages.
Marissa Bass
EMST 7238
The Nuremberg Chronicle
Hartmann Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle is justly famous as a landmark of early printing. When the book was published in 1493, its over 1800 illustrations made it an unprecedented technical achievement. Yet in the colophon, Schedel described his own age as a “calamity.” What does the Nuremberg Chronicle tell us about the stakes of representing a universal history in the late fifteenth century? This intensive seminar explores that question through close reading and translation of the text, sustained study of its illustrations, and consideration of contemporary developments in the imaging of history during the early German Renaissance. This course is connected to an upcoming exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery and includes focused conversations about curation as well. Excellent reading knowledge of German is required for this seminar; reading knowledge of Latin is strongly preferred. No auditors are admitted. All applicants should explain their language skills and experience with translating early modern texts.
Samuel Hodgkin
CPLT 1400
Methods of Comparison
This course helps students build a toolkit of theories and approaches to literary comparison. We compare texts within genres, across genres and media, across periods, and between cultures and languages. We consider questions such as whether all comparisons must assume a common ground, and whether there is always an implicit politics to any comparison. Topics range from theories of translation and ekphrasis to exoticism and untranslatability. Readings include classics by critics such as Aristotle, Ibn Sina, and Kristeva, and writers such as Marie de France, Nezami, and Calvino. It also engages with the literature of our own moment: we read a newly-translated novel and a contemporary poet visits the class for a conversation. We also discuss films and a computer game.
Graduate Courses
Ana Duran
ARCH 8114
The Agroecological Urban Constellations of Pre-Colombian Amazonia
In this seminar, we read the chronicles of the Pizarro-Orellana, Ursúa-Aguirre, and Teixeira expeditions. We also dive into the reports and letters of missionaries who left testimonies related to the Jesuit Provinces of Peru (1568), the New Kingdom of Granada (1611, 1696), and Quito (1696). We oscillate between texts, drawings, and other mediums of representation as we speculate about the spatialities of the past through the window of early colonial documents. Because writings that offer the viewpoint of Amazonians are extremely rare, almost non-existent for this period, we engage—as proxies—the books of first generation mestizo intellectuals such as Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala and Diego de Valadés. We also read the English translation of legal documents that were written (using the alphabet) in Maya, Nahuatl, Quechua, Aymara, and other American languages by elite members of First Nations. This allows us to gain insight into how this tumultuous chapter of the history of humanity was experienced by the original peoples and nations of the Americas. Ultimately, the objective of this seminar is to learn from the urban agroecologies of the deep past as we renew our imaginaries of more sustainable and just forms of urbanism today.
Kameelah Rasheed
ART 6404
The Word is My Fourth Dimension
The course title comes from the 2012 English translation of Clarice Lispector’s Água Viva (1973). This course invites us to make work that engages with text and writing and explore the artists who push us to consider new relationships to language. Beyond the page, we explore text practices across various substrates and environments: the browser, the wall, the body, the sky, and the land. We consider legibility, translation, duration, embodiment, quantum physics, and pleasure in generating and studying text-based practices. Classes include opportunities for play, discussions, short lectures, and making. Assignments in this class include one presentation, one summative text-based work, one short essay, and active class participation. In the background of the course, we slowly read Lispector’s Água Viva as a haunt in our study of those who attempt to wrangle language.
ENV 796
Biopolitics of Human-Nonhuman Relations
Advanced graduate seminar on the “post-humanist” turn toward multi-species ethnography. Section I, introduction to the course. Section II, perspectivism: ontological theory and multi-species ethnography; human consciousness and the environment; and mimesis in human-prey relations. Section III, entanglements: translating indigenous knowledge; the history of natural history; and the politics of environmentalism. Section IV, metaphors: non-human imagery in political discourses; and geologic/volcanic imagery. Section V, student selections of readings; and student presentations of their seminar papers. Section VI, conclusion: plants as teachers; and a lecture by the course TF. Three hour lecture/seminar. Enrollment capped.