Translation Studies Courses, 2022-2023

(scroll down for past and recurring courses)

SPRING 2023

EALL 608 Translation Studies Colloquium (Instructor of Record: Glynne Walley)

The colloquium is housed in EALL this year, led by Glynne Walley (EALL) as Co-Coordinator of the Translation Studies Graduate Specialization.

KRN 410/510: Transmediating History: From Premodern Korean Fiction to Webtoons

Instructor: Professor Jina Eleanor Kim
Email: jinak@uoregon.edu

This course will explore the resurgence of premodern literary prose (fiction, memoir, drama) and their convergence with new digital forms such as webtoons, television dramas, and podcasts. We will study various literary prose written during the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392–1910) and their multiple adaptations, translations, and convergences in creating a transmedia world in the contemporary times. Some of the works and figures we will read as our foundational texts are: (We will read as much as possible from these texts but due to time constraints, we might only be able to read selected sections. All works are in English translation.)

RECURRING COURSES:

ANTH 683 Anthropological Linguistics (Scher and others). Topics include linguistic relativity; language, cognition, and social practice; distinctiveness of human language; role of reference in linguistic structures; creation of social and cultural forms.

ARB 431/531 Islamic Political Thought (Hollenberg). Students improve skills at translating and analyzing Arabic texts while learning Islamic theories of governance. Close reading of primary sources from the 7th to 21st centuries. (Prereq: ARB 203.)

CLAS 511 Classics in English Translation (Bowditch). Course works with students on theoretical readings in translation studies when they are writing on translation issues.

COLT 510 Literary Translation: Praxis as Theory (Tze-Yin Teo). This course invites working translators to consider the literary-theoretical implications of their praxes between languages, texts, and media, in order to activate the insights of recent work on translation and untranslatability in comparative literature. [Core course for Graduate Specialization]

COLT 613 Graduate Studies in Translation (formerly “Translation Pedagogy”; Teo). Major issues in literary translation. Among topics addressed, examines the complex position of the twenty-first century literature GTF and professor, calling attention to an assumption in the United States that culture is produced in English. [Core course for Graduate Specialization]

ENG 428/429 Old English I (Stephanie Clarke or Martha Bayless) is the grammatical foundation for the language. Students produce multiple short translations; each item has to be translated multiple times with different approaches.

ENG 429/529 Old English II (Clarke or Bayless) allows students to get further into the language and to read more complicated texts. They do projects on things like semantic ranges of words between one language and another. Note: part of three-course sequence.

ENG 430/530 Old English III (Clarke or Bayless) focuses on one long poem. Again, students are required to translate passages multiple times privileging different aspects of the text. They also work on editing the text (using the manuscript copy), which shows them how much intervention goes on before a text is even translated. Note: part of three-course sequence.

FLR 681 History and Theory of Folklore Research (Gilman). Translation of cultural meanings, expressions, forms.

GER 625 Translations / Transformations (Librett, Ostmeier, Klebes, Loew, Gurley, Anderson). Presents the theory and practice of translation and other transformation media (e.g., the sister arts, literature into film). R when topic changes.

JPN 590 Translation and Japanese Literature (Walley). Explores the theory and practice of translation as it relates to Japanese literature. Students produce their own translations and critique existing translations.

INTL 534 Language Issues for International Studies (Carpenter). Explores the influence of language on policy issues in societies around the world relative to nationalism, identity, multilingualism, education, human rights globalization, and language spread and loss.

INTL 531 Cross-Cultural Communication (Keenan). Focuses on skills and insights needed by professionals working in cross-cultural settings. Considers values, development, education, politics, and environment as central to cross-cultural understanding.

LING 515 Functional Linguistics / Semantics (DeLancey, Kapatsinski, Pederson). Survey of the fundamentals of semantic theory from traditional formal logic to modern cognitive approaches. Additional coverage of fundamental notions in pragmatics.

RL 507 “Bodies Bilingual”: Gender & Culture in Translation (Powell). Cross-disciplinary exploration of how anthropology, folklore, and literary theory address questions of gender and culture central to literary translation; emphasizing feminist criticism and cultural theory as they question relations of power (ideological, economic, political) that shape production of new texts and criteria by which texts are rendered into other languages. [Core course for Graduate Specialization]

RL 510 Literary Translation Workshop: Theory and Practice (Gladhart). Explores theories and practices of literary translation and their interconnections. In translating, we become more accomplished readers and writers, cultivating both our analytical skills and our creative expression. This course is grounded in the belief that theory and practice can most productively be explored together and in a dynamic, collaborative context. [Core course for Graduate Specialization]

SPAN 525 Literary Translation (Powell / Gladhart) Presents approaches to literary translation through practice accompanied by theoretical readings that illuminate pragmatic challenges found in group and individual exercises. Examines linguistic problems of synonymy and dissimilarity; critiques of “transculturation” of gender, social class, and political geography; translation as close critical reading; questions of narrative and poetic translation, and other topics.