Sylabus
SCHEDULE AND MATERIAL 2 Oct Introduction 9 Oct Bernard McLaverty, “Walking the Dog ” 16 Oct Mike McCormack, “Stained Glass Violations” 23 Oct Flann O’Brien, The Third Policeman 30 Oct Samuel Beckett, “Dante and the Lobster” 6 Nov Brian Friel, Faith Healer 13 Nov Edward Albee, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? 20 Nov Harold Pinter, The Caretaker 27 Nov David Mamet, Oleanna 4 Dec Mark O’Rowe, The Approach 11 Dec Enda Walsh, Penelope 18 Dec Martin McDonagh, The Cripple of Inishmaan 8 Jan Samuel Beckett, That Time
Note: Extracts for translation will be made available on Moodle; full texts are mostly available from the English and American Studies Library.
Anotace
MA and BA optional course. Priority enrolment for students of the MA programme in Anglophone Literatures and Cultures, and the BA programme in English and American Studies from the 2nd year onward.
The course will take the form of a workshop focused on some of the basic problems involved in the translation of literary texts. Particular attention will be paid to the translation of modern drama, introducing the students to the challenges of producing a stageable text. However, the workshop will also focus on the translation of fiction, especially such that involves linguistic experimentation, dialect or other specific features. Students will be expected to translate assigned extracts on a week-to-week basis and be actively involved in peer-reviewing their work. The class will be conducted in Czech.
PROCEDURE
After the first two opening sessions, classes will have the following structure: 1. All students produce a draft translation of the assigned extract. 2. Apart from that, each extract will have its main Translator, whose work will have two Reviewers. The Translator will provide his/her translation to the Reviewers and the instructor by e-mail a week in advance. The Reviewers will prepare a joint presentation, providing a critique of the Translator’s work and outlining its strengths and/or weaknesses. 3. The class will be organised around the Reviewers’ presentation, combining it with the instructor’s and the Translator’s comments. The Translator’s version will be copied out by him/her for the rest of the group, who will be expected to contribute to the discussion on the basis of their own translations of the same extract.
Credit requirements include 1. regular attendance, 2. producing the assigned translations on a week-to-week basis, 3. serving either once as a Translator of an extract or twice as a Reviewer, and 4. submitting a final translation of a set text with a brief commentary on the method utilised by the translator and the problems encountered (an extract from Pygmalion by G.B. Shaw; text will be available on Moodle from the beginning of the semester). The deadline for submission is 18 January 2024.