RUSS-367 Translating the Untranslatable

Faculty:

Meerson, Olga

This course will address problems of culture-specific aspects in translation -- translation of idioms,associative layers in literary texts, allusions of all sorts, both linguo-cultural and political, differences in syntactic structures and types of semantic emphasis, and ways to avoid calques. Students will work on a whole array of texts that, for one reason or another, are considered to be "untranslatable." At the very least, we will try to define what is untranslatable -- i.e., culture- or structure-specific -- about them. This will allow students to learn ways to compensate for the untranslatable and to switch from one cultural code to the other, from the original language to the target one.
The course will require in-class translation as well as a final project presented to the whole class,
different for every student and based on his/her respective personal interest or area of concentration. Both in-class translations and these projects are to be graded. The final project is worth 50% of the grade. Most of the discussion will be in Russian, but the projects are, naturally, bilingual.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: RUSS-212 or RUSS-214 or equivalent

RUSS-367-R Russian-English English-Russian Translation

Faculty:

Meerson, Olga

This course will address problems of culture-specific aspects in translation
-- translation of idioms,
associative layers in literary texts, allusions of all sorts, both
linguo-cultural and political, differences
in syntactic structures and types of semantic emphasis, and ways to avoid
calques. Students will work on a
whole array of texts that, for one reason or another, are considered to be
"untranslatable." At the very
least, we will try to define what is untranslatable -- i.e., culture- or
structure-specific -- about them.
This will allow students to learn ways to compensate for the
untranslatable and to switch from one
cultural code to the other, from the original language to the target one.
The course will require in-class
translation as well as a final project presented to the whole class,
different for every student and based on his/her respective personal interest or area of concentration. Both
in-class translations and these
projects are to be graded. The final project is worth 50% of the grade. Most
of the discussion will be in
Russian, but the projects are, naturally, bilingual.

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: RUSS-212 or RUSS-214 or equivalent

Other academic years
There is information about this course number in other academic years:

• 2005-2006 Fall and Spring
• 2006-2007 Fall and Spring
• 2009-2010 Fall and Spring
• 2010-2011 Fall and Spring
• 2011-2012 Fall and Spring
• 2012-2013 Fall and Spring

More information
Look for this course in the schedule of classes.

The academic department web site for this program may provide other details about this course.