Introduction to Literary Translation (FR > ENG)

What is literary translation? This 6-week workshop welcomes students looking to energize and sharpen their writing in English, while deepening their linguistic and cultural understanding of the French language. We will read and discuss both practical and theoretical texts about translation, and will explore French texts that offer a variety of different challenges (or opportunities!) in translation, such as cultural references, idioms, dialects, regional slang, period-specific dialogue, and more. Participants will learn to read like a translator, analyzing and identifying the tone, tempo, nuance, and structure of texts; and to write with the same precision in English. We will also discuss and think critically about the role and responsibility of the translator, and explore the tension between freedom and constraint in relation to the task of the translator, and to writing. Class discussion will largely be in English, though participants should be comfortable reading and analyzing texts at the B1+ levels in French in order to produce their own English translations.