Cayla Delardi

In a recently-published article in Words Without Borders, CALA Director Jenny McPhee reflects on her approach to teaching literary translation to both graduates and undergraduates this past Spring. She describes the differences between the two student populations, and how their experience levels and backgrounds shaped their approach to the course. First, there were the more seasoned NYU MS in Translation graduate students, who, though initially intimidated by the subject, quickly embraced the broad scope of tools that literary translation can provide. Then, the fearless, eager Princeton undergraduates, who applied their acquired language skills and interdisciplinary backgrounds to what for most was an entirely new field. McPhee observed, “The Princeton students were taking the course because they were curious about the field of translation, since the discipline has now risen out of the shadows and into the sunny ranks of what is considered by the academy a legitimate area of study. […] These students recognized their language skills and their experiences abroad as an asset to their overall development and were motivated to increase their global exposure and communication skills.”

In both of her courses, structured as workshops, students were required to translate texts of their choosing from a variety of literary genres. During classroom discussions, students often read aloud from both their source and translated materials and analyzed their grammatical, cultural, and historical conventions. Not only did the students become better translators and language experts through these exercises, but better global citizens as well. McPhee writes, “Our deliberations dramatically revealed how language difference shapes cultural difference across time, texts, and geography. We became acutely aware that the rest of the world does not speak, think, and feel homogeneously, but in an infinite variety of ways. As Octavio Paz put it: ‘The sun praised in an Aztec poem is not the sun of the Egyptian hymn, although both speak of the same star.'”

Read the full article here: https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/notes-from-the-classroom-on-teaching-translation

Interested in furthering or pursuing a career in translation?

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