Translation and Power

Course title: Translation and Power
Course coordinator:
 Ellen Elias-Bursać
Instructor:
 Ellen Elias-Bursać

ECTS credits: 4
Language:
 English
Duration:
 1 semester (summer)
Status:
 elective
Form of instruction:
 two contact hours of seminar
Enrollment requirements:
 Students must be enrolled in the 2nd or higher semester of one of the following graduate study programs: English Language and Literature – Translation Track, Comparative Linguistics, Croatian Language and Literature, South Slavic Languages and Literatures.
Exam:
 final written exam
Course description: 
“Translation and Power” addresses the cultural and political asymmetries inherent in every act of translation and interpreting, the ways translators and interpreters choose to compensate for these asymmetries, and the impact of their choices. The readings will focus on post-colonial translation issues; the ethics of translation and interpreting; the experiences of working as an interpreter and translator in war.
Objectives: To identify and examine the power dynamic relevant to all translation and interpreting through the lens of post-colonial and wartime translation and interpreting; students will reflect on their own position within this power dynamic.
Course requirements: Regular course attendance, participation in classroom discussion, holding an interview with a translator or interpreter who worked during the war in Croatia (to be assigned by the instructor). Final written exam.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Session Topic
1, 2, 3 Post-Colonialism, Power, Translation
4, 5 The ethics of interpreting
6, 7, 8, 9 Wartime interpreting in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
10, 11 Translating and Interpreting at the ICTY
12, 13 NATO language services in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Required reading will be available at Omega (http://omega.ffzg.hr/).

Reading:

Mona Baker, ed. 2010. Critical Readings in Translation Studies. London: Routledge.

Maria Tymoczko & Edwin Gentzler, eds. 2002. Translation and Power.  Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

Claudia Angeleli & Ghada Osman. 2007.  “‘A Crime in Another Language?’ An Analysis of the Interpreter’s Role in the Yousry Case,” Translation and Interpreting Studies 2.1.

Catherine Baker. 2012. “Prosperity without Security: The Precarity of Interpreters in Postsocialist, Postconflict Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Slavic Review 71, no. 4.

Ellen Elias-Bursać. Translating Evidence and Interpreting Testimony at a War Crimes Tribunal: Working in a Tug-of-War. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ian Jones & Louise Askew. 2014. “Bosnia and Herzegovina”.  Meeting the Language Challenges of NATO Operations, Palgrave Macmillan.

Croatian Literature in Translation

Course title: Croatian Literature in Translation
Course coordinator:
  Dr. Ellen Elias-Bursać
Instructor:
 Dr. Ellen Elias-Bursać

ECTS credits: 4
Language:
 English and Croatian
Duration:
 1 semester (summer)
Status:
 elective
Form of instruction:
 two contact hours of seminar
Enrollment requirements:
  Students must be enrolled in the 2nd or higher semester of one of the following graduate study programs: English Language and Literature – Translation Track, Comparative Linguistics, Croatian Language and Literature, South Slavic Languages and Literatures.
Exam:
 final written exam
Course description: 
Students will analyze excerpts from Croatian literature in English translations dating from the 1920s to the present day, and in parallel, discuss recent readings in Translation Studies. Discussion will focus on the strategies employed by the translators, with attention to domestication, foreignization, cultural reference, glossing, the translator’s introduction, humor, and the challenges related to syntax, word choice and translation of names that face the translator, and how these strategies relate to those discussed in the Translation Studies readings.
Objectives:  By the end of the course the students will have read from a wide range of translations of Croatian literature and learned to identify the practical application of theoretical approaches described in Translation Studies.
Course requirements: Regular course attendance, participation in classroom discussion, an in-class seminar presentation on one of the translations under discussion. Final written exam.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Session Topic
1, 2, 3 Introduction. Translations of Petar Hektorović and Marin Držić. Strategies for academic translation, editing.
4, 5 Translations of August Šenoa and Vjenceslav Novak. Strategies of literal vs. free translation, foreignness in translation.
6, 7 Translations of Ivana Brlić Mažuranić and Miroslav Krleža. Stategies for translation of sentence and context.
8, 9 Translations of Antun Šoljan and Ivan Kušan. Strategies for publishing English translations of Croatian literature.
10, 11 Translations of Ivo Brešan and Dubravka Ugrešić.  Strategies for translating  humor and dialect. Glossing.
12, 13 Translations of Robert Perišić and Mima Simić. Strategies for gender and political translation.

Required reading will be available at Omega (http://omega.ffzg.hr/).

Reading:

Esther Allen and Susan Bernofsky, eds. 2013. In Translation. New York: Columbia University Press.

Additional readings:

L. Borges. 1999. “Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote.” Collected Fictions. Penguin. Tr. Andrew Hurley.

Ann Pasternak Slater. 5 November 2010. “Rereading Dr. Zhivago.” The Guardian.

Orlando Figes. 22 November 2007. “Tolstoy’s Real Hero.” New York Review of Books.

Tony Beckwith. July 2013. “Two Translators with a Swedish Tattoo.” The ATA Chronicle

Anthony Gardener. 2010. “The Champion of Translated Fiction.” Interviews. Web.

Martin Fackler. 2 November 2012. “Lifelong Scholar of Japanese Becomes One of Them.” NY Times.

Daniel Kehlmann. 25 February 2013. “In Praise of My Translator”. Publishing Perspectives. Web.

Robert Lowell. 1990. “Foreword.” Imitations. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

 

Research in linguistics and translation studies: planning and methodology

Syllabus
Course title:
  Research in linguistics and translation studies: planning and methodology
Course coordinator:  Professor Nataša Pavlović, and Dr. Mateusz-Milan Stojanović, Associate Professor
Instructors: Professor Nataša Pavlović, and Dr. Mateusz-Milan Stojanović, Associate Professor
ECTS credits:  4
Language:   English and Croatian
Semester:   summer (4th)
Status:  Elective
Form of instruction:  2 contact hours of seminar + e-learning
Examination:  written, continuous assessment

OBJECTIVES:
By the end of the course the students should be able to plan and conduct their own research in the field of linguistics and translation studies, using appropriate methodology. 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course deals with the following topics: areas of research, steps in research planning, theoretical models, research questions, formulation and testing of hypotheses related to research questions, relationships among variables, research methods, qualitative and quantitative approaches, data collection and processing, combinations of methods and triangulation of data, analysis and interpretation of data, drawing conclusions, dissemination of findings.

MODE OF INSTRUCTION:
Discussion of particular topics, critical assessment and case analysis, assignments related to particular topics (see Week-by-Week Schedule). The course involves e-learning via http://omega.ffzg.hr/.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
Regular attendance, preparedness for class, active participation in class and in e-learning, regular submission of assignments.

The final grade is based on continuous assessment of particular course elements (attendance, research, end-of-term paper, active participation in class and in e-learning).

OBLIGATORY READING:

Pavlović, Nataša and Stanojević, Mateusz Milan. 2020. Znanstvena istraživanja jezika i prevođenja. Zagreb: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb – FFpress.

ADDITIONAL READING:

Gačić, Milica. 2012. Pisanje znanstvenih i stručnih radova. Zagreb: Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Učiteljski fakultet, Školska knjiga.

Kumar, Ranjit. 1999. Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step guide for Beginners. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications

Angelelli, C.V. and Baer, B.J. 2016. Researching Translation and Interpreting. London/New York: Routledge.

Saldanha, Gabriela and O’Brien, Sharon. 2013. Research Methodologies in Translation Studies.
London/New York: Routledge.

Williams, Jenny i Chesterman, Andrew. 2002. The Map. A Beginner’s Guide to Doing Research in Translation Studies. Manchester: St Jerome Publishing.

Selected articles accessible via HRČAK; articles and presentations accessible via http://omega.ffzg.hr/.

WEEK-BY-WEEK SCHEDULE:
The course consists of 15 sessions (30 contact hours) over the course of one semester.

Session 1: introduction, presentation of the syllabus and course requirements; areas of research, examples of topics, steps in planning the research, tasks, discussion.

Session 2: discussion of examples, with a particular regard to theoretical models as research background and their relationship with research questions. The issue of validity of particular research questions in various theoretical models. Discussion and tasks.

Session 3: discussion of examples, with a particular regard to the formulation of research questions.

Sessions 4 and 5: discussion of examples, with a particular regard to the formulation and testing of hypotheses related to research questions; relationships among variables. Discussion and tasks.

Sessions 6 and 7: discussion of examples, with a particular regard to various research methods. Quantitative and qualitative approaches. Discussion and tasks.

Sessions 8 and 9: discussion of examples, with a particular regard to data collection and processing (texts and test subjects as sources of data). Combinations of methods and data triangulation. Discussion and tasks.

Session 10: analysis and interpretation of data and drawing of conclusions. Self-reflection.

Session 11: dissemination of findings. Publication of papers and their presentation at conferences. Discussion.

Sessions 12 and 13:  Drafting of research plans in small groups. Discussion and tasks.

Sessions 14 and 15:  Conclusion: presentation of research plans in class. Teacher and peer feedback. Student feedback with regard to the course.