HUMA 3300 Reading and Writing Texts CB 1.

104, Fall 2005, MW 11:00 – 12:15

Sean Cotter sean.cotter@utdallas.edu, 972-883-2037
Office: JO 5.106 Office Hours: Mondays 1:00 – 3:00, and by appointment
Hannah Swamidoss hmd031000@utdallas.edu, 972-883-2773
Office: JO 5.410b Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:30 – 1:30, and by appointment

The Translator

This course will introduce students to interdisciplinary study of the humanities through the example of the
translator. Literary translation is more than the practice of transporting a work of literature into a new
language. A translator writes and reads in an unusual way, because he exists in more than one culture at
a time. This course will use this unusual perspective to examine three humanistic fields: aesthetic, literary,
and historical studies. We will do more than study these fields: we will participate in them. We will write
mock translations, read as translators do, and study historical translators. We will gain practical and
theoretical knowledge of the complicated negotiations of literary translation, negotiations that influence
everyone's lives in a multicultural world. We will examine how meanings change with the change of
languages, how our home cultures can become suddenly foreign, and how language and culture gain
emotional and political importance. We will better understand not only the humanities but also the roles of
culture and language in the world around us.

Policies

The following is subject to change at my discretion.

Attendance

I understand that occasionally circumstances arise (e. g. a doctor’s appointment) which cause you to miss
class. For this reason, you are allowed to miss three meetings over the course of the term. Absences
beyond this limit will result in a significant reduction of your final grade, up to two letter grades.

Communication

Hannah and I will check for email at least once a day, usually in the mornings. If you have not heard back
within 24 hours of your writing, feel free to pester. Please note that we are now required to use only UTD
email addresses for class communication. We cannot accept messages from @gmail.com, @hotmail.com,
or any other address besides @utdallas.edu.
Texts

Most of our readings will be posted on WebCT. When considering the cost of this course, remember to
include the price of printing out these documents. All but one book for this class may be purchased at both
the on-campus and off-campus bookstores. Michael Cronin’s Translating Ireland will be available as a
xerox copy, only at the off-campus store.

Assignments

You will be responsible for reading all the material on the syllabus, participating in class discussions, and
completing all assignments. Assignments A – D together will count for roughly 30% of your final grade.
Assignments E and F will each count for roughly 35%. I may adjust this mathematical grade up or down
to reflect your engagement with the course.

Hannah and I will both read your papers. Grading criteria will be distributed with the assignments
themselves. As a guide to the kinds of points we will look for in your writing, you should look at Strunk
and White’s book, Elements of Style. While that entire book is useful, some important passages are on
WebCT.

Assignments A – D are short assignments you will need for class on the day they are due. For this reason,
they cannot be turned in late. It is possible, though not advisable, to extend the deadlines for assignments
E and F, provided there is good reason. To ask for an extension, write me an email before 5 pm the
Monday before the assignment is due, giving a reason for the extension and the date you will turn the
assignment in. The maximum extension is one week past the original date. Extensions cannot be extended.
Your papers will be graded and returned roughly in the order they arrive.

Any assignments not turned in either on time or on the extended deadline are late; late assignments receive
zero credit.
 Schedule
August 22 Introductions
August 24 Anna Ahkmatova, “[In my room lives a beautiful],”
“He Loved…,” “[I don’t need legs anymore],” “[She
approached, I didn’t betray my agitation],”; READ
ALL VERSIONS

August 29 Ahkmatova, “[It’s impossible to get here],” “To the

Beloved,” “[So I remained alone]” “[A monstrous
rumor roams the city],” “The Poet”; READ ALL
VERSIONS

Paul Valéry, “Variations on the Eclogues”

August 31 Gregory Rabassa, “No Two Snowflakes are Alike” DUE: Assignment A

Margaret Sayers Peden, “Building a Translation,

the Reconstruction Business”

September 5 Paul Celan, all poems

John Felstiner, “A Fugue after Auschwitz,” 38 – 41

September 7 Nichita Stanescu, all poems DUE: Assignment B

George Bacovia, all poems

September 12 Workshop DUE: Assignment C

September 14 Workshop DUE: Assignment D

September 19 Willa and Edwin Muir, trans. “The Metamorphosis,”

by Franz Kafka

September 21 A. L. Lloyd, trans. “The Metamorphosis,” by Franz

Kafka

September 26 Deleuze and Guattari, “What Is a Minor

Literature?”

September 28 David Damrosch, “Kafka Comes Home”

October 3 Peter Kruper, “The Metamorphosis”

John Biguenet, “Gregory’s Fate”

October 5 Euripides, Medea

October 10 Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Medea”; shown in class

October 12 Pasolini, “Medea”; shown in class DUE: Assignment E

October 17 Mary Louise Pratt, “Arts of the Contact Zone”

Damrosch, “The Pope’s Blowgun”

October 19 Euripides, The Bacchae

October 24 Gloria Anzaldúa, “How to Tame the Wild Tongue”

Robert Rodriguez, “Aria”

October 26 Abdelfattah Kilito, “Dog Words”

October 31 Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation, p. 3 – 164

November 2 Hoffman, p. 165 – 280

November 7 Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland, p. xi – 90

November 9 Cronin, p. 91 – 166

November 14 Cronin, p. 167 – 205

November 16 Brian Friel, Translations DUE: Assignment F

November 21 Valéry, “Historical Fact”

November 23 Lydia Liu, “Legislating the Universal”

November 28 Conclusions