This course is designed for students who are interested in gaining a deeper understanding of translation and interpretation from a theoretical perspective. Theory can be a valuable lens to understand how translation and interpretation influence our understanding and perception of language and culture, from both source and target-oriented perspectives. The students will be informed of the general history and theories that undergird translation and interpretation as both a practice and an academic discipline. The course will be divided into two halves over the course of the semester: first half, translation; second, interpretation. Though divided into two sections, emphasis will be put on creating a continuum of understanding among theories that are generally associated to belong to one discipline and not the other. Learning will consist of readings, classroom discussion, presentations, and individual and/or group research projects.

The translation half of the course will focus on foundational texts of translation theory. It will examine readings from the early writings of Cicero, Horace, and St. Jerome to the more recent writings of Jakobson and Venuti. In this way, the course will explore the changing attitudes about translation over time and will examine the classifications that have been proposed in different epochs, with particular emphasis on the degree to which theorists have dealt with notions of “fidelity” and “transparency” and how these two oppositional approaches to translation reappear within the field of translation studies. Finally, we will consider the stakes, both practical and ideological, involved in the application of these translation strategies or theories. The theoretical part of the course will be complemented with analyses of passages from a variety of texts in different languages specific to the language pairs of the students enrolled in the course. The common ground to all texts will be English as either TL or SL.

The interpreting half of the course will, in addition to more quantifying linguistic or cognitive approaches, highlight theoretical perspectives prevalent in Cultural Studies that pertain to power relations concerning gender, race, ethnicity, ideology, and the politics of (national) interest (“East vs. West”; “First World vs. Third”) that find their legacies in imperialism and colonialism. The Nuremberg Trials, after all, firmly situate the act of interpreting and the identity of the interpreter within larger contexts of violence, war, and power struggle. This latter half of the course aims to provide the student with theoretical tools to recognize that interpreting is a representation of interest—the interpreter’s, the client’s, the patient’s, the defendant’s, the corporation’s, the nation’s, etc.—which is a highly fraught and complex issue because these varying interests do not necessarily align due to the subjective orientation of gender, race, ethnicity and ideologies one identifies with. Examples of interpreting contexts under discussion include: the hospital, the court, international conferences, diplomatic meetings. Example of questions for discussion: As a minority underprivileged colored immigrant, do you expect fair representation from an interpreter who happens to be white, male, and hired by the capitalist establishment? If you happened to be that white, male interpreter hired by the capitalist establishment, how do you navigate potential biases that may influence your interpreting choices? Do you recognize them in the first place?