LITERARY TRANSLATION

This course immerses students in the practice of literary translation from Russian to English. Students will consider their translation work in light of weekly readings drawn from the theory and practice of literary translation more broadly. 

Students will work individually and together for the first three weeks, sharing their translations of a story by Anton Chekhov. They will move on to short prose works by Lev Rubinshtein. We will examine translations of Russian poetry by Pushkin and Mandelstam, as well as self-translations by Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky, and students will have a chance to work briefly on verse translation. We will end with classes on translingualism and translation limits, ethics, and current issues in the profession.

Each student will identify a final translation project and spend the last half of the course working on it, submitting approximately 500 words per week, on Fridays. Suggested word count for final projects is 3000-5000 words of prose (students who wish to pursue a poetry project should consult with the instructor). We will workshop translation projects in class (the number of times each project is discussed will depend on enrollment). The goal is to submit a translation of publishable quality by the end of the course.