This course aims at consolidating the acquisition of structures and skills at the B2/C1 level of CEFRL. It is also meant to provide the students with effective tools for linguistic and cultural analysis and an awareness of the US cultural context. Attention will also be focused on translation theory and practice through some important works of US literature.
Cultural and literary translation seminar
The course will cover a detailed history of American English as well as some tenets of translation history and theory. Classes will be structured as a translation lab in which various kinds of texts (poems, novels, articles, essays, movies, song lyrics) will be analyzed, discussed and translated.
Grammar
Mann, Malcolm e Steve Taylore-Knowles, Destination B2, Macmillan, 2006.
Translation Theory and Language History
Bassnett, Susan, Translation Studies (3rd Edition), Routledge, 2002.
Bailey, Richard, Speaking American: A History of English in the United States, Oxford University Press, 2012.
Texts (any edition)
Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise
Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, City of Glass: The Graphic Novel
Stephen King, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Flannery O’ Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories
Alice Walker, The Color Purple
Exam
Students should pick one of the texts from the list, read it and use it to perform autonomous translation exercises. Students will then select a section from the chosen text (500 words minimum) for a translation to be submitted NO LESS THAN A WEEK BEFORE the oral exam.
N.B. Students that need only 6 CFU don't need to hand in the written translation
The oral exam will be a discussion on the translation strategies adopted, difficulties encountered, as well as the theoretical and historical background of translation and American English discussed in class