126-478 Translating Literature

37.5 points of second/third year subjects. European studies students wishing to enrol in this subject would normally have completed 37.5 points of European studies at second/third year, see Prerequisites.

This subject is based on the idea of literary translation as an intense, subtle, time-consuming activity, from which we have all benefitted but about which we rarely think. A translation is one person's rendering, and thus interpretation, of a literary work; it can enhance or ruin it. How does Shakespeare sound in German? And how does Goethe sound in English? On completion of the subject students should have tackled a variety of literary translations; have improved their German vocabulary; have become familiar with some basic principles of translating literature; and have engaged in discussions about the quality of a number of translations of well-known literary works.