Reading and composition course based on works by Italians and foreigners about Italy and its culture and by Italians about their distinctive experiences of other cultures as tourists and emigrants. Works studied will be primarily chosen from among fiction and non fiction narratives, both originally in English and translated into it. R5A satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition Requirement and R5B satisfies the second half.

What is translation? The term is often used to indicate anything transferred, adapted, communicated, displaced, or interpreted. What does it mean when something is “lost in translation”? What is the difference between a translator and an author? Why are some texts considered “untranslatable”? In this class we will examine translation as a creative process that bears meaning from one language to another and think about the wide variety of metaphors implied by the term. We will also examine the figure of the translator in (primarily) Italian literary texts and films in an effort to understand how translation, as a metaphor and a practice, enables movement, transferal, transformation, adaptation, and interpretation of Italian literature in a transnational context. In addition to our examination of the figures and metaphors of translation, this class will approach translation as an analytical tool of comparison and close reading. Over the course of the semester we will read many works of literature in translation and perform close comparative analyses of various versions of the same translated passages. In performing these comparative analyses, we will think about translation as a way of getting to know the text from the inside out. Since our focus in this class will be to hone our analytical reading and writing skills, translation will also provide us with a model of how to make interpretative claims about the meaning of a text in an engaged, creative, and productive way. Texts and films for the course will be selected from the following: Italo Calvino, If On A Winter’s Night a Traveler (trans. William Weaver) Brian Friel, Translations Weinberger and Paz, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei Igiaba Scego, Adua (trans. Jamie Richards) Claudia Durastanti. Strangers I Know (trans. Elizabeth Harris) Elena Ferrante, The Lost Daughter (trans. Ann Goldstein) Maggie Gyllenhal, The Lost Daughter Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation Geoffrey Brock, editor, FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry Jhumpa Lahiri, editor, Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories a reader for the course will feature shorter works, excerpts, and critical essays on translation.

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills