This course provides a general introduction to translation studies. Translation studies is a relatively new field which lies at the intersection of a range of disciplines from literature and linguistics, through gender and postcolonial studies, to cognitive and computer science. We will explore the history of the way that people have thought about translation from the ancient world and thinkers such as Cicero and Dao’an to the formal field of translation studies which emerged in the 1980s. We will also explore translation studies as a field today, discovering the many different theories and methods that can be used to understand what translation is as a linguistic, textual, and socio-cultural practice. This will involve looking not just writing about translation but also analyzing specific translations and the choices made by translators. One thread running throughout the course is the central role that translation plays in our multilingual world. We will discover that translation is ubiquitous but often invisible so we will discover the role that it plays shaping not just literature but also the media, science, technology, politics, diplomacy, the law, and business. The course will also highlight the importance of translators themselves.

You will be asked to carry out some translation in this course but this does not mean that you need knowledge of French or any other language; students can opt to translate between different registers and varieties of English instead of using another language.
 

Course books:
Munday, Jeremy, Sara Ramos Pinto, and Jacob Blakesley (2022) Introducing Translation Studies: Theory and Applications, 5th edn, Abingdon Oxon – New York: Routledge.
Venuti, Lawrence (2021) The Translation Studies Reader, 4th edn, London – New York: Routledge.