Advanced knowledge of English and/or American culture and language (European Level C1). General linguistic, rhetorical and analytical background.

AIMS. Concomitantly with Language classes and labs (supervised by a team of mother-tongue instructors), this course is designed to introduce students to: authoritative statements in the fields of linguistics, poetics, and translation; textual, intertextual, contextual and evaluative strategies of literary translation in different genres and writings (non-fiction prose, poetry, narrative, plays) of the European and transatlantic English tradition.

LEARNING OUTCOMES. By the end of this course successful students should: reach an advanced level of language skills and competence (European Level C1+); understand a variety of formal approaches to language (verbal communication) and codified texts (verbal art); identify and explicate different methods in language and discourse analysis, interpretation and literary translation; show skills in close reading and original writing, as well as techniques of literary translation in the target language.

"Linguistics and Poetics: Language, Verbal Art, and Literary Translation".

Starting with some of the most transformative statements in the fields of linguistics, poetics and translation in the twentieth century (Roman Jakobson and European linguistic circles and schools; Russian formalism through Practical and New criticism; Structuralism and Ordinary language philosophy through Cultural and Gender studies), this course will focus on the development of different theories and practices in the study of language and discourse, as well as on textual, intertextual, contextual and evaluative strategies of literary translation in different bodies of canonical genres and writings of the English tradition in Europe in a transatlantic and international perspective, from the seventeenth century through post-modern times.

From Jakobson's seminal theoretical essays and linguistic readings of literary texts ("On Linguistic Aspects of Translations" and "Linguistics and Poetics", among others), this course will approach a variety of linguistic issues related to the critical investigation and translation of literary texts. We will move from the so-called heresy of paraphrase in intralingual translation to ekphrastic questions of intersemiotic translation in reverse; from skills of abstraction to more abstract acts of translation (essentials, concepts, lines, forces, graphic elements and factors); from the textuality of the literary text as a complex of verbal signs or complex speech act (in its linguistic and aesthetic structures as both verbal and pragmatic communication and verbal art) to contextualism, interpretation and evaluation; from the dogma of untranslatability to interlingual translation or "translation proper" qua literary translation.

1.  (A) Roman Jakobson, Language in Literature, Harvard, Cambridge, 1987 » Chapters 7, 12, 23, 29

2.  (A) Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford, 1997 » pp. 55-107

3.  (C) Terry Eagleton, How to Read a Poem, Blackwell, Oxford, 2007 » Selected chapters

4.  (C) Erik Martiny, ed., A Companion to Poetic Genre, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2012 » Selected chapters

The course is offered 100% in English - However, as a course in literary translation (interlingual), Italian is necessarily involved as the target language of the translation practice.

A selection of chapters from the textbooks (Jakobson and Culler), as well as an additional set of theoretical and linguistic essays, literary texts and related materials for in-class exercises , will be indicated and provided by the teacher at the beginning of the course and in class.

• Lectures. In class-discussion and analytical sessions run by the teacher and, alternately, by students as section-leaders. In class-presentations and structured focus groups. Translation labs and digital humanities training and practice.

  
  

• WRITTEN AND ORAL. Language: English

  Besides the written exams planned and scheduled in their Language classes and labs, students are expected to produce a short paper in English (4-5 double spaced pages, 1500 words approximately) consisting in a close linguistic and descriptive analysis of a text and its interlingual translation (in Italian). The paper is due 4-5 days before the final exam. The final exam (oral) will be based on the submitted paper, which students are expected to illustrate and discuss, as well as on the theoretical and critical readings related to the coursework.

  
  

  ASSESSMENT.

  Written exam (50%) - where the three sections "Reading" (1/3), "Use of English" (1/3), and "Writing" (1/3) will be equally weighted.

  Final paper and oral exam (50%) - where the essay will be weighted 2/3 (structure and formal accuracy, analytical and terminological precision) while the oral exam will be weighted 1/3 (accuracy, fluency, and pertinence).

  
  

Italian (for interlingual translation in the target language)

English