LITERARY TRANSLATION AND TRANSLATION FOR PUBLISHING (ENGLISH)

The course is linked to the teaching of the English language, a part of the course in English and American Studies (specialising in Lingue e letterature europee, americane e postcoloniali).
It aims to improve the linguistic skills already acquired by students and introduces them to the knowledge and understanding of various poetry texts, engaging them in discussions on some of the main post-colonial theory books and on some eco-critical essays.
The course primarily aims to enable students to:

1) gain the ability to read, translate and understand a literary text in its context, and to critically comment on it;
2) use the methodologies of textual analysis appropriate to the proposed texts and literary genres, and of literary and poetic translation through a comparative approach;
3) communicate effective observations derived from the texts and the periods of history and culture covered by the class.

The module will be focussed on England, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa and Canada. It will present some of the key literary theories about poetic translation and it will mainly refer to a ‘descriptive’ approach, underlining textual, historical, linguistic, environmental and cultural issues. Various additional issues will be mentioned and analysed: globalization, proletarian masses, environmental crisis, pollution, and protest poetry and songs, in order to touch on various issues, such as translation and publishing, translation and the market, translation and aesthetic styles.

None but a reasonable ability to read texts in the English language and a good knowledge of the history of some post-colonial countries such as Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Canada.

This module will offer a general overview of some articles and books on translation studies and the translation of poetical texts. It will insist on some of the major English-language areas around the world, such as England, South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, and Canada and on contemporary writers such as Douglas Livingstone, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Seamus Heaney, Charles Tomlinson, Kenneth White and Norman MacCaig. It will also offer examples from some canonical writers/poets' work, such as: Andrew Marvell, Robert Burns, John Donne, William Shakespeare, Giacomo Leopardi, etc.
In particular, this course will be focused on some of the possible strategies for translating various contemporary poets writing in Scots (Hugh MacDiarmid), poet/s from South Africa (writing in their South African English, such as Douglas Livingstone), experimental and concrete poets such as Edwin Morgan, poets writing in Jamaican English (Linton Kwesi Johnson), and some more traditional poets, such as Charles Tomlinson and Kenneth White.

Theory Books on Poetry and Translation

James Fenton, An Introduction to English Poetry (Penguin Books, 2003) - una scelta di pagine
Jeffrey Wainwright, Poetry. The Basics ( (Routledge, 2015) - pagine scelte
Don Paterson, The Poem. Lyric, Sign, Metre (Faber, 2019) - pagine scelte
Walter Benjamin, Il compito del traduttore (Mimesis, 2023 - già in Angelus Novus, Einaudi) - l'intero saggio breve
Yves Bonnefoy, La comunità dei traduttori (Sellerio, 2005) - pagine scelte
Siri Nergaard (a cura di), Teorie contemporanee della traduzione (Bompiani, 1995) - pagine scelte
Susan Bassnett (a cura di), la traduzione. Teoria e pratica (Bompiani, 1993) - pagine scelte
Jorge Fondebrider (a cura di), Poetas que traducen poesia (Lom, 2015) - pagine scelte
Silvia Campanini, Strategie e metodi della traduzione poetica (L'Harmattan Italia, 2002) - pagine scelte
G. Singh, I canti di Giacomo Leopardi nelle traduzioni inglesi (Transeuropa, 1990) - introduzione di G. Singh
Scott-Sudduth-DuRant (eds.), Selected Essays on Robert Burns (Independent Pub., 2018) - pagine scelte
Marco Fazzini (a cura di), Canto un mondo libero (ETS, 2012) - pagine scelte

Books by individual poets

Hugh MacDiarmid, Selected Poems (Carcanet, 1995)
Seamus Heaney, Poesie (Mondadori 2016)
Douglas Livingstone, Loving (Amos, 2008)
Charles Tomlinson, In Italia (Edizioni del Bradipo,2000)
Kenneth White, Scotia deserta (Edizioni del Bradipo, 1997)
Edgar Lee Masters, Antologia di Spoon River (Einaudi, 1943/2009)
Fabrizio De André, Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo (LP, 1971)
Francesco De Gregori, De Gregori canta Dylan. Amore e furto (CD, 2015)

ORAL exam.
Starting from the reading and translation into Italian of a poem/passage from one of the primary texts (chosen by the lecturer), the exam will be devoted to evaluating the student's capacity to comment on the passage/s, in a larger discourse involving the whole poem, other passages from the same work or from the other texts on the syllabus, and in the light of the problematical issues (related to the history and the literary and cultural questions of the period) discussed in class or in the critical set texts.

oral

Marks are graded out of 30 (minimum pass mark is 18 - highest mark is 30 cum laude)

Lectures, with class discussions. DVDs, Cds, invited guests from various parts of the world.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Natural capital and environmental quality" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development