CLAS 4/532
COURSE SCHEDULE
Spring 2025
M. = Munday (et al.)
V. = Venuti
January 27: Introduction to Translation & Translation Studies
Readings:
GRK: Homer, Iliad 1-7, Odyssey 1.1-10
LAT: Vergil, Aeneid 1.1-11
M.: Chapters 1-2
V.: Jerome, “Letter to Pammachius”
Dryden, “Preface to Ovid’s Epistles”
PDFs/Links (on D2L): Cicero, De Optimo Genere Oratorum 5; Pliny, Epistula 7.9; Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 10.5.1-8
February 3: Equivalence; Process; Functions; Greek Epic (Homer)
Readings:
GRK: Homer, Iliad 18.490-616
LAT: Vergil, Aeneid 2.453-558
M.: Chapters 3 (pp. 49-59), 4 (pp. 73-9), 5 (pp. 99-113)
V.: Jakobson, “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation”
PDFs/Links: select translations of Homer, Iliad 18.490-616
February 10: Discourse; Systems Theories; Roman Epic (Vergil)
Readings:
GRK: Homer, Iliad 6.390-493
LAT: Vergil, Aeneid 8.626-731
M.: Chapters 6-7
PDFs/Links: select translations of Aeneid 8.626-731
Braund, “Mind the Gap: On Foreignizing Translations of the Aeneid”
February 17: Culture; Translator’s Role; Greek Tragedy (Aeschylus)
Readings:
GRK: Aeschylus, Agamemnon 367-474
LAT: Seneca, Agamemnon 1-107
M.: Chapters 8-9
V.: Berman, “Translation and the Trials of the Foreign”
Chamberlain, “Gender and the Metaphorics of Translation”
PDFs/Links: select translations of Aeschylus, Agamemnon 367-474
Houseman, “Fragment of a Greek Tragedy”
February 24: Philosophical Approaches; Roman Tragedy (Seneca)
Readings:
GRK: Euripides, Medea 1317-1419
LAT: Seneca, Medea 893-994
M.: Chapter 10
V.: Benjamin, “The Translator’s Task”
Derrida, “What is a ‘Relevant’ Translation?”
PDFs/Links: select translations of Seneca, Medea 893-994
<TRANSLATION EXERCISE #1 DUE>
March 3: New Media; Examination #1
Readings:
M.: Chapter 11
PDFs/Links: Venuti, “Invisibility”
<EXAMINATION #1>
March 10: Spring Break
March 17: Greek Lyric (Sappho)
Readings:
GRK: Sappho 16, 31, 105a, Fr. Adesp. 976 (Campbell)
LAT: Catullus 5, 11, 50-1
PDFs/Links: select translations of Sappho
Venuti, “Translation, Interpretation, Canon Formation”
March 24: Latin Lyric (Catullus)
Readings:
GRK: Sappho 1, 2, 55, 111, 132 (Campbell); Callimachus, Aitia fr. 110
LAT: Catullus 16, 65, 66
V.: Harvey, “Translating Camp Talk: Gay Identities and Cultural Transfer”
PDFs/Links: select translations of Catullus
McElduff, “Late Republican and Augustan Poets on Translation: Catullus, Horace, Lucretius, and Germanicus Caesar” (pp. 126-36)
March 31: Greek Old Comedy (Aristophanes)
Readings:
GRK: Aristophanes, Lysistrata 1-116
LAT: Juvenal, Satires 1.1-80
PDFs/Links: select translations of Lysistrata 1-116
Roberts, “Translation and the ‘Surreptitious Classic’: Obscenity and Translatability”
Robson, “Lost in Translation? The Problems of (Aristophanic) Humour”
<TRANSLATION EXERCISE #2 DUE>
April 7: Greek New Comedy (Menander); Roman Comedy (Plautus)
Readings:
GRK: Menander, Dis Exapaton (Oxyrhynchus fragments)
LAT: Plautus, Bacchides 494-562
V.: Goethe, “Translations”
Nietzsche, “Translations”
PDFs/Links: Feeney, “The Roman Translation Project”
April 14: Greek Didactic Poetry (Hesiod)
Readings:
GRK: Hesiod, Works & Days 1-105
LAT: Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 1.1-101
PDFs/Links: select translations of Hesiod, Works & Days 1-105
select reviews of Hesiod translations
Damrosch, “Translation and World Literature: Love in the Necropolis”
April 21: Roman Didactic Poetry (Lucretius)
Readings:
GRK: Hesiod, Theogony 507-616
LAT: Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 6.1182-1286
V.: Nabokov, “Problems of Translation: Onegin in English”
PDFs/Links: select translations of Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 6.1182-1286
select reviews of Lucretius translations
Hardwick, “Translated Classics Around the Millennium: Vibrant Hybrids or Shattered Icons?”
<TRANSLATION EXERCISE #3 DUE>
April 28: Greek (Theocritus) and Latin (Vergil) Pastoral Poetry
Readings:
GRK: Theocritus, Idyll 11
LAT: Vergil, Eclogues 2
PDFs/Links: select translations of Theocritus, Idyll 11 and Vergil, Eclogues 2
select reviews of Theocritus and Vergil translations
Hall, “Navigating the Realms of Gold: Translation as Access Route to the Classics”
May 5: Adaptation; Performances/Readings
Readings:
GRK: English translation of Euripides’ Hippolytus
LAT: English translation of Seneca’s Phaedra
V.: Venuti, “Genealogies of Translation Theory: Schleiermacher”
PDFs/Links: Kane, Phaedra’s Love`
Paul, “Homer and Cinema: Translation and Adaptation in Le Mépris”
Wednesday, May 14, 10:30am: EXAMINATION #2; PORTFOLIO DUE