Introduction to Translation Studies

Quicklinks: FAQ Manual

Welcome to our course website Introduction to Translation Studies. Whenever you visit this site, please see if there is anything in English not yet translated into Chinese and make a Chinese translation beneath (one paragraph English, one paragraph Chinese). Any correction or improvement of earlier translations is welcome!

Organizational Things

• Please register for the Course Wiki.
• Please prepare each session during the week before, so that you come prepared to class.

Edits

Every student is required to edit something every week. This can be:

• Translate any English paragraph on this website from English to Chinese.
• Correct an earlier translation.
• Prepare an article (please link to from this page) and/or a powerpoint (please upload here) on a topic you will present during the semester.

Material

Please download several pdfs with monographs and articles about translation studies history and theories from our WeChat group. If you have time, you can list the literature here with a bibliography: ...

Main class project

Please help to edit the publication History of Translation Studies.

Schedule

All sessions: 1 9/21 Organizational things, 2 Emergence, 3 History, 4 Development, 5 Early literary examples, 6 early theories, 7 (Western) Theories, 8 Methods, 9 Style, 10 Translation Studies, 11 Theory and Practice, 12 Different Aspects, 13 East West comparison, 14 Your choice, 15 Your choice, 16 Final Discussion

1st Session

Introduction to the course. Organizational things. Working with the Wiki.

Homework from Session 1 due on Sep 27, 2020

1. Every student should translate 1 sentence of a paper on Translation Studies. You can write it here.

2. Help a fellow student to improve his/her translation here.

3. Please pick a topic from the pdf material, the general session topics or your own thoughts to do a presentation on. For the first topics, you need to do the presentation already in 1 week!

Homework for later

4. Write a final exam paper as a chapter of the book "Translation Studies". It has to be a new topic, not yet used in the book. I will upload the book here later. You can participate in writing this book.

5. Get familiar with the pdfs I send you on WeChat group as learning material.

2nd Session

Session 2, Topic 1: 人类起源 The emergence of translation and interpretation

• Handout for download: ... by 彭锐宏
• Classroom presentation for download: ... by 彭锐宏

Session 2, Topic 2: 西方起源 The emergence of translation and interpretation in the West

• Handout for download: ... by 聂晓楼
• Classroom presentation for download: ... by 聂晓楼

Session 2, Topic 3: 中国起源 The emergence of translation and interpretation in the China

• Handout for download: ... by 马淑雅
• Classroom presentation for download: ... by 马淑雅

Session 2, Topic 4: 日本起源 The emergence of translation and interpretation in Japan

• Handout for download: The Emergence of translation and interpretation in Japan by 孟莹 --Meng Ying (talk) 16:10, 27 September 2020 (UTC)Meng Ying
• Classroom presentation for download: Powerpoint on the Emergence of Translation and Interpretation in Japan by 孟莹--Meng Ying (talk) 16:10, 27 September 2020 (UTC)Meng Ying

List of Topics for final exam papers in Translation Studies

Suggested topics for final exam papers (chapters of book on translation studies)

Each student needs to prepare one small topic for a 5-min. classroom presentation (with a fellow student, who writes a handout about it) and needs to find a topic for a chapter of a book on Translation Studies. Alternatively to the classroom presentation, the student can also assist the teacher by preparing class, sorting the wiki page etc.

Here is the link to the list: Topics in Translation Studies

Sample papers (you can find these papers also on the Webpage History of Translation Studies)

• A Comparative Study between Functional Equivalence Theory and Skopos Theory and My thoughts on the Two Theories
• An Analysis of the Book of Contemporary Translation Theories and Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications
• Comparative Study on Functional Equivalence Theory and Skopos Theroy
• Comparison of Derrida’s and Benjamin’s Translation View
• Impacts of Western Translation Theories on The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish
• On the Comparison between "Sublimation" an "Functonal Equivalence" Theories
• Study on Gladys’ Translation of The Border Town from the Perspective of Translation Aesthetics
• The Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Chinese-English Communication
• Translators' Views on Translation Influence Their Translation Behavior

Benefits

This course is registered as a "EU Expert" diploma supplement course. Collect 10 such courses during your study and you receive a certificate by the Jean Monnet Chair.