Module ITAL3121: ITALIAN TRANSLATION

Department: Modern Language and Cultures (Italian)

ITAL3121: ITALIAN TRANSLATION

Prerequisites

• Italian Language 2B (ITAL2031) OR Italian Language 2A (ITAL2111).

Corequisites

• Italian Language 4 (ITAL3021) OR Italian Language 4 following Year Abroad (ITAL3091).

Excluded Combination of Modules

• Students may take up to a total of three Translation/Interpreting modules in MLAC, but no more than two translation modules, selected from Translation Theory (MELA3111), Spanish Translation (SPAN3131), Italian Translation (ITAL3121), French Translation (FREN3051), German Interpreting (GERM3041), French Interpreting (FREN3331) and Russian Translating and Interpreting (RUSS3381). Students may NOT take both French Interpreting (FREN3331) and German Interpreting (GERM3041).

Aims

• This module familiarises the students with the most important translation theories and introduces the essential tanslation strategies that enable a translator to work on a wide variety of prose texts. Building on the essentials of translation practice, the module will introduce students to a set of accepted Applied Translation Studies methodologies. The module aims to enable students to distinguish translation problems of linguistic, stylistic or cultural origins from difficulties that may be caused by a translator's imprecise use of strategies, limited knowledge of the source language, or other linguistic interferences. The students will be familiarised with cultural shifts, registers, and other distinctive elements of writing in Italian so as to gain the necessary confidence to render them into appropriate English.

Content

• Topic 1: Introduction: Translation problems and difficulties within the debate on 'modern literary Italian' and 'Standard Italian'.
• Topic 2: Registers, structures and short-stories.
• Topic 3: Literary tradition and international success.
• Topic 4: Essay writing.
• Topic 5: Journalistic writing 1: editorials.
• Topic 6: Journalistic writing 2: news reports, finance reports, news on new technologies, press agencies, and time constraints.
• Topic 7: Satire: the tradition of commedia dell'arte and the satire of the anti-power jester.
• Topic 8: Sampling the very contemporary 1.
• Topic 9: Sampling the very contemporary 2.

Learning Outcomes

• An understanding of general translation strategies.
• A specialised knowledge of the Italian language.

• Apply general translation strategies and specialised knowledge of Italian to the requirements of translating for an English-speaking public.
• Combine effective rendering and creativity in finding appropriate solutions to the Italian of the source text in the use of English as target language.
• Demonstrate a high level of competence in recognising the meaning and the registers of texts in a variety of genres and prose types in current Italian prose.
• Demonstrate proficiency in the use of strategies and procedures to reproduce the effects of the source text.
• Show understanding of registers and cultural shifts in the source text.
• Render shifts and cultural gaps with adequate procedures and in appropriate English, according to standards accepted within the field of contemporary translation studies.

• Identify, analyse and explain complex linguistic problems orally and in writing.
• Identify, define, and carry out written translations to specific requirements and to a deadline.
• Work independently to complete, to a deadline, accurate written texts and a report on a project.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The course will consist of lectures that introduce translation theories relevant to professional translation work, and of seminars in which students will present, discuss and evaluate various problems in translation. The theoretical lectures will be taught primarily in English, so as to contribute to creating the foundations of the students' knowledge base of the discipline. The lectures of text and translation analysis will be mostly in Italian. Discussion of translations and presentations of translation portfolio will be in Italian, so as to increase the students' familiarity with the source language in use and improve their writing skills related to writing a report on a specific task.
• A weekly programme of translations will encourage students to practice the theoretical prescriptive and non-prescriptive strategies discussed and reinforce their knowledge base.
• The seminars will improve their skills of analysis, argumentation, and presentation. Students will work on a translation portfolio including 4 translations selected out of the 8 topics discussed that will enhance the students' proficiency of the language. Under the guidance of the tutor, the students will develop their own decision-making processes; this will not only assist them in establishing independent solutions to translation problems, but also their critical skills will develop by their regular critical reviewing of the work they have prepared over the course of the module for their individual portfolios. Feedback on portfolio translations will be given weekly both orally and in writing and will allow students to review their translation solutions and ponder their selection of translations for the portfolio.
• Exam translation will simulate translation of texts in working conditions.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

4 translations from Italian into English of approximately 500 words.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University