Reading & Composition

Imagine that you are reading a book and, at some point in the story, you learn that what you are reading is actually the translation of a work written in an ancient language by an author from a faraway land. How would this affect your relation to the book? Would you now consider the story more interesting and valuable? Or would you start suspecting that the translator may have made changes and additions to the story? Would you be worried—or perhaps excited—about the possibility that the text may have alternative interpretations? Well-known Renaissance authors, such as François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes, liked to play this game with their readers. They playfully presented their books as translations, and they used specific translation strategies to write some passages in their stories, giving several versions of some words, or even of a whole episode, and inviting readers to laugh at the confusion and interruptions this generated. However, even as they laughed at translation, they were also inviting readers to imagine a text in which multiple interpretations and cultural points of view could coexist.

In this class we will accept their invitation, in order to ask ourselves about some of the assumptions we make when we read a story. We will also look at the ways in which later authors have played this game. Our analysis will focus on how, by writing their stories as if they were translating, these authors ask us to become more critical readers of literary texts.

This is a reading- and writing-intensive course in which students will acquire practice in the different stages of the writing process. Starting with in-class writing exercises, drafts, and revisions, they will gradually work towards the completion of a final research paper.