Course Syllabus

Postcolonial Translation
Instructor: Sara Nazockdast

Sara.nazockdast@gmail .com

Course Description:
With the constant growth of translation, people have become constant readers of each other
and the focus in translation studies has shifted from the “whatness” of translation to its use as
a cultural product that brings two cultures to a reciprocal discourse. As language is the most
important instrument in colonization, translation has played an essential role in establishing the
hegemonic requirements. This course is divided into two section: the theoretical framework;
close study and practical application of the theoretical discussions. Regarding the theoretical
share of the course, certain questions are pursued: how does the dominant culture and
language of the colonizer translate the colonized; how is translation used in the colonial and
postcolonial cultures; how is translation a complicit in the colonial project; and finally, how
does the postcolonial identity expresses itself in translation. In the attempt to get a practical
grasp, translations from the colonial and postcolonial eras are studied with a focus on the
applications of the delineations of the theoretical discussions.

Class Requirements:
1. Class assignments (8 points).
2. Class Preparation (2 points).

Policies:
 Absences: If a student has the equivalence of four weeks of unofficial absences in a
course in which he/she is currently enrolled, the instructor may drop the student with a
grade of “F.”
 Participation: Students are expected to participate in class discussions and come to
class having completed the assigned readings.
 Late work: Late works will not receive the complete grade.

Course Outline:
1. Introduction
2. What is Colonialism and Post colonialism
3. Edward Said and Orientalism as Translation
4. Venuti’s Notion of Invisibility of the Translator
5. Spivak’s Politics of Translation and Identity
6. Bhabha and the Third Space in Translation
7. Post-colonial Writing and Literary Translation
8. Composing the Other
9. Liberating Calibans
10. A.K. Ramanujan’s Theory and Practice of Translation

11. Interpretation as Possessive Love: Hélène Cixous, Clarice Lispector and the Ambivalence of
Fidelity
11. Translation and Literary History

Tentative Sources:
Post-Colonial Translation, Susan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi
Cultural Translation and Post-Colonial Poetry, Ashok Bery
Orientalism, Edward Said
Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said
Orientalism, A. L. Macfie
Language and Translation in Postcolonial Studies, Simona Bertacco