In this weekend-intensive course, we will study some of the key theoretical concepts of translation studies (such as Interlingual vs. Intralingual translation, Free vs. Literal translation, Foreignization vs. Domestication, Translatability vs. Untranslatability, Politics and ethics of translation, Translingualism, etc) and discuss how they are applied in the practice of translation.
In each session, we will start by introducing these topics, then look at examples, and end by producing our own translations implementing them. Following these conversations and analyzing examples, writers/translators will be able to see how the fundamentals of translation studies, as well as each project’s goal and individual choices can impact the outcome of the translation.
*If you’re enrolling in two or more Don’t Translate Alone classes, email us at classes@catapult.co and we’ll send you a coupon for 15% off each DTA class!
Class meetings will be held over video chat, using Zoom accessed from your private class page. While you can use Zoom from your browser, we recommend downloading the desktop client so you have access to all platform features.
COURSE TAKEAWAYS:
- Familiarity with some central translation studies concepts
- Studying examples in which these concepts are implemented and how they affect the work of translators
- Working on individual pieces using the discussed topics
- 10% discount on all future Catapult classes
COURSE EXPECTATIONS:
- Knowledge of another language besides English is preferred but is not mandatory for participation in the course
- Participants are expected to have read the theoretical essays (if any, provided as pdf) before each session
- Participants are expected to take part in class conversations
- Participants are expected to work during class time as well as in response to the offered prompts to see how these theories work in action and be able to offer insights from their own work
- Participants will receive brief verbal feedback from the instructor and other participants in class
COURSE SKELETON:
Day One: Discussion of translation studies key concepts, analysis of examples, working on individual pieces implementing these concepts
Day Two: Discussion of translation studies key concepts, analysis of examples, working on individual pieces implementing these concepts
Poupeh Missaghi is a creative writer, scholar, editor, and translator (between English and Persian). Her debut novel trans(re)lating house one was published in 2020 (Coffee House Press) and her translation of Nasim Marashi’s novel I’ll Be Strong for You in 2021 (Astra House). She has a PhD in English and Literary Arts from the University of Denver; an MA in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; and an MA in Translation Studies and a BA in Translation Practice from Azad University, Tehran. She has taught at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, City University of New York, and Pacific Northwest College of Arts, Portland, OR. She works in prose—innovative and hybrid prose, nonfiction, and fiction—as well as translation, and is currently an assistant professor at the English Department of the University of Denver.
“Poupeh Missaghi’s TRANS(RE)LATING HOUSE ONE, through a fascinating synthesis of poetic form and rhetorical voice, strikingly theorizes our incessant need to narrate death and ‘to translate loss into language,’ while affirming those who memorialize, who make art, who witness. TRANS(RE)LATING HOUSE ONE documents disappearance. It documents state murders. It documents the disappearance of art, culture, and documentation itself. These urgent narratives make real what the cold facts cannot contain: how the corpses were once bodies that were loved, how they loved others, how they were tortured, how the authorities do all that they can to not name the missing, to conceal the histories, and to prevent society from understanding, grieving, and healing. TRANS(RE)LATING HOUSE ONE resonates with recent masterworks about disappearance, such as Sara Uribe’s ANTIGONA GONZALEZ or Patricio Guzmán’s NOSTALGIA FOR THE NIGHT, where the search to find the disappeared becomes inseparable from how we understand the hemisphere, the nation, and even the universe itself. This is a rare and remarkable book.”
“In this beautiful and brave book, art, love, death, and shards of the city accrete into a crucial archive of unbearable loss, but also of rich, fierce life. Echoing the probing explorations of Edmond Jabès, Anna Akhmatova and Charlotte Delbo, but with concerns and methods all her own, Poupeh Missaghi has fashioned a novel that bears clear-eyed witness and calls into question the act of witnessing, that beautifully renders a time and a place and interrogates whether such an endeavor is possible at all. The process of making and unmaking mirrors the world of missing art and bodies at the book’s center. This is important work. I hope Missaghi’s stunning debut finds its way into many hands.”
“Poupeh Missaghi is so keenly attuned to the frequencies of city life that reading her novel of Tehran felt like a revelation. In fragments layered over one another, moments are extended, lives are resurrected, lovers meet, and many questions are asked. Which of the dead do we honor and why? Whose stories do we listen to, and why do we listen to them, and are we ever really listening? trans(re)lating house one is a searching, brilliant novel completely unlike anything I’ve ever read.”
“This is the second event I've attended that was led by Poupeh, and both times she introduced multiple perspectives of the topic, encouraging participants to look at writing from a historic, layered, perspective. In both sessions with Poupeh, I took pages of notes because everything she and the other participants said was illuminating. She invited participants to engage throughout the session, so it was less of a lecture and more of a living breathing class with speakers building off of each other and responding to each other. ... I left the session wishing it could be an ongoing class and also having dozens of ideas for writing. Poupeh is one of those instructors/speakers who brings out nuanced and thoughtful comments from the participants. I'd love to take more classes with her, especially a longer generative writing class.”
“Every course I've taken from Poupeh, including this one, elevates, lifts and "calls" to participants, taking us to depths personally (or, if I may, "soul"-fully) while approaching the challenges of craft, enlightening while exhorting. Rare combination, and does so generously, invitingly, and encouragingly. I love, too, that her instruction does not pull punches, that the work demands everything of us -- not just a compartmentalized "writer side"--all while revealing that there's a "true" part of us lying in wait to meet these challenges. Brings a great presence to the instruction space ... No matter the subject, I always come away more seriously, imaginatively, and playfully occupying my humanity.”
“I just wanted to tell you how much I loved your class. The information and sources were great; but your insights were fabulous. I was so excited about the concepts you introduced, and found myself full of questions and desires for more. I so appreciate you taking the time to introduce so many concepts...Thank you.”
