LITERARY TRANSLATION (CHINA)

The course belongs to the interdisciplinary educational activities related to the Master of Arts in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa. It provides students with the specific inter-cultural and professional skills for the profile of a literary translator, by stimulating their sensitivity towards language, literature and aesthetics. The translated texts will be drawn from the repertoire of modern literature in Chinese.

Students will learn how to select, read and interpret a literary text to be translated from Chinese into Italian. The text will be selected within the repertoire of modern literature in Chinese.
Students will be trained around the methods of analysis, understanding, comparison and translation of literary texts. The teacher will provide them with the tools for understanding and acting within the whole process of cultural negotiation with a publisher, taking into account the various roles acting in the process such as writers, translators, publishers, editors, agents etc.

The students should possess an excellent knowledge of the Italian language, and a good knowledge of modern Chinese language and literature.

During the course a literary text or a variety of literary texts in modern Chinese will be translated into Italian under the guide of the teacher, who will also lead them through the various phases of the production of a literary translation. From selecting the text, to the preparation of a "manuscript evaluation", to the reading phases, including translation analysis, translation writing and reviewing, up to the final submission.

Required:
Nicoletta Pesaro (a cura di), La traduzione del cinese. Riflessioni, strategie e tipologie testuali. Milano, Hoepli, 2023. (capitoli 1-2-3-4-5-7)

Recommended:
Franca Cavagnoli, La voce del testo. L'arte e il mestiere di tradurre, Milano, Feltrinelli 2012.
Paola Faini, Tradurre. Manuale teorico e pratico, Roma, Carocci, 2008.
Bruno, Osimo, Il manuale del traduttore, Milano, Hoepli, 2011.
Nicoletta, Pesaro (a cura di), The Ways of Translation, Constraints and Liberties of Translating Chinese, Venezia, Cafoscarina, 2013.

Dictionaries
Giorgio Casacchia and Bai Yukun, Dizionario Cinese-Italiano Venezia, Venezia, Cafoscarina, 2013.

The exam is based on the translation of a literary text from Chinese into Italian. In addition, students will be asked to answer a short question on the translational features of the text. Students are not allowed to use the internet during the exam. All kinds of dictionaries are allowed, including those on smartphones and tablets, provided that the SIM card is removed and airplane mode is switched on.
The translation will be evaluated based on:
- correctness on a morpho-syntactic level;
- appropriateness of style and register of the Italian;
- adoption of a translation strategy that is consistent with the nature of the text and the intended purpose, dominant, and model reader of the text;
- recognising the distinguished traits of the prototext and creativity in rendering them into the metatext.

Class teaching, discussions and seminars.

Italian

written