“Literature is news that stays NEWS”: In this course we will test Ezra Pound’s dictum by examining the history, theory, and practice of translation of classical texts. Are ancient texts still new? What is translation’s role in the formation and transmission of culture? To what ideological uses has antiquity been put? What is lost in translation and what may be gained? Bringing together readings from linguistics, literary criticism, and philosophy, we will focus on case studies from ancient languages across different genres and in different media and pay special attention to literary translations and adaptations in the 20th and 21st centuries.
