Cultural Awareness through Translation 3301-L3PA-CAT
The course is part of the practical English programme organized for third year students. It is meant for those who would like to learn about the role and significance of cultural awareness in the translation process, and also, through practical translation, to strengthen their own awareness as regards similarities and differences between the English and Polish cultural contexts. The course centers around the issues of translatability and translation equivalence in relation to culturally marked elements appearing in written texts of various kind. Its aim is to let the participants decide for themselves about the degree of difficulty involved in rendering a range of culture-specific items, concepts and situations across the two languages, and about the most feasible translation strategies and techniques to be employed to deal with those elements in the process of translation. The students will be presented with a varied selection of source texts containing cultural elements, written both in English and in Polish, and asked to translate them into the other language, preceded and followed by a discussion concerning the loss and/or gain of meaning and connotation, and the shift concerning respective reader reactions as results of the translation. Focus will be given to the existence of many possible ways of solving one and the same translation problem, depending on the kind of element in question, the context, the type and purpose of the text, the intention of the source author and that of the translator, and the characteristics of the target reader, thus emphasizing the nature of translation as a decision-making process. The activities will also stress both the vitality of treating the text to be translated as a whole, and the fact that texts are usually embedded in the source culture even if they lack overt traces of cultural markedness. Additionally, the classes will attempt to address the issue of dealing with target culture and third culture elements present in source texts.
Requirements: 1) attendance and active participation in class activities, 2) satisfactory completion of both home and in-class assignments. The final grade will be given on the basis of the results of all the work done by the participants throughout the course, both in class and at home.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Term 2025Z: | Term 2024Z: | Term 2025L: |
Learning outcomes
For the English Studies - linguistics programme:
Knowledge: the graduate has in-depth familiarity with
K_W08 advanced structures, lexis and conventions of spoken and written English
Abilities: the graduate is able to
K_U08 use structures, lexis and language conventions appropriate to the communicative situation (e.g. holding a public debate, giving an academic presentation, etc.) in spoken and written English at the minimum level C1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
Social competences: the graduate is ready to
K_K01 critically appraise their knowledge and content obtained from various sources
For the English Studies - literature and culture programme:
Knowledge: the graduate has in-depth familiarity with
K_W07 advanced structures, lexis and conventions of spoken and written English
Abilities: the graduate is able to
K_U07 use structures, lexis and language conventions appropriate to the communicative situation (e.g. holding a public debate, giving an academic presentation, etc.) in spoken and written English at the minimum level C1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
Social competences: the graduate is ready to
K_K01 critically appraise their knowledge and content obtained from various sources
Assessment criteria
The student's performance is assessed on the basis of the following: attentance and active participation in in-class activities, the quality of 4-5 home assignments (translations from English into Polish and vice-versa) and of the in-class translation (usually the last but one class in the semester)
The retake consists in translating new extra texts equal in number to the translations the students failed to submit and/or for which s/he received negative grades. The submitted translations must obtain positive grades.
Two or three (to be determined by a specific group teacher) formally justified absences are allowed.
Bibliography
Baker, Mona (1992) In Other Words. A Coursebook on Translation, London / New York: Routledge.
Baker, Mona ed. (1998) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, London / New York: Routledge.
Bassnett, Susan (2002) Translation Studies, 3rd ed. London / New York: Routledge.
Hatim, Basil - Jeremy Munday (2004) Translation. An advanced resourcebook, London / New York: Routledge.
Hejwowski, Krzysztof (2007) Kognitywno-komunikacyjna teoria przekładu, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Korzeniowska, Aniela (1998) Explorations in Polish-English Mistranslation Problems, Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
Korzeniowska, Aniela - Piotr Kuhiwczak (2005) Successful Polish-English Translation. Tricks of the Trade, 3rd ed. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Lefevere, André ed. (1992) Translation / History / Culture. A Sourcebook, London / New York: Routledge.
Newmark, Peter (1981) Approaches to Translation, Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Newmark, Peter (1988) A Textbook of Translation, Harlow: Longman.
Shuttleworth, Mark - Moira Cowie (1997) Dictionary of Translation Studies, Manchester: St Jerome Publishing.
Venuti, Lawrence ed. (2000) The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge.
Wojtasiewicz, Olgierd (1996) Wstęp do teorii tłumaczenia, 2nd ed. Warszawa: TEPIS.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: