Culture and Translation

Course Coordinator: Dr Kelly Chan, BA, MA (City U of HK); PhD (Edinburgh)

Course Developer: Prof John Minford, HKMU

This higher-level course is suitable for advanced translation students who wish to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and process culturally-specific language occurring in Chinese and English-language source texts so as to achieve a more effective translation. It explores both Chinese and Western culture through the lens of translation.

Advisory prerequisite(s)
You are advised to have already studied TRAN A251C and TRAN A253C.

Aims
This course aims to introduce methods and strategies to better equip language and translation students to recognize and deal with culturally-specific terms and concepts as they occur in both Chinese and English language texts.

Contents
The course covers the following topics:

• Culture and translation
• Sacred scripture and translation
• Myths, stories and translation
• Ideas and translation
• Poetry and translation
• Translating fiction
• Politics and translation
• Translation and Hong Kong culture

Learning support
There will be ten two-hour tutorials, one three-hour day school and one three-hour supplementary lecture.

Assessment
There are four assignments and a final examination. Students are required to submit assignments via the Online Learning Environment (OLE).

Set book(s)
Shu, X C, Shen, Y, Xu, Y G, Zhang, X (eds) (2000) Cihai, Shanghai: Zhonghua Shuju.

Dent, S (ed.) (2012) Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, London: Cassell.