All world literature in English is translated literature. Teaching students to think about translation — rather than through it — transforms how they read. Here's how to bring translation theory into the classroom in accessible ways.
Key Concepts in Translation Theory
Walter Benjamin's "The Task of the Translator" (1923): Translation aims to express the innermost relationship between languages, not just carry meaning. A useful provocation for students. Foreignization vs. domestication (Lawrence Venuti): Should a translation feel foreign (forcing readers toward the source culture) or should it read fluently in the target language? Most publishing industry pressure is toward domestication. The translator's visibility: When Edith Grossman translated García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, she made different choices than Gregory Rabassa. Compare passages. Classroom exercise: Give students two different translations of the same poem (Neruda, Rilke, Hafez) and ask them to compare. They will immediately understand what translation involves.
Explore translated authors on Genesis of Literary.