MA Literary Translation (Part Time)

Key details

MA LITERARY TRANSLATION (PART TIME)

Start Year

2023

Attendance

Part Time

Award

Degree of Master of Arts

Duration (years)

What do Karl Ove Knausgård, Valeria Luiselli and Clarice Lispector have in common with Jo Nesbø, Georg Trakl and Yoko Tawada? They’ve all been translated into English by graduates from the MA Literary Translation at UEA!

On this course, you’ll focus exclusively on literary translation, combining translation practice with translation theory. You’ll gain the academic qualification needed for a career as a professional translator, as well as laying the foundation for further academic research.

We have been training literary translators for nearly 30 years. Our students have gone on to become award-winning translators, writers, editors and academics.

The course is supported by the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT).

About

On this course, you’ll combine a strong practical focus with serious reflection on stylistic, cultural and theoretical questions.

At its heart is a lively programme of literary translation workshops taught by leading practitioners in the field.

Many of our students go on to become published translators, while others work in publishing or the media. Alternatively, the MA Literary Translation will provide you with a very good basis for PhD study, should you choose to take your studies further. You’ll also benefit from our annual programme of readings, visits and residencies from writers and translators.

Throughout the course, you’ll have the chance to build your understanding of the professional aspects of translation. In the three main modules that make up the course – and in special workshops with professional translators as well as in the BCLT Summer School – you will have plenty of opportunities to network and learn more about what being a translator involves.

You may also have the opportunity to join the editing team for our journal, Norwich Papers, or be asked to contribute a translation to our anthology.

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Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the courses listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the regular review of course programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes, there will normally be prior consultation of students and others. Changes may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery of programmes, courses and other services, to discontinue programmes, courses and other services and to merge or combine programmes or courses. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will inform students.

Assessment for Year 1

Throughout the MA, your modules will be assessed by an essay or project work. The projects may involve working on a translation with commentary.

In the first year, you’ll take two modules:

Translation Theory and History (Semester 1): the assessment will be an essay (5,000 words)

Process and Product in Translation (Semester 2): project (5,000 words)

Structure

Your course will be framed by three core modules: Translation Theory and History, Case Studies, and Process and Product in Translation.

In the first semester of your first year, you’ll take the Translation Theory and History module in which you’ll gain a firm grounding in the history and theory of literary translation. In the second semester, the Process and Product in Translation module will teach you how to approach translation from a more experimental angle. Considering writing, rewriting and textual intervention, you will explore process not only as it relates to doing a translation, but as something that may be incorporated into the text itself.

Teaching and Learning

You’ll benefit from a distinguished and experienced team of lecturers on this course.

In the first semester of your first year, you’ll take the core module Translation Theory and History and, in the second semester, the core module Process and Product in Translation.

Staff members who have taught these modules include:

Duncan Large, who specialises in translation and translation studies (especially historical translation theory), comparative literature (especially Anglo-German literary relations), and history of thought in the German-speaking world (especially Friedrich Nietzsche and French Nietzsche interpretation).

Cecilia Rossi, whose expertise lies in literary translation (especially poetry translation), Latin American literature (especially poetry), literary translation and creativity (theoretical, pedagogical and practical applications), the writer’s archive and the literary translator, and literary translation and cultural memory.

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Open Days

Assessment for Year 2

In the second year, you’ll take the following core module:

Case Studies (Semester 1): essay or project (5,000 words)

For optional modules, assessment will vary slightly with each module.

You will also write a 15,000–20,000-word dissertation, which will be either a translation with commentary or a critical essay. You will begin work on your dissertation, with the guidance of a supervisor, in the spring of your second year, and you’ll hand it in at the beginning of September.

Structure

In the first semester of your second year, you’ll take the Case Studies module, in which you’ll examine translation across various genres and consider the ways texts are disseminated across different cultures. This module has a creative-critical format, giving you the opportunity to analyse translations closely and practise your own translation skills. In your second semester, you’ll be able to tailor your studies to your interests by choosing an optional module from the exciting list of modules offered across the MA programmes of the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing.

In this semester, you’ll also assemble a dossier of your translations for submission to a tutor, who will be an expert in the source or target language of your choice. Your practical translation workshops will help you prepare for your dissertation, which can be either a critical project or a translation with commentary.

Teaching and Learning

In the first semester of the second year, you will be taking the Case Studies module convened by B.J. Epstein, a specialist in children’s literature, LGBTQ studies and literature, comics and graphic novels, Holocaust literature, and Scandinavian literature, figurative language and crime fiction.

In the second semester, you will take your optional module (see above).

You will also be taking the year-long Literary Translation Research and Methodology Training Seminar, which offers you an exciting series of translation workshops taught by leading translators and staff, such as Thomas Boll, a specialist in the theory and practice of translation, the Latin American, European and Anglo-American avant-garde, twentieth-century Spanish American fiction, contemporary poetry in Spanish and English, Mexican history and culture, and archives.

Independent study

Your dissertation will be supervised by one of the tutors above, who will guide you through a project that combines translation and commentary or a sustained critical project on some aspect of Literary Translation.

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Open Days

This is the first year of your taught Masters programme.

Assessment for Year 1

Throughout the MA, your modules will be assessed by an essay or project work. The projects may involve working on a translation with commentary.

In the first year, you’ll take two modules:

Translation Theory and History (Semester 1): the assessment will be an essay (5,000 words)

Process and Product in Translation (Semester 2): project (5,000 words)

Compulsory Modules

TRANSLATION THEORY AND HISTORY

Code LDCE7008A

Credits 20

You’ll explore key issues in the history of the theory and practice of translation in the West. You’ll explore the changes in the cultural status of translation from ancient times to the present, analysing the ways in which translations have contributed to the reception of texts, and focusing on some of the political, theological and philosophical debates which translations have provoked. In the second half of the module you’ll focus on a range of contemporary debates in translation studies. You’re encouraged to explore your own theoretical interests and present your findings in class. There is no foreign language requirement, and all materials are read in English.

PROCESS AND PRODUCT IN TRANSLATION

Code LDCE7014B

Credits 20

Throughout this module you will produce translations in conditions that encourage and facilitate reflection on the process and product of translation. You will be encouraged to think experimentally, not only about the forms a finished translation might take, but also about the ways in which process might be incorporated into the translation. The module has a workshop format and culminates in a series of presentations of the projects on which students have chosen to work. A series of sessions devoted to the discussion and hands-on tackling of practical problems connected with translation and the projects ahead, precede the presentations. One class meeting will take place at the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts and another at the Special Collections of the UEA Library. Throughout the semester you will be encouraged to discuss a variety of texts, both critical and creative, that help illuminate the process and product of literary translation. You will also be invited to circulate your own bibliographies (developed in relation to in-class presentations as well as the main project) to other members of the class, and to bring to our attention any text(s) you encounter that may be of particular relevance. Your final project will engage with the process of producing literary translation, and will comprise a scholarly discussion thereof illustrated by your own translations of a more or less experimental nature. The in-process project will be presented to the class for discussion and feedback in the second part of the semester.

September 2023 opportunities. Discover more

Open Days

Important Information

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring and review of modules. Where this activity leads to significant change to a programme and modules, the University will endeavour to consult with affected students. The University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. Availability of optional modules may be restricted owing to timetabling, lack of demand, or limited places. Where this is the case, you will be asked to make alternative module choices and you will be supported during this process.

This is the second year of your taught Masters programme.

Assessment for Year 2

In the second year, you’ll take the following core module:

Case Studies (Semester 1): essay or project (5,000 words)

For optional modules, assessment will vary slightly with each module.

Compulsory Modules

LITERARY TRANSLATION RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY TRAINING SEMINAR

Code LDCE7017Y

Credits 10

How does the work of the literary translator differ from that of the original writer? What is editing and what is the role of the editor? How do we write a reader's report? These are some of the questions that we’ll be addressing throughout the module, which is a combined research methodologies and workshop module. For the second, practical element of the module, you’ll be taking part in a series of workshops led by practising translators. These will be on different aspects of translation, and will involve various genres. There is generally no preparation required for the workshops, but you’ll be asked to find out as much as possible in advance about the workshop-holder's background and work. During the workshops you’ll undertake translation exercises and participate in class discussion. Some workshops will be on literary topics, but some will also deal with other issues, such as approaching a publisher, which will help you develop your professional competence as a literary translator. The workshop programme will be distributed at the start of each semester and will be advertised on the British Centre for Literary Translation website. The methodologies component of the module will address aspects of the development of independent dissertation work. You’ll be assessed by a pass/fail viva exam in early June (the date will be given in the course of the autumn semester).

DISSERTATION - LITERARY TRANSLATION

Code LDCE7016X

Credits 90

You will begin work on your dissertation at the end of the 2nd teaching semester if you are a full-time student, or earlier if part-time. Dissertations may take the form of either (i) a critical essay about an aspect of translation or (ii) a translation with critical discussion. The choice of research topic for the dissertation is made by the students in consultation with their course convenor. Supervision normally functions on the basis of one contact hour with the supervisor every three weeks throughout the summer.

CASE STUDIES

Code LDCE7020A

Credits 20

For this module you’ll look at ways in which specific authors/works/genres pass into other cultures through translation. We will look at several genres and for each one, we will analyse the type, identify challenges in translating it, discuss strategies, and examine examples of works in that style, using close textual analysis to see how translators can tackle problems of linguistic, stylistic, and cultural difference. We will then practise translating texts from that genre. The course is both critical and creative. Genres may include comics, children’s literature, drama, humour or crime, among others.

Optional A Modules

(20 credits)

ADAPTATION AND INTERPRETATION

Code LDCC7010B

Credits 20

Critical reading and creative writing collide when adapting a text for performance in another medium. The very process forces a string of questions: Is it possible to separate a story from its expression? What, if any, are the obligations owed to the source text? Must the adaptation always be ‘secondary’? Can we define a ‘good’ adaptation? The questions only grow more interesting if we consider changes in reception and more complex when we alter era or cultural setting. This module focuses on key questions in dramatic adaptation, establishing a foundation in basic theory and then focusing on readings of source works and screenings or performances of adaptations. Seminar discussions probe the choices offered by original texts and explore the possibilities and limitations inherent in different forms. In the later sessions, you will have the opportunity to workshop an adaptation for a final project. Writers are expected to produce scripts, while theatre directors will have to option to produce a script or a performance. The module is a must for scriptwriters, but no prior scriptwriting experience is necessary as the seminars teach the basic techniques of dramatic writing. Class workshop will further develop skills in the specific dramatic forms.

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Code LDCC7020B

Credits 20

Various attempts at (sub-)categorising contemporary fiction interpret it as a departure from previous aesthetics or a response to political or historical events or movements: post-modern; post-colonial; post-feminist; post-communist; post-9/11; post-millenial; post-national; even post-post-modern etc. As a prefix, “post-“ suggests supersedence rather than novelty; at worst it is merely an aspirational syllable. Its proliferation co-exists with more conventional attempts at temporal taxonomy such as monographs and student guides dedicated to specific decades. One way of reading “post”-something-or-other is to think of it as an engagement with, and critical reassessment of, the past it so assiduously hyphenates: its literary conventions, cultural heritage, philosophical traditions, political ideologies, and - paradoxically - its long shadows way beyond the present moment. The manifestations of these engagements and reassessments can be rather contradictory. The memory boom of the 1990s put paid to claims about “the end of history” or skepticism over Grand Narratives. The renewed popularity of the (neo)historical novel and period drama also chafes against the recent turn towards trauma studies. The effects of new market forces, media and digital technology on the form of writing and the construction of the “author” could also be seen as one of the legacies of modernism. A focus on mindfulness, ethics and affect sits uneasily alongside the necessity for art to provoke and push boundaries. Expressions of the regional contend with an increasing awareness of transnational subjects, diasporic identities and global issues, and some of the most interesting writing today comes from ‘the East’ or writers with hybrid origins and hyphenated identities. Can fiction still be formally inventive and how might it enter into dialogue with other art forms (photography, sculpture, painting, cinema)? In the light of the critical and commercial success of ‘creative non-fiction’ we might also want to ask precisely how narrative can perforate disciplinary and generic categories. On this module we will attempt to construct a (naturally provisional, selective and incomplete) genealogy of the contemporary by examining some of the discernible trends and tensions of relatively recent writing. Much of this writing will be Anglophone but you should be prepared for adventures in reading translations. We will also have to opportunity do some work in UEA’s Archive of Contemporary Literature: what and who is being archived according to which criteria, and what do archivists, academics and critics consider archival about the contemporary?

THE NON FICTION NOVEL

Code LDCC7022B

Credits 20

Some of the most exciting and innovative fiction of the moment is in fact a hybrid form of fiction, borrowing subject matter and techniques from traditionally non-fiction modes such as memoir, criticism, journalism, reportage and life-writing. These novels depart from the usual concerns with character, realistic dialogue and plot to focus on voice, place, and time, employing strategies of literary craft to be formally innovative. This course looks at original non-fiction and also at contemporary ‘realist’ novels which are pushing boundaries and gaining attention in the wider literary culture. We will study the forms, techniques and thematics of both non-fiction and fiction, with an aim to experimenting with and improving students' writing in both forms. Some writing in class and between classes will be required. The second half of the module will include workshopping student work-in-progress. This is a practice-based module taught by a novelist and non-fiction writer and aimed primarily at students on the creative writing strands but is also open to students studying for critical MAs.

THE POETICS OF PLACE

Code LDCC7023B

Credits 20

This module will allow you to explore innovative and experimental forms of place writing, from the critical and theoretical to the literary and artistic. You’ll study critical and theoretical approaches such as (though this may be subject to small changes each year) psychogeography, ecocriticism, critical heritage studies, deep mapping, animal studies, and literary activism. At the same time, you’ll consider a number of original works of literature from recent years, thinking carefully about the relationship between theory, method and form. Some of the authors that you’ll consider (though this may be subject to small changes each year) are: Richard Mabey, Alice Oswald, W.G. Sebald, R.F. Langley, Italo Calvino, Kei Miller, Sue Clifford and Angela King, Tim Robinson, Paul Farley, Kathleen Jamie, Iain Sinclair, and J.A Baker. During the module, you’ll explore some of the following questions: how have different ways of 'framing' place influenced the sense of cultural identity associated with that place? What role might literature play in this? How might recent developments in theory and practice inform your own methods of place writing? How might they encourage you to experiment with new methods? What surprising literary forms might this lead to? And finally, what new ideas might this prompt about publication, exhibition and public engagement? On this module, you’ll not only gain a strong foundation in debates concerning literature's relationship to the environment, to heritage, and to ideas of community but you’ll engage with these debates following your own line of inquiry, and/or through your own developing practice, in ways that will equip you to take on similar projects after the MA as well.

EAST ANGLIAN LITERATURE

Code LDCE7002B

Credits 20

Throughout the medieval and Early-Modern periods Norwich was one of England’s most important cities – probably second only to London – and East Anglia one of the country’s culturally liveliest and richest areas. In this module you will explore the literature of these periods in its material contexts (the region’s prosperity and power may still be seen in its architecture and in the rich holdings of its libraries and museums) and ask whether there was a specifically East Anglian cultural tradition. You will explore East Anglia’s rich dramatic traditions, its devotional literature and practices (in orthodox forms and in those that brush against the heterodox), and, insistently, the manner in which its literature participates in its broader social and cultural worlds. This module may particularly appeal to you if you have an interest in the cultural traditions of Norwich and East Anglia or, more generally, in the literature of place.

CREATIVE-CRITICAL WRITING

Code LDCE7004B

Credits 20

Too often, academic critical writing seems to bring pre-packaged language to bear on works whose whole essence and aim is to change the ways in which we see and describe our world. And too often such writing fails to acknowledge the ways in which it itself participates in the literary ‘creativity’ it is also about. How, then, to write criticism? Criticism which responds inventively to the literature which it analyses? Criticism which registers, in its own form, language, method and the ways in which it has been transformed by the work(s) of art it encounters? Criticism which recognises that it cannot rest on received concepts and categories? In this module you’ll explore these questions. Over the course of the semester we'll read, ponder and experiment with a broad range of possible ways of practising creative-criticism, including the essay form, auto-commentary, conceptual writing, inventive ‘theoretical’ writing, and diaristic writing. Your assessed work for the module will be in two parts: a piece of creative-critical writing of your own and a critical reflection on a particular aspect of the theory and practice of creative criticism.

LUDIC LITERATURE

Code LDCE7006B

Credits 20

The aim of this mixed creative-critical module is twofold: both to explore together some of the major works of playful or ‘ludic’ modern literature across various languages, and to develop our appreciation of style and form by practising various forms of writing that are themselves ludic: creative imitation, parody, transposition from one style and form to another, creative translation. In play, we will find, the boundary between the ‘creative’ and the ‘critical’ becomes unclear. The module is generally taken by a mix of students from the various critical and creative writing MAs, as well as by students in Literature and Philosophy. On the ‘critical’ side, the module traces the evolution of leading postmodernist styles and themes, especially ludic ones, back to their origins in Dostoevsky, Joyce, Kafka, Borges, and Nabokov. Using these enormously influential authors as a starting point, we read a range of ludic authors, passing back and forth between languages, nations, and genres. Each week we usually pair two authors. In previous years we have studied, for example, Dostoevsky against Nabokov, Kafka against Borges, Perec against Queneau and Calvino, Carter against Coover, Muldoon against Heaney, Pynchon against Barthelme, and Ashbery against Mallarmé. There is also a strong philosophical element of the module, you will be encouraged to explore the philosophical theory of aesthetic play in Kant, Schiller, and Nietzsche, and later in Huizinga and Derrida. On the ‘creative’ side in previous years we have, for example, read Kafka’s short tales against Borges’s re-writings of them, tried to write like Kafka or Borges, turned a Kafka story into a Dostoevsky paragraph or a Nabokov poem, explored the various translations of these authors, and played with re-translating them. We have taken a story by Coover and re-written it as a sestina, two kinds of sonnet, and a villanelle. In doing all this, we are asking fundamental questions not only about play but also about style and form, how they shape meaning and make possible certain kinds of writing and thinking. We are also returning to the way in which literature was studied, and creative writing engendered, before the invention of professional literary criticism and creative writing courses in the twentieth century. All students will be encouraged to try their hand at parodying and imitating the texts we are studying, though this is not compulsory. Final assessment can take the form of a 5000 word critical essay or of a combination of a creative piece and a critical essay, to make up 5000 words.

THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE, 1500-1620

Code LDCE7011B

Credits 20

This module sets out to understand why and how humanism -- the advocacy of the study of the humanities, the Greek and Roman classics -- gave birth to the astonishing outpouring of literature that we call the Renaissance. We will situate English Renaissance literature within the wider context of the humanist literature of France, the Netherlands, and Italy. Questions we consider include: how did the rediscovery of classical texts generate new possibilities for literary writers? How did humanists understand the nature of poetic creation? How did their advocacy of rhetoric create new ways for writers to engage with public life? And what happened when humanists turned philological methods upon the most sacred text of their culture: the bible? Our work will focus on the writings of Thomas More, Desiderius Erasmus, and Michel de Montaigne, but there will be opportunities to read far more widely in the Renaissance literature of the period. Foreign language texts are all read in translation. The might be of interest to anyone who wishes to gain an in-depth understanding of one of the most dazzling periods of European literary history.

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Important Information

Entry Requirements

Degree classification

Bachelors (Hons) degree - 2.1 or equivalent

Degree subject

Literature or Related Subject Preferred

Additional entry requirements

Candidates will be required to submit a translation of a short story, poem or literary text with the source text of no more than 5 pages with their application.

Students for whom english is a foreign language

Our usual entry requirements are as follows:

IELTS: 7.0 (minimum 7.0 in writing and speaking, and 6.0 in reading and listening)
PTE (Pearson): 76 (minimum 76 in writing and speaking, and 64 in reading and listening)

Test dates should be within two years of the course start date.

Other tests, including Cambridge English exams and the Trinity Integrated Skills in English are also accepted by the university. The full list of accepted tests can be found here: Accepted English Language Tests

INTO UEA run pre-sessional courses which can be taken prior to the start of your course. For further information and to see if you qualify please contact intopre-sessional@uea.ac.uk