Session

The course will deal with the linguistic and semiotic aspects of describing literary source texts and explaining literary translation as well as with their teaching in the context of translator training.

In German-speaking countries, there are hardly any opportunities to study literary translation at university. Both practising and prospective literary translators still mainly proceed intuitively in their work. This is partly due to the fact that there is virtually no translation theory that makes it easier for translators to deal with literary source texts by explaining the special nature of these texts and the process of literary translation while providing practical guidelines. In my habilitation project, I have attempted to close this gap by developing a text analysis model for literary texts based on linguistic and semiotic aspects. The model can be used to create a translation standard for literary source texts with the aim of preserving their unique secondary structure. It can also serve the purposes of translation critique for existing literary translations. The model was tested with translation students at Innsbruck university.

During the course, we will follow a didactic approach to basic literary translation knowledge for translators, which has been proven to increase translators’ competence. On request, we can also discuss the possibilities and limitations of using machine tools in literary translation and practical aspects of the literary translator profession (in Austria and Germany).

In addition to the theoretical introductions to each level of the text model, we will deal with selected translation difficulties on the basis of texts from Austrian literature. We will analyse and develop translation standards for each text (without going into too much detail). Depending on the composition (language combinations and previous knowledge) of the group, we will also use parallel texts.

The course is aimed at prospective literary translators, teachers of literary translation, practising literary translators and anyone interested in literary translation (including people with no prior knowledge).