The Origins of Culture: Translation and Self-Translation in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Beyond.

Catalog description

What happens when the translator is also the author of a work? Such instances occupy us in this course, which is devoted to the role of (self-)translation in the creation of Yiddish and Hebrew literatures. In self-translation, everything is blurred: what is the difference between translation and writing? What is the origin of a text, of a culture? How can one conceptualize ''fidelity to the original''? And what motivates someone to write their work in more than one language? Through theories of translation, world literature, and comparative literature, we will try to understand the unique type of creation self-translation produces.