Major and Minor

This seminar addresses theoretical and practical aspects of literary translation, underscoring translation as both a distinctive form of creative writing and a demonstration of cross-cultural and linguistic competencies. Coursework includes regular literary translation, theoretical and historical readings, peer review, and a substantial final project and writing portfolio.

The influence of Lucretius’ de Rerum Natura, an epic in six books celebrating Epicurean philosophy in poetry of spectacular beauty, cannot be overstated. His poetry imbued the verse of the Augustan poets, especially Virgil and Horace; there is nothing else like it in Latin. In addition to extensive excerpts, we will read the entire poem in translation, and consider the poem both in its contemporary context and its afterlife.   

In his essay, “What is Enlightenment,” Foucault asks us to resist “the blackmail of the Enlightenment” - the widespread notion that we must take a side. Should we defend the Enlightenment as the birth of modern Western culture that bequeathed a legacy of liberty, human rights, democracy, and human progress, or condemn it as a pernicious era that gave rise to scientific racism and other dehumanizing ideas and structures?