This fall I am teaching a new Comparative Literature course at Oberlin College — a semester-long workshop on reviewing translated literature. My students read literary works in translation, analyze and interpret them, research them and then write about them, paying attention to how the translator’s voice shapes the text. Over the course of the semester they will write and workshop three review essays that increase in length and scope. We spent the first few weeks of the course reading and analyzing a wide range of reviews of translated literature. As a result, we articulated the following premises and principles to guide our reviewing practice:
- translation is not a dirty little secret reviewers often seem intent on concealing in parentheses or masking with meaningless adjectives;
- to address translation does not detract from the reviewer’s voice or argument;
- to identify a text as translated and name the translator can be done confidently and effectively; and,
- to discuss translation is to display confidence in one’s own close reading skills while also showing respect for both author and translator.
During the first few weeks of the course we also approached Izidora Angel’s translation from Bulgarian of Nataliya Deleva’s Four Minutes (Open Letter, 2021) through a series of scaffolded activities and assignments, gradually gaining an in-depth understanding of the novel first as a literary text, and then as a text in translation. We concluded our discussion of Four Minutes with Izidora Angel’s in-person visit. Students asked her questions and learned about specific challenges of translating Deleva’s novel. It was an inspiring conversation — Angel is a thoughtful, informed, and engaging interlocutor — which provided the creative and intellectual impetus for students’ reviews of Four Minutes.
The reviews below represent a selection of the students’ first review essays.
“(In)Visibility” by Annie Wyner
“This Review Will Take You Four Minutes To Read” by Daniela Jimenez Ochoa
“A Story of Hardship and Hope” by Max Schiewe-Weliky
Stiliana Milkova Rousseva is a Bulgarian-born scholar, translator, and exophonic writer in Italian. She edits Reading in Translation and directs the Comparative Literature Program at Oberlin College where she also teaches comparative and interdisciplinary courses on a range of topics in world literature as well as courses on literary translation. Stiliana also coordinates Oberlin College’s minor in literary translation.