CL R1A.2: Translating Women
Marlena Gittleman and Gianna Ward-Vetrano
January 21, 2020
Always Include a Title that Hints at Your Specific Subject or Argument Here
(Note: “Introductory Text” and “Translating Women Paper” do not pass this test)
You wouldn’t be taking this class, nor would you be writing this introductory text if you didn’t have some kind of relationship with translation, whether between languages, mediums, art forms, or cultures. Relationships, however, rarely remain consistent over time. Like people, they shift and change. Describe an experience that changed your relationship with or understanding of translation, in whatever sense it means something to you. You may want to discuss an experience that changed your relationship with or understanding of one kind of translation, or you may want to describe an incident that impacted your understandings of and relationships with translation and gender or translation and your own writing. It’s up to you. The experience may involve a personal interaction with a family member, a friend, or even a stranger, it may be based on current or historical events, or it may depend on a book you read, a song you heard, an advertisement, film, Instagram photo, Tweet, or Youtube clip you saw. It could even be about an article of clothing or a haircut. The options are endless, but please choose one specific experience to write about. In this course, we’ll working toward depth over breadth when it comes to writing; a little can go a long way.
In your opening paragraph, build the groundwork for the narrative account of your experience by describing how you had related to or understood translation previously; that is, before the experience you’ve chosen to write about.
In your second paragraph, describe the experience in depth and detail. What happened? What did you see, watch, hear, smell, taste, touch, say, read, etc.? Use specific, sensory adjectives to describe it. What memories, impressions, and/or affective or emotional responses did it/does it evoke?
In your third paragraph, describe how this experience changed your relationship with translation. Why have you chosen to write about this experience in particular? Does it impact how you relate to or understand translation today? How and in what ways?
In your fourth paragraph, consider how your experience results in the representation of a specific understanding of or relationship with translation. Does your experience suggest any specific cultural or personal understandings? In what ways might this understanding be political? What does your experience suggest about the ways in which you relate to translation, especially as it relates to gender? Do you think other people may have had similar or differing experiences? Who? And why? What kinds of assumptions must you make in order to generalize about experience in this way?
Finally, return to the course syllabus and reread the course description. With your prior four paragraphs in mind, use your fifth and final paragraph to venture a couple of hypotheses about this course. What are you curious about exploring? What are you anxious about? What kinds of translations do you expect to encounter? Round out your text by telling me a little bit about yourself and your relationship to reading and writing (about) translations and/or gender. This is also the place to add anything else you might like to share with me, and maybe eventually, with your classmates. As a reading and composition community, we’ll be reading each other’s writing and workshopping it. We’ll return to this introductory text later in the semester, with the option of sharing it.
This assignment should be 1½ -2 double-spaced pages in length in 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1-inch margins. Please be sure to upload an electronic copy of your text to bcourses before class and also print it out and turn it in in your writing folder.
This introductory text will count as a homework assignment. It will be graded out of 15 points, with 15/15 being full completion of the assignment. That means that you’ve followed the above instructions and you’ve written detailed, thoughtful responses.
We look forward to reading, writing, and learning with you!
Translating Women 