Instructor: Emily Canning

Instructor: Emily Canning

Meeting time: MW12-12:50pm

Office Hours: M&W1-2pm or by appointment

Contact:

Mailbox: Anth Dept, Brown 2nd floor

Office: Brown 220

Office phone: (781) 736-8211

Classroom: Brown 316

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University Writing Seminar 34A:

Lost in Translation:

The Destruction and Reproduction of Meaning between Cultures

Fall 2014, Brandeis University

What does it mean when something becomes “lost in translation”? This course will examine the consequences of reproducing meaning across varying cultural contexts. We will draw from a wide range of examples around the world and throughout time, placing particular emphasis on imperial/colonial encounters, transnational/immigrant narratives, and contemporary ethnography. The theory in the course will be primarily rooted in linguistic anthropology and allied fields, and we will apply these theoretical insights to artistic mediums such as film and literature. Since is expected that most of you will have some level of competence in a foreign language if you are not fully bilingual and/or bicultural, everyone isencouraged to share their own experiences and relate them to the analytical frameworks in discussion.

The goal of the University Writing Seminar is not merely to acquaint you with a particular theme, but to develop skills in writing and critical thinking. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with the conventions of college-level writing and research and will have developed strategies to revise and critique both their own writing as well as the writing of others.All University Writing Seminars share the same basic assignments, which include three papers: a close-reading essay, a lens paper, and a research paper. Ultimately the hard (and admittedly sometimes painful) work that you put into this class will help lay the necessary foundation for succeeding both in your future writing at the college-level and throughout the course of your life.

TEXTS:

Write Now, a collection of Brandeis student essays

Writing in Response

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (required)

Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman (optional)

OVERVIEW OF MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS:

ESSAY 1: CLOSE READING

Linguistic anthropologist Benjamin Lee Whorf wrote that “language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” Drawing upon evidence in Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation, consider to what extent you think language determines or influences thought. Do you agree with German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”? Or do you think there is a universal quality of human cognition which language merely expresses but does not necessarily shape? While you are not forced to advocate either extreme, you must make a cohesive argument on the relationship between thought (and/or culture) and language. Although you should draw the majority of your evidence from Hoffman’s work, you are encouraged to include any of your own multi-lingual/cross-cultural experiences to further buttress your argument.

ESSAY 2: LENS ANALYSIS

For this assignment, use Irvine & Gal’s “Language Ideology and Linguistic Generation” as a semiotic tool kit to unpack the distinct narratives presented in Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible. What are the “signs” (linguistic, cultural, biological) that the Price family misinterprets? That is to say, how do the family members “represent” their surroundings and what semiotic clues lead you to imagine how the family is perceived by the Congolese in their village? Consider Irvine & Gal’s key terms of icon, index, symbol, iconization, and erasure. Incorporate at least two of these terms into your paper, and use these as evidence to support a specific argument regarding the cultural disjuncture between the Price family and their fellow villagers.

ESSAY 3: RESEARCH PAPER:

Find an instance of a text that has been reproduced in a new cultural context. What changes in meaning have occurred? What do these changes reveal about the differences and/or similarities of the cultures in question and of the concept of “culture” more generally? The notion of “text” can be applied broadly to any item selected from the various genres we have discussed this semester such as film, literature, humor, and or another cross-cultural encounter that has
multiple interpretations or “readings.” While you do not necessarily need to focus on the mechanics of translation itself, you do need to research additional theoretical material regarding the genre in its specific geographic or transnational setting. You should compliment your theoretical analysis with ethnographic evidence from the specific culture you have chosen to study.

EVALUATION:

10%Class Participation

15%Pre-Draft Assignments and Peer Reviews

65%Major Assignments:

Essay 115%

Essay 220%

Essay 330%

5%Student Presentation

5%Final Portfolio

CLASSROOM POLICIES AND EXPECTATIONS:

Attendance:This course is discussion-oriented; coming to every class meeting on time and ready to contribute is essential not only to the class as a whole, but to your individual progress as a writer. Students who are significantly or recurrently late will be considered absent. If you must miss a class for any reason, please notify me in advance (i.e. more than 24 hours before the class you will miss) providing a reason for your absence. Students are allowed three absences per semester (for any reason).Every additional absence after your third will result in a reduction of your final grade in the course by one third a letter (a B+ grade will be lowered to a B). Seven or more absences over the semester will result in a failing grade for the course.

Participation:Since this is a discussion-based course, class participation is particularly important. Please come to each class on time, having completed any reading and/or writing exercise that was assigned for the day, and ready to participate fully in class discussions and activities. If there was reading assigned for a class, please bring a copy of the reading, with prepared notes, questions, and comments, and be ready to share your ideas with others.Students who repeatedly come to class without being prepared to participate will be marked absent.To be prepared for class, you should feel comfortable with the assigned reading and be able to discuss its merits and drawbacks, i.e. have a firm grasp of what and where the author’s thesis is, know the basic outline of the piece’s argument, have assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence and analysis brought to bear, and come with questions, concerns, or uncertainties. Additional credit for participation will be given for posts on LATTE forums.

Conferences: Students will meet one-on-one with the class instructor three times during the semester for 20-minute conferences, which will enable you to receive detailed and personalized feedback from me on your writing as well as give you a chance to raise questions or concerns about the assignments. Sign-up sheets will be posted in advance on LATTE. Conference attendance is mandatory, and not showing up for a conference will count as an unexcused absence. Please bring all relevant materials to the conference, including drafts, comments, revisions, outlines, etc. It is the student’s responsibility to come to conference with a set of concerns regarding their writing or essay drafts that they wish to discuss.

Peer Review Workshops:In addition to conferences, peer review workshops provide another important opportunity for students to receive and give critical and constructive feedback about the writing process to their peers. When rough drafts are due, you will hand in three copies: one for the instructor, and two for your peer review partners. You will also receive copies of the rough drafts of your two peer review partners. All students are responsible for carefully reading their partners’ rough drafts, composing a thoughtful and useful peer-review letter, and sharing feedback with your peers during the following peer review workshop. I will look for evidence of revisions that address the points made in peer review letters in the final drafts of the essays you hand in and will factor in such evidence when assigning grades.

Essay Formatting: All essays (rough and final drafts) must meet the following conditions:

• be typed in 12-point Times New Roman (or equivalent) font
• be double-spaced, with 1 inch margins (be sure to adjust the default page settings if using Microsoft Word)
• contain your lastname and page number in the header or footer of every page following the first
• cite all sources using MLA format (or equivalent—consistency is what counts)

Portfolio: All class essays and assignments (including class exercises, essay drafts, feedback, revisions, etc.) should be kept in a folder, which you will be responsible for handing in at the end of the semester. Students’ portfolios give an overview of their work and overall progress throughout the semester, and are important in assigning final grades. Adding class essays and assignments to your folder as the semester progresses instead of trying to assemble the portfolio at the end of the semester will make your life much easier!

UWS Outcomes: Please consult the last page of the syllabus for a list of UWS Outcomes.

Late Work:All assignments, including Pre-Draft assignments, Essay Drafts, and Peer Review Letters are due on the day they are listed on the syllabus, unless otherwise noted. Extensions will not be granted unless there are extenuating circumstances and in any case require more than 24 hours advance notice (i.e. extensions will not be granted the night before an assignment is due). Papers will be marked down a grade for each day they are late (i.e. a B+ paper turned in a day late will receive a B). Late pre-draft assignments will not be graded.

The Writing Center: The University Writing Center, located on the first floor of Goldfarb Library (room 107), provides free one-on-one help with your essays. You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this (free!) service. Writing Center tutors are well trained (many of them are UWS instructors) and will work with you in 45 minute tutorials that you can schedule online (

Students who take advantage of this service will receive a form during their tutorial that will entitle them to a 24 hour extension on the final draft of their essay (one extension per assignment). Essays with extensions will be due, in my mailbox, by noon of the following day, extension form attached. The same offer applies to any students who are non-native speakers of Englishwho have a tutor that they meet with regularly. (For a free weekly tutor if English is not your first language and you need extra help contact Shelby Speer at )

Academic Integrity: It is essential that all the work you hand in for this course is your own, and that when you use outside sources or ideas that you cite them properly. The University’s policy on academic integrity is distributed annually in the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook ( Instances of apparent or alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Department of Student Development and Conduct for possible referral to the Student Judicial System, and may carry severe consequences including failure on the assignment in question, failure in the course, and/or suspension from the University.

Disabilities: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have reasonable accommodation made for you in class, please come see me as soon as possible. Further information is available at the Brandeis Disabilities Services and Support website (

Unit 1:

The Experience of Language and the Language of Experience (Close Reading)

Week 1

Mon Sept 1 – No class

Wed Sept 3 – Introductions, review syllabus, ice breaker, survey of class

- Close reading exercise of “Dybbyk” scene from A Serious Man

HW: Read: First section of Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation (Pp. 3-23)

Week 2 (1st conference, round 1—September 9th)

Mon Sept 8 - Discussion of Hoffman, continue discussion of close reading

HW: Read: Read Hoffman, pp. 99-164, Write Pre-Draft 1.1
Wed Sept 10 – Review pre-drafts and thesis “stress test” (3 C’s), discuss pre-draft 1.1

HW: Read Ahearn’s chapter on “Language, Thought, & Culture” and Deutscher’s article (optional), and Write Pre-Draft 1.2 (developing a thesis statement)
Week 3 (1st conference, round 2—September 15th)
Mon Sept 15 – Group work on thesis and whether or not they pass “stress test”

HW: Write rough draft of Close Reading essay – bring 3 copies to class
Wed Sept 17 - Workshop and peer review rough drafts, discuss problems thus far in writing

HW: Finish Final Draft of Close Reading Essay

Unit 2: The Signs of Dissonance and the Dissonance of Signs (Lens Analysis)
Week 4
Mon Sept 22 – Turn in final draft of Close Reading essay (plus cover letter)

- Introductory semiotics & language ideology through My Fair Lady clip

HW: Read Irvine & Gal, sign up for conference time
Wed Sept 24 – Discuss text, lecture on Irvine & Gal – applied to Kyrgyzstan fieldwork

HW: Read Poisonwood Bible, p. 1-49, Write Pre-Draft 2.1
Week 5
Mon Sept 29 – Group work - read McIntosh article, discover how she used Irvine & Gal

HW: Read Poisonwood Bible, p. 50-98
Wed Oct 1– Discuss pre-draft assignments and give examples of applying lens

HW:Write Pre-Draft 2.2(understanding the lens text), read Poisonwood Bible, p. 101-151

Week 6 (2nd conference, round 1—October 8th)
Mon Oct 6 – Evaluations/ Feedback, and “Semiotics Mash-up” Exercise/PowerPoint

HW: Read Poisonwood Bible, p. 152-201

Wed Oct 8– Discuss pre-draft 2.2 and have each student share his or her semiotic examples

HW: Write Pre-Draft 2.3, Read Poisonwood Bible,p. 202-267

Week 7(2nd conference, round 2—October 14th)
Mon Oct 13– No class (Brandeis Thursday)

HW: Poisonwood Bible p. 267-311
Wed Oct15– Discuss how to write introductions & conclusions – similarities & differences

HW: Read Poisonwood Bible p. 317-385
Write: Week 8
Mon Oct 20 – in class activity with old Lost in Translation student papers

HW: Write: 1st Draft of Essay #2 and bring three copies to class Wednesday
Wed Oct 22 – Peer Review of Rough drafts

HW: Read as much of the rest of Poisonwood Bible as you can to gather additional material for your lens essay, but it is not required that you finish the book.

Unit 3: Translating Culture and the Culture of Translation (Research Paper)

Week 9: Thinking Anthropologically
Mon Oct27 –Discuss proofreading and peer edit rough drafts
HW: Finish final draft of Lens Essay and write peer review letters
Wed Oct 29 – FLIP session (meet in library)

HW: Read Bohannan’s article “Shakespeare in the Bush” and Miner’s article “The Nacirema”

Week 10: Humor
Mon Nov 3 –Discuss how to find a research question, plagiarism and citations
HW: Read Hill’s article, find a couple of jokes from another language, translate them, and post both the original and the translated version on LATTE with an explanation of the humor. Be prepared to share at least one in class!

Wed Nov 5 - Discuss cross-cultural humor and share jokes

-What specific to each culture makes them funny or not funny?

HW: Write Pre-Draft 3.1 (research topic brainstorm), choose and read an article among three texts from Violence in War and Peace (to apply as a “mini-lens”)

Week 11:Culture Clashes in Love & War (3rd Conference – round 1, November 12th)
Mon Nov 10 – Watch clip for film review and discuss how to develop research questions
HW: Finish the film and post your thoughts on LATTE forum, sign up for conference time & research presentation date (April 14th, 16th, April 23rd, April 28th – no more than 5 people per day)

Wed Nov 12 – Discuss bibliographies and the research paper as a kind lens paper
HW:Write Pre-Draft 3.2 (annotated bibliography)
Week 12: Health & the Body (3rd conference – round 2, November 18th)
Mon Nov 17 – Turn in Pre-drafts and sign-up for student presentations
HW: Read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and post a brief reaction to LATTE
Wed Nov 19 –Discuss scholarly vs. non scholarly sources

- Exercise on employing different kinds of evidence to support an argument

HW: Write Pre-Draft 3.3 (final draft research proposal)

Week 13
Mon Nov 24– student presentations

HW: Write Rough Draft of Essay #3 and bring 3 copies for Monday Dec 1
Wed Nov 26 (No class for Thanksgiving break)
Week 15
Mon Dec 1 – Turn in rough draft of research essays and complete peer review in class, plus student presentations

HW: work on research papers

Wed Dec 3 – student presentations

HW: - Finish research paper, prepare portfolio and write cover letter
Week 16

Mon Dec 8 (last day of class) – turn in final paper, student presentations

Date for Portfolio pick-up and movie night - TBA
MOVIE NIGHT: Lost in Translation (or results from vote)
Portfolio pick-up, end of the year celebration