A literary translator's perspective on teaching translation across genres

Abstract: A literary translator's perspective on teaching translation across genres

In this talk, Austin will share insights and lessons from teaching a multi-genre, bilingual Chinese-English / English-Chinese translation workshop to undergraduates at Duke Kunshan University (DKU), Duke University's China venture. In particular Austin will examine how concepts and habits of mind from literary translation (my own specialty) can be applied to teaching very different genres and text types, such as advertising, academic translation, technical translation, political discourse, and so forth. These concepts include: style, voice, image, metaphor, ambiguity, and the dynamics of imagination. In the process Austin hopes to open a conversation with colleagues about how literary and non-literary translation can cross-pollinate in the classroom, and to exchange ideas about how to teach aspects of translation that transcend all genres and text types, both "creative" and "practical."

Speaker’s bio

Austin Woerner is a Chinese-English literary translator. He has translated a novel, The Invisible Valley by Su Wei, and two volumes of poetry, Doubled Shadows: Selected Poetry of Ouyang Jianghe, and Ouyang Jianghe's book-length poem Phoenix. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, the New York Times Magazine, Poetry, and elsewhere. Formerly the English translation editor for the innovative Chinese literary journal Chutzpah!, he also co-edited the short fiction anthology Chutzpah!: New Voices from China. He holds a BA in East Asian Studies from Yale and an MFA in creative writing from the New School, and he is currently a lecturer at Duke Kunshan University, where he has taught academic writing, creative nonfiction, and translation.