Translated Bodies

Translated Bodies: Reading & Writing Literary &
Cultural Translations

In this class, we will consider translated
bodies¬-bodies that shift/ have been shifted from
one state to another. We will read and discuss
non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and performance
writing. In these texts, we will regard bodies in
states of emergency, desire, trauma, power, and
literary magic. Following disability scholar
Tobin Siebers, bodies here will also be
understood as physical, cultural, historical,
literary, and artistic forms. We will also notice
how bodies are raced, gendered, classed,
colonized/ decolonized, sexually oriented,
socially constructed, and memorialized.
Traditional notions of literary value will tangle
with cultural appropriation, heritage, and
exchange. Sparked by the possibilities, we will
try our hands at literary translation and
experience the translation of our own work.
Engaging migration, family, love, loyalty, and
resistance, we will record the translated bodies
in our own lives and languages. Re/marking these
translations, we will build new bodies of work
(in our work). We will transform our own writing
and be transformed.

Students should expect to spend $150-$180 on
books for this course.