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Description
French 343 is an introduction to the theory and practice of translation from French to English (“version”) and English to French (thème”) as both a craft and an art with its codes and principles Although our emphasis will be on practice, we will consider important theoretical questions such as translation as both a “product” and as a “process.” With some attention to the difference between “literal” and “free” translation, the course will explore the lexical and semantic strategies that translators employ. The course begins with the smallest “unit of translation” and progresses to consider a wide variety of texts: fiction, poetry (song lyrics), advertisements, televisual, and filmic. Students may choose to translate a business, technical, legal, or medical text as part of their final project.

Objectifs
At the conclusion of the course, the successful student

• by way of concrete examples, will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of translation as both a craft and an art and as both a product and a process
• will be able to identify and apply the some of the theoretical principles and strategies of professional translators.
• will be able to translate from French to English a fictional [or business, technical, legal, or medical] text of 200 words with at least a 75% accuracy
• will be able to translate from English to French a non-literary text of 200 words with at least a 70% accuracy.