Translation studies book by susan bassnett

British academic (b. )

Susan Edna Bassnett, FRSL (born 21 October ) is a translation theorist and scholar of comparative literature. She served as pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Warwick for ten years and taught in its Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies, which closed in As of , she is Professor of Comparative Literature at the Universities of Glasgow and Warwick.^[1] Educated around Europe, she began her career in Italy and has lectured at universities in the United States.^[2] In , she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[3]

Early life and education

Bassnett was born on 21 October She studied English and Italian at the University of Manchester, graduating with a first class honoursBachelor of Arts (BA) degree in She studied for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in French at the University of Lancaster, which she completed in ^[4]

Academic career

Bassnett began her academic career as a lecturer at the University of Rome from to She then returned to England was a lecturer at the University of Lancaster from to She joined the University of Warwick as a lecturer in , and established its Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies in She was promoted to reader in , and appointed Professor of Comparative Literature in She twice served as the university's pro-vice-chancellor, from to and from to She retired from Warwick in and was made professor emerita.

In retirement, she has held the appointment of Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Glasgow since ^[4]

Notable works

Among her more than twenty books, several have become mainstays in the field of literary criticism, especially Translation Studies () and Comparative Literature ().

Susan bassnett translation There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that my creative writing has been enormously valuable in enabling me to produce scholarly work that is not desiccated and cut off from the real world. She is a professor of comparative literature at the University of Warwick, and also a fellow at the Royal Society of Literature—the United Kingdom's premium literary association. I welcome these questions because it is important to look back over one's career and reflect that ideas can change. Wikidata item.

A book on Ted Hughes was published in Another book edited by Bassnett is Knives and Angels: Women Writers in Latin America.^[5] Bassnett's collaboration with several intellectuals in a series of book projects has been received well. In , she co-edited with Peter Bush the book The Translator as Writer. In addition to her scholarly works, Bassnett writes poetry which was published as Exchanging Lives: Poems and Translations ().^[6]

Critical ideas

Foregrounding translation

In her work Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation (written with André Lefevere), Bassnett states that "the shift of emphasis from original to translation is reflected in discussions on the visibility of the translator.

Lawrence Venuti calls for a translator-centered translation, insisting that the translator should inscribe him/herself visibly into the text".^[7]

Comparative literature as a literary strategy

In a essay titled Reflections on Comparative Literature in the Twenty-First Century, she engaged with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak who argues in Death of a Discipline () that the field of comparative literature must move beyond its eurocentrism if it is to stay relevant.

Theorising Translation with Susan Bassnett - Asymptote She served as pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Warwick for ten years and taught in its Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies, which closed in If translating a sacred text however, I think it would be essential to look at the work of previous translators and so that conscious rereading is, I believe, a crucial part of translating holy texts. Critical ideas [ edit ]. Second, would you say now that your views on comparative literature and translation studies might have been refined further given the advent of world literature as an academic discipline?

While she agrees with Spivak that eurocentrism has marginalised literatures from the non-West, she also argues that Spivak's argument puts comparatists from Europe, who are familiar with its literatures, in a precarious position. To Bassnett, the way out for European comparatists is to critically investigate their past. Bassnett also recanted her previous stance that comparative literature is a dying subject that will slowly be replaced by translation studies.

Rather, she argues that comparative literature and translation theory continue to be relevant today if taken as modes of reading that literary critics can use to approach texts.

Susan bassnett translation studies As to whether languages carry within them values specific to a civilisation then yes I believe they do. I fully understand the issues here about the problem of the unequal power of different languages. People who do not engage with movement between languages can, I suppose very logically, see no reason why there should be any difficulty in transposing thoughts, ideas, and facts into other languages. Above all, what I think theorising about translation does is it makes us all more aware of secret dimensions to what we are reading.

Personal life

Clive Barker, Bassnett's long-term partner and a theatre studies academic at Warwick, died in ^[8]

References

External links