Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Teaching Translations Of Translations, Anne Fountain

Anne Fountain

This article describes how examining translations of translations can provide a useful pedagogical tool in translation courses and classes with translated texts. Those who teach literary works that have been translated into English must deal with the reality that students read translated texts as if they had been written in English. Acknowledgment of the source for a translation is therefore important, and professors should alert students to the problems that can arise when translations are made from translations rather than from originals. Examining examples of “doubling back”―translations of translations―can also be instructive in teaching about literary interests and influences.