Corso di laurea in Culture e letterature
del mondo moderno

The course aims at strengthening the basic competences of translation and will be held in Italian. The lessons will be mainly practical and will stimulate the students’ active participation, so that they can recognize and apply the necessary competences to translation practice. At the same time, students will also be encouraged to reinforce their translation abilities and learning skills through self-study activities.

 By the end of the module, students will be expected to know the main theories on translation, to have adequate linguistic and cultural knowledge in both languages (English and Italian), and to apply it to the written translation of non-specialist texts. The assessment criteria (see Modalità di verifica dell’apprendimento below) will be constantly made explicit through practical lessons and translation exercises.

The translation exam part ("prova di traduzione") will include a translation with bilingual dictionary of a non-specialist text, 230 to 280 words,  and a question on translation theories (see Bibliography). The exam is the same for non-attending students and Erasmus students alike.

Students will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- learning skills (reinforcing the comprehension of foreign cultures, pinpointing the most adequate strategies to achieve the expected competences, also activating autonomous learning skills)
- knowledge and understanding (reading, understanding, analysing, and interpreting non-specialist written texts of various genres, connecting them into their cultural context)
- applying knowledge and understanding (applying linguistic and cultural knowledge to translation practice)

Attending the annual English language course (lettorato) held by mother tongue speakers doesn’t give any credit but is highly recommended especially for those who need to reinforce their competence in English. A placement test to subdivide the students into classes will be held at the beginning of the academic year. For further information see the specific page.

The course will provide a general introduction to the basic tenets of translation from a theoretical and practical point of view: a survey of the phonetic, linguistic, pragmatic, and rhetorical features of English will be followed by the analysis of the paratextual and intertextual aspects of a crop of non-specialist texts. This will be the basis for the analysis of the possibilities (and impossibilities) of their translation into Italian.

For the question on translation theories during the translation part: D. Borgogni, I. Rizzato, N. Sanità, L'arte dei dragomanni, Torino, Stampatori, 2010. The texts to be translated during the lessons will be made available. Further readings may be suggested during the lessons.

To pass the exam it is necessary to pass the English test ("prova di lettorato"), either before or after the translation part. The final mark will be the average of the two partial marks. For detailed information on the "prova di lettorato" see the specific page.