MA Translation and Interpreting Studies

This course unit aims to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of professional practices in the creative and heritage industries, building on the topics covered in the first semester course unit to explore a broader range of theoretical perspectives and practical contexts for translation. The range of topics covered in this course unit may include: 

• Globalisation and its impacts on translating for the creative and heritage industries 
• Identity and postcolonialism 
• Non-professional and activist practices 
• Accessibility 
• Dubbing 
• Comics and graphic novels 
• Poetry 

The course may also cover issues of translation relating to some of the following areas of the cultural and heritage industries: 

• Songs and music 
• Museums 
• Video game localisation 
• Professional paths in the creative and heritage industries 

Students taking this course unit are required to engage in a range of practical projects and to complete recommended reading assignments to inform their practice. More widely, this course also provides a foundation for practical and research dissertations involving literature, theatre texts, museum texts, films and/or video games. 

Translation tutorials provide specific guidance to students for their translation work from any language into English or from English into any other language. Students are normally expected to translate into their first or strongest languages. 

• To understand the specific characteristics of translating for the creative and heritage industries across a diversity of text types and genres 
• To develop the knowledge and skills required for producing functionally adequate translations of a range of creative and heritage industry texts 
• To enhance students’ professional translation competence with analytical skills 
• To offer students an overview of contemporary theory and professional practices in the creative and heritage industries 
• To develop abilities in a broad range of vocational and transferable skills including information gathering, the development of individual resourcefulness and time management, analytical thinking, as well as sustaining and presenting a logical argument 
• To develop students’ independence of thought, intellectual curiosity and a critical approach to evidence, theories and concepts 

• Demonstrate a firm grasp of the metalanguage used to discuss and analyse creative and heritage industry texts 
• Understand how linguistic issues can affect translation decisions, connecting theory with practice as well as micro-linguistic choices with wider issues 
• Advanced understanding of key relevant theoretical questions in literary/media/cultural studies and an ability to assess their relevance to translation 
• Comprehensive understanding of a wide range of research issues and methods in the fields of literary, heritage and audiovisual translation 

• Analyse creative and heritage industry texts
• Evaluate translation choices using appropriate concepts and metalanguage
• Critically assess relevant academic literature
•  Develop and sustain a coherent argument in appropriately lucid and scholarly terms

• A comprehensive understanding of the working of literary, heritage and audiovisual texts ·
• The ability to subject language to close scrutiny in the context of the creative and heritage industries
•  Evaluate your own decisions and the decisions of others with reference to linguistic as well as cultural/social/political concerns
•  Select and synthesise literature to back up an argument

• Structure ideas clearly and present a well-structured analysis or argument
•  Adhere to guidelines and present a professionally written product
•  Plan and carry out written assignments to a strict deadline 
• Develop technological skills required for the processing and editing of digital files

Assessment task:

1. Translation pitch and translation - 60%

2. Critical essay - 40%

Resit assessment:

If only one assessment task has been failed, that task will be resat.  

If both assessment tasks two or more tasks have been failed, Assessment 2 will be resat.

The following list is indicative only. A specific course reading list will be provided to students.

Bernal-Merino, Miguel (2014) Translation and Localisation in Video Games: Making entertainment software global, London: Routledge.

Díaz-Cintas, Jorge and Aline Remael (2021) Subtitling: Concepts and practices, London: Routledge.

Desblache, Lucile (2019) Music and Translation: New mediations in the digital age, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chaume, Federic (2012) Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing, London: Routledge.

Pérez-González, Luis (2014) Audiovisual Translation: Theories, methods and issues, London: Routledge.

Pérez-González, Luis (ed.) (2018) Routledge Handbook of Audiovisual Translation, London: Routledge.

Sturge, Kate (2014) Representing Others: Translation, ethnography and museum, London: Routledge.

Wright, Chantal (2016) Literary Translation, London: Routledge.

Zanettin, Federico (ed.) (2015) Comics in Translation, London: Routledge.