Theory
In his 1923 essay “The Task of the Translator,” this philosopher argues that translation reveals the “afterlife” of literary works.
Who is Walter Benjamin?
This Russian author’s story “The Nose” is used to explore untranslatability and the absurd.
Who is Nikolai Gogol?
The narrator first learns about Uqbar during a late-night conversation with his friend about writing a novel in this narrative perspective.
What is first-person?
This sentence type comes first in the paragraph and announces the claim the rest of the paragraph will prove.
What is a topic sentence?
This percentage of your grade comes from the final research-based Paper 3, not including the bibliography or presentation.
What is 30%?
This ancient rhetorical term, defined as “a speech that brings the subject matter vividly before the eyes,” originally referred not specifically to descriptions of art but to any vivid verbal depiction designed to make listeners imagine a scene.
What is ekphrasis?
This Argentine writer’s “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” imagines a world manufactured through encyclopedic invention.
Who is Jorge Luis Borges?
This wealthy American nihilist funds the expansion of the project from inventing a country to inventing an entire planet.
Who is Ezra Buckley?
You should ask this simple two-word question to check whether your thesis actually makes an argument.
What is "so what"?
This is the meeting time for office hours.
What is Monday, 1-2:15pm?
Venuti explains that when translation seems perfectly fluent, the translator’s work becomes this—hard to see at all.
What is invisible?
A whimsical, encyclopedic text presented in an invented language, Codex Seraphinianus is written by this Italian artist.
Who is Luigi Serafini?
Idealism dominates Tlön so completely that this part of speech—common in English—does not exist in some Tlön languages.
What are nouns?
According to the Paper 1 rubric, this method—described as focusing on how an idea is presented—forms the foundation of your first assignment.
What is close reading?
Unexcused absences beyond this number result in failing the course.
What is four?
Lahiri suggests that translators are expected to be “invisible,” echoing Echo’s fate of existing only as this—something “heard by all” but “seen by none.”
What is voice?
In an excerpt from his essay, Roland Barthes argues that literary meaning should not be traced back to this single figure traditionally thought to “explain” the text.
Who is the author?
In the southern hemisphere of Tlön, language is built on verbs and adverbial suffixes; instead of “moon,” a speaker would express this verbal action.
What is “to moon” or “to moonate”?
When citing prose in MLA, you must always include this element in your in-text parenthetical citation—unlike in poetry, which requires line numbers instead.
What are page numbers?
This unit's title introduced Roman Jakobson and Vladimir Nabokov, among others.
What is "Words Without Borders"?
Spivak famously declares that this act—more than writing or analysis—is “the most intimate act of reading.”
What is translation?
This term describes the difference between the real world and its fictional representation.
What is diegesis?
In “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” this mysterious encyclopedia volume—found with four extra pages—reveals the first description of the nonexistent country of Uqbar.
What is Volume XLVI of the Anglo-American Cyclopaedia?
This term refers to the statement that answers your text-based question and explains your argument.
What is a claim?
Using ChatGPT or other LLMs for written assignments falls under this category of prohibited academic behavior.
What is academic dishonesty (plagiarism)?