Teaching translation: university courses in "Translation Theory and Practice" of the early 1930s
Abstract
The article describes the programs of the first academic institutions, which started running translation courses as early as the 1930s: the Ukrainian Institute of Linguistic Education set up in Kyiv (with a branch in Kharkiv) in May of 1930 and the Moscow Institute for Modern Languages founded in July of the same year. The article shares new archival findings and analyzes the content of two syllabi in translation studies. The first course entitled “Translation Methodology” and compiled by Mikhailo Kalynovych was designed for the second-year students for the 1932/33 academic year in Kyiv/ Kharkiv; the second course “Theory and Practice of Translation” was compiled by Dmitrii Usov in Moscow in 1934. Usov’s course is made public for the first time here. The comparative analysis of these two documents demonstrates that both programs addressed a wide range of issues that extended far beyond purely practical concerns. The article also provides brief information on the scholars who stood at the origins of the new discipline of Translation Studies several decades before its official recognition (Mykola Zerov, Mykhailo Kalynovych, and Dmitrii Usov). The article also discusses the lists of recommended literature to the syllabi, which proves that Russian and Ukrainian scholars worked with a close eye on each other’s achievements, programs, and developing ideas.
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References
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