Chabot College
Fall 2004
Removed Fall 2010
Course Outline for English 34
INTERNATIONAL POETRY
Catalog Description:
34 International Poetry
3 units
Introduction to classical, modern and contemporary international poetries in their original languages
and in translations. Examination of modes of reading and writing poetry in relation to students’ cultural
and language backgrounds. 3 hours.
[Typical contact hours: 52.5]
Prerequisite Skills:
None
Expected Outcomes for Students:
Upon completion of the course the student should be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
critically evaluate poetry (e.g. rhetorical modes, forms, styles, etc...);
examine and assess English translations of poetry;
distinguish the relationships between the poetries of different languages;
demonstrate knowledge of the processes and practices of translation into English (e.g. the goals
of translation);
5. link poetry to the cultural and historical contexts within which it is written;
6. distinguish and connect the relationships between course content and individual experiences.
Course Content:
1. Styles and forms of poetry (e.g. sonnet, pantoum, luc bat, cinquain, ghazal, qasida) included in
anthologies, magazines, journals, and student portfolios of poetry in students’ native languages
and in translation
2. Comparative research into literary strategies used by poets writing in different languages,
including but not limited to English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, Tagalog, Hindi, Pashto, Farsi,
and Arabic
3. Processes and practices of translation
4. Cultural and historical contexts for the poetry
5. Critical reading and writing strategies and their application to determining relationships between
text and experience
Methods of Presentation:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Lecture
Discussion--large and small group
Films and videos
Guest Lecturers
Student presentations
Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
1. Typical assignments
a. read a poem in your native language and look up how it has been translated into English;
then, write your own translation of the poem plus a page on why it is different from another
translator’s version
b. with another student whose language background is different from yours, compare and
analyze a poem from each of your languages written in the same time period and, in English,
present your findings to the class
c. present to the class an example of a translation of a poem you have read and/or written, and
Chabot College
Course Outline for English 34, Page 2
Fall 2004
evaluate its strengths and weaknesses
d. write a poem in the style of a poet you have studied and then see how you can translate that
style into English
2. Methods of Evaluating Student Progress
a. graded portfolio of poems in English translations
b. class participation/journal work
c. researched oral presentation
d. final exam
Textbook(s) (Typical):
A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry, ed. by Czeslaw Milosz, HBJ, 1996.
New Generation: Poems from China Today, ed. by Wang Ping, Hanging Loose Press, 1999.
STR[..] MGA TULA NG DIGMANG BAYAN SA PILIPINAS/POETRY OF PEOPLE'S WAR IN THE
PHILIPPINES vr.trs. Tagalog & English texts. Mainstream Publishers/Linang (Pilipinas) 1989.
Twentieth-century Latin American Poetry: a bilingual anthology, ed. by Stephen
Tapscott, University of Texas Press, 1996.
Special Student Materials:
None
dk 5/6/03