OpenSource Shakespeare - An Experiment in Literary Technology

OpenSource Shakespeare - An Experiment in Literary Technology is a collection of open source texts providing its users with a clean design and easy access to the 1864 Globe Edition of Shakespeare's complete works. Plays are organized by genre, by number of lines and the site also offers a character list and a character search feature. The Sonnets and Poems section facilitates sonnet-by-sonnet or side-by-side comparison viewing.

All texts have a print/save version, which looks even better than the online counterpart.

Romanian-born novelist, Herta Müller, won the Nobel in literature!

"Herta Müller, the Romanian-born German novelist and essayist who writes of the oppression of dictatorship in her native country and the unmoored existence of the political exile, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday." (Read the article in New York Times)

Photo: Herta Müller (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

The Most Useful Tools?

All websites containing such lists claim that their selection is the best of the best. Undoubtedly, most people take the bait and start downloading applications or, in this case, signing up for free web services. This site contains a list of web tools that students could find useful, but also a lot of junk... Feel free to browse through the list of web apps and don't forget to check my blog on a regular basis for more free tools for students. Click HERE or on the TITLE!

The website of the Week!

I know, I know! Holidays are for having fun, going out etc. but in the mean time, it's alright to get a bit nerdy and check out the most interesting websites ever.

This week I've read a couple of nice things on the site below:
The Shakespeare Resource Center. You'll find here collected links from all over the World Wide Web to help you find information on William Shakespeare.

Enjoy your summer holidays...

... and if you have any questions related to grades, re-examinations, etc., please visit the Faculty of Letters and Arts Forum, at LBUS, post them there and... wait for my answer!

In the mean time, don't forget to visit my blog from time to time as I'll continue posting useful and sometimes just funny information on the same old set of subjects, such as student life, learning tools and free literature on the Web.

Online Summer School :)

"An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance education and empower people worldwide through opencourseware." (OpenCourseWare website)

In other words: free education for all. Let's not discuss get into ethical issues here; just run a search and tell me what you think!

Recommended AcademicEarth Course

"Milton", a lecture by John Rogers. Many thanks to Academic Earth!

The Internet Polyglot

The Internet Polyglot provides us with a great example of a CALL system. Funny games/tests on many topics: insurance, medical terms, etc. Just 21 for now but it looks promising!

WordNet

"WordNet® is a large lexical database of English, developed under the direction of George A. Miller. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms (synsets), each expressing a distinct concept. Synsets are interlinked by means of conceptual-semantic and lexical relations. The resulting network of meaningfully related words and concepts can be navigated with the browser. WordNet is also freely and publicly available for download. WordNet's structure makes it a useful tool for computational linguistics and natural language processing."
Click HERE to go to the WordNet® webpage!

Linguee.com/Linguee.de

... or the web as a dictionary! I haven't tested this yet, but it basically helps you to check terminology, phrases and sentences in a bilingual environment, i.e. English-German, German-English. Read the authors' description of this FREE service, test it and tell us what you think (use the "comment" option as, unfortunately, we won't have the chance to meet again in our translation/interpretation class this year):

"What is Linguee? With Linguee, you can search many millions of bilingual texts in English and German for words and expressions. Every expression is accompanied by useful additional information and suitable example sentences.
What is the benefit?When you translate texts to a foreign language, you usually look for common phrases rather than translations of single words. With its intelligent search and the significantly larger amount of stored text content, Linguee is the right tool for this task. You find:

• In what context a translation is used
• How frequent a particular translation is
• Example sentences: How have other people translated an expression?

By searching not only for a single word, but for a respective word in its context, you can easily find a translation that fits optimal in context. With its large number of entries, Linguee often retrieves translations of rare terms that you don't find anywhere else." (www.linguee.com)

A nice blog for all ANGLOPHILES out there!

Are you suffering from Anglophilia? Addicted to Britain and British ways? Get your daily dose HERE! It's free!

Recommended Reading: The Postcolonial Turn in Literary Translation Studies: Theoretical Frameworks Reviewed, by Bo Pettersson (University of Helsinki)

"In 1990 Susan Bassnett and André Lefevere, two towering translation studies scholars, famously announced what had been under way for some time: the "cultural turn" in translation studies. In brief, they envisaged that "neither the word, nor the text, but the culture becomes the operational ‘unit’ of translation" (Lefevere and Bassnett 1990: 8). The collection in which their piece appeared (Bassnett and Lefevere 1990) has recently been hailed by Edwin Gentzler (1998: xi), one of the leading synthesizers of translation theory, as the "real breakthrough for the field of translation studies" - which is true in the sense that it epitomized what is sometimes termed "the coming of age" of the discipline. In the 1990s translation studies has in many ways been informed by this cultural turn, which, as Bassnett (1998: 132-133) has shown, includes a rapprochment between cultural studies and translation studies, due to their related efforts to understand the process and status of globalization and national identities. This focus, together with the veritable explosion of postcolonial studies in literature in the last few years of the millennium, has entailed that the cultural turn in translation studies increasingly has become intercultural or multicultural. More specifically, owing to the wide-ranging interest in postcolonial literature and criticism, it might be termed the postcolonial turn."

Click HERE to read the entire article!

The Phrase Finder

Does your dictionary suit your needs? Does it provide you with enough information on a certain word/phrase? If your answer is YES, then don't bother clicking on this link: The Phrase Finder.

The Reading Club

The Department of British and American Studies

The British Council, Bucharest

The Reading Club

This week we put Briony the adult, of Ian McEwan’s Atonement, on trial, so everyone

is invited to prosecute or defend her!

Join us in in room 54,

on Wednesday, the 6th of May 2009, at 7 p.m.

(Letters and Arts bldg, LBUS)

THE COMPLETE SITE ON MAHATMA GANDHI

A Place to learn about Gandhi, his life, work & philosophy. This comprehensive site is regularly updated & maintained by non-profit Gandhian Organizations in India & has a wealth of information & material for researchers, students, activists & anyone interested in Gandhi. Click HERE to visit the site!

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a prominent political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. He is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: mahātmā or "Great Soul", an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore) and in India also as Bapu (Gujarati: bāpu or "Father"). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

The Master List of Free Online College Courses

Click HERE  to visit a collection of free online college classes available to the general public. 

Contents: 

   1. General Collections

   2. Math and Science

   3. History

   4. Arts and Humanities

   5. Business and Economics

European Commission Conference on Literary Translation and Culture

"The Conference allowed stakeholders and professionals to exchange their views and reflect on the main problems and potentials of the literary translation sector. As a first consideration it was underlined that the conference was the first to gather literary translators under the aegida of the European Commission. Moreover, the point was made that today literary translation is a true science, with its methods and masters. Training and remuneration were mentioned as crucial elements for high quality translations, together with the importance of centres of residence for the mobility of translators and the role of publishers in the diffusion of translated books. The perspective of translation as a tool for the promotion of the European culture in the world was also explored, together with the new opportunities offered in the audiovisual arts. The holding of regular meetings to gather literary translators was taken into consideration, together with the creation of a European label for bookstores presenting a vast choice of translated books." (Read the whole article HERE!)

Another interesting article: Languages contribute to consolidating European ideas and culture

Academic Earth

Click HERE to watch thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars on various subjects such as:

* Astronomy
* Biology
* Chemistry
* Computer Science
* Economics
* Engineering
* English
* Entrepreneurship
* History
* Law
* Mathematics
* Medicine
* Philosophy
* Physics
* Political Science
* Psychology
* Religion

In-Tech

In-Tech: FREE access to more than 2000 book chapters and journal papers!

The BBC Knowledge Magazine

I strongly recommend the new BBC Knowledge Magazine - a magazine about science, nature and history, invention, innovation and more. Click HERE to read it for FREE!

Christ is risen!

YouTube EDU has launched!

For starters, you could try a video on translation studies and listen to one of the major figures in the field: Susan Bassnett, Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Warwick, speaking about the future of doctoral programs in Translation. 

If you just want to have fun, click HERE! 

NB: This is not what an interpreter should be!

Sergey, you're "overcharged"!

"No one is immune from an occasional linguistic faux pas. After all, everyone has sent out an email with a typo once in a while. It’s slightly more embarrassing when a language-related misstep is broadcast for the world to see, which is why we cringed upon reading about the goodwill gift that Secretary of State Clinton presented to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia. The gift itself, which was meant to symbolize a resetting of the relationship between the two nations, contained an embarrassing mistranslation. Instead of bearing the term reset, (perezagruzka) the gift was labeled with the word peregruzka, which means overloaded or overcharged."

You can read the whole article HERE or try to imagine US and Romania walking "şold la şold" (a mistranslation of the English phrase "shoulder to shoulder" which made my day some years ago) towards our bright future together!

The Arts and Humanities pages of Intute

Intute is a free online service providing you with access to the best Web resources for education and research, selected and evaluated by a network of subject specialists. There are over 21,000 Web resources listed here that are freely available by keyword searching and browsing.

Quick pick: E-Journals --- English.

The American Culture Club - Sibiu

The American Culture Club of Sibiu held its inaugural meeting Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at the Faculty of Arts & Letters building of the University of Lucian Blaga in Sibiu (ULBS). The club and meeting were organized by Charles Harris, American Fulbright grantee in Romania, and Viorica Fleseru of Education USA at ULBS.

The American Culture Club, which has received a warm reception by teachers and administrators at ULBS and the 18 high schools of Sibiu, has three simple, yet important goals:

• to bring American cultural events and discussion on current social issues to Sibiu;
• to provide an English speaking environment in which to hold social and cultural gatherings for students;
• to give students experience in planning events and organizing discussions.

Events organized by the American Culture Club of Sibiu:

1. Social History and Government of the United States, course taught by Professor Harris (on Mondays from 12:00 to 14:00 and on Wednesdays from 14:00 to 16:00, the Law School bldg).
2. The American Culture Club meetings: every other Wednesday at 5:00 pm in Room#1 of the Letters and Arts bldg (NEXT meeting: 25 March.)

BigThink: Paul Krugman on Post-Consumer Society

Watch Paul Krugman speaking about the impact of the financial crisis on shopping mall culture. (Click on the title of this post to go to the BigThink website!)

Paul Robin Krugman, born February 28, 1953, is an American economist, columnist, intellectual and author.He is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, a centenary professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. In 2008, Krugman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity". Krugman is known in academia for his work in international economics, including trade theory, economic geography, and international finance.

LitSum: Free Literature Summaries and Study Guides

Litsum is a totally new alternative for free literature summaries! If you are looking for free book summaries or book notes, Litsum has more free literature summaries than any other site. Their literature study guides and enotes include full chapter summaries and analysis, topics for discussion, quotes, style, themes and character analysis. Litsum is probably the largest free literature summary website online! It is a great tool, but you should also consider reading the books. Otherwise, most study guides available on Litsum are useless!

Free E-book Download: Fiction

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town is a contemporary fantasy novel by Canadian author Cory Doctorow. (click on the title of the book or on the title of this post to download it for FREE!)

This novel reverses many of the conventions of the cyberpunk genre. With the exception of a brief story written by the main character, it takes place wholly in a "real" world (albeit a strange one) instead of involving a complex digital simulation. The characters that would be most associated with the "punks" are older guys who are well aware of their age and show a strong emotional side instead of being younger, detached, and augmented. (It stands to note that the "standard" mohawk does appear on at least one character's head.) Some of the ones closest to the "hacking scheme" are even part of the iconic big business that would normally be a threat in a similar setting. Rather than hacking tons of code in elaborate, secretive plans, the characters use dumpster diving to piece together technology that is free to all. They are open about what they are doing, actively seeking assistance from whatever source. The rebellious youth of the novel often scorn computer technology or work on the project without knowing what they are doing. Anarchists shun helping Alan and Kurt, while big business delights in it.

Recommended TV Program

Dirty Jobs 

Friday, March 20, Discovery Channel, 6pm (Bucharest Timezone).

Readings from America

The Reading Club & the American Culture Club present:

READINGS FROM AMERICA

Jeremy Hawkins, American Fulbrighter

&

Brian Oliu, University of Alabama

will present original works of poetry and "creative" non-fiction

Monday, 16 March, 7:00pm, Room 62, Arts and Letters Building (LBUS)

Conference Announcement: March 31, 2009

Keynote speaker: Dr Olivera Petrovich lectures on Atheism or Religion. Psychological Evidence for the concept of God in Children and Adults.

Venues: the Avram Iancu Auditorium, Faculty of Letters and Arts (LBUS)

Dr Petrovich's presentation is part of a series of scientific events to be held at LBUS between March 31 and April 2, 2009. See you all there!

Dr Olivera Petrovich (University of Oxford,  Faculty of Theology) is a psychologist who specialises in the nature and development of religious belief; her main interests are: psychological research of religion in human development across life span and in different cultures; nature of religious understanding and origin of religious concepts (especially of God); religious cognition and moral development; religious education. She obtained her first degree in psychology from the University of Belgrade. A one year scholarship from The British Council enabled her to come to Oxford and embark on research of childhood artificialism, which culminated in a doctoral thesis thanks to a generous grant from The Roblee Foundation (US). Olivera Petrovich is a member of two faculties in the University of Oxford: Department of Experimental Psychology, where she conducts empirical research and lectures in Developmental Questions in Science and Religion, and the Faculty of Theology at Wolfson College, where her responsibilities include teaching and examining in the Psychology of Religion. She lectures on topics at the interface of psychology and theology.  Her latest book, The Child’s Theory of the World, was published by Psychology Press, on 30/10/2009)

Watch a video in which Dr Petrovich explains her research that suggests belief in a creator is the default position of children: click HERE!

A Great Tool for Students - Bartleby.com

Bartleby.com - one of the best internet publishers of literature offers free access to open domain texts. I strongly recommend: Columbia Encyclopedia, American Heritage Dictionary, Columbia World of Quotations, Oxford Shakespeare, Gray's Anatomy, Strunk's Elements of Style and World Factbook.

Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary Online

The Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary Online is a great resource for all of us who want to improve our general vocabulary and understanding of specialized terminology.  The 15 major themes contain more than 6,000 images and see words like never before. Click HERE to watch a demo.

Get FREE Babylon license for EDUCATIONAL USE!

Good news for people in need of a translation software, but short on money. Babylon Ltd., provider of dictionary and translation solutions, started to give away free licenses for educational use. I joined in today and immediately got a reply. So give it a try. You may apply for a license of this handy translation tool to on this page .

EUR-Lex: FREE Access to EU Law

EUR-Lex provides direct free access to European Union law. Here you can consult the Official Journal of the European Union as well as the treaties, legislation, case-law and legislative proposals. You can also use the extensive search facilities available on EUR-Lex.
The information is available in ALL the official languages of the EU.

Click on the following link to go to the EUR-Lex website: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm

Recommended:

1. Recognition of diplomas and qualifications in the European Union
2. Multilingualism in the EU
3. Employment

eScholarship Editions

The eScholarship Editions collection includes almost 2000 books from academic presses on a range of topics, including art, science, history, music, religion, and fiction. Over 500 titles are available to the public.

Recommended FREE books:

1. Ezra Pound and the Remaking of American Poetic Tradition - by Christopher Beach

2. Suggestion and Covert Meaning in the Works of Dryden, Swift, Pope, and Austen - by Irvin Ehrenpreis

3. America at Century's End - edited by Alan Wolfe

4. Asceticism and Society in Crisis. John of Ephesus and the Lives of the Eastern Saints - by Susan Ashbrook Harvey

5. Authors of Their Own Lives. Intellectual Autobiographies by Twenty American Sociologists - Edited by Bennett M. Berger

The Power of Film Translation

"The Power of Film Translation" by Agnieszka Szarkowska is an interesting article in which the author presents the major modes of film translation, their world distribution and history, followed by an analysis of dubbing and subtitling from the perspective of domestication and foreignisation.
(Agnieszka Szarkowska graduated with an MA degree from the Institute of English Studies, Warsaw University. Now a PhD student at her alma mater, she is working on her doctoral dissertation and teaching English-Polish translation.)
Click on the following link to read the full article: http://accurapid.com/journal/32film.htm.

L’acte de traduction

by Mathieu Dosse
"L’un des plus importants penseurs contemporains de la traduction nous a laissé une œuvre de taille réduite. Si l’on omet nombre d’articles, nous n’avions jusqu’à présent accès qu’à trois livres d’Antoine Berman, dont un posthume. Une œuvre restreinte, certes, mais essentielle : chacun des ces livres, à sa manière, explore sous un prisme différent la pensée de la traduction. L’Auberge du lointain, court et didactique, complète à merveille L’Épreuve de l’étranger, dont la portée ne cesse de se confirmer au fil des années ; quant à l’ouvrage posthume, paru en 1995, Pour une critique des traduction : John Donne, la plupart des traductologues s’accordent à dire que Berman y a esquissé les contours d’une analyse moderne des traductions (ne mettant pas systématiquement en avant la négativité de la traduction), et posé dans le même mouvement les jalons d’une pensée contemporaine de la traduction où pratique, critique et réflexion se complètent."
(Click on the following link to read the entire article: http://www.fabula.org/revue/document4888.php)
FREE preview of Berman's L’Auberge du lointain available on Google Books - in English (click on the title!):

• The Experience of the Foreign

BBC Video: Five Minutes with Martin Amis

Celebrities and news-makers get grilled in exactly five minutes by Matthew Stadlen in a series for the BBC News website.Click the following link to go the BBC website and watch the video:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7881933.stm.

Shelfari

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