PhD Oral Exam - Niki Lambros, Humanities

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

Examining methodologies of translating poetry developed from an interdisciplinary approach, namely a combination of research creation (Creative Writing, MA 2015), history, theory (Dept of English), and Translation Studies, in combination with insights gained from over a decade as a Greek Orthodox nun in monasteries in Greece, Jerusalem, Russia and South Korea, as well as my experience translating poetry and liturgical works from modern and Hellenistic Greek (Cambridge Theological Federation, UK, 2001), this thesis presents techniques and identifies specialized forms of knowledge and craft that address the very specific task of translating poetry well. After a discussion of the tradition and importance of translation in developing one's own poetic praxis, I offer a timeline of English translation of Greek drama and its expansion to include an impressive array of women now leading the field. A detailed chapter on Sacred Poetics, the translation of sacred texts from Greek to English, and the challenges and solutions offered by the Anglican tradition, is followed by an analysis of Seamus Heaney's contribution to the translation of poetry and Greek drama, and the effects this had on real-world politics, as well as his own development as a poet. Finally, I offer my own translation and an exegesis of my methods using a section from a modern Greek translation of Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes. I conclude with a summary integrating the five chapters, to demonstrate an understanding of the spectrum of skills and knowledge required for the successful translation of poetry, and the criteria connected with a poetics of translation in terms of what the future of both poetry and translation can be if it is adopted, as once was standard, as a poetic praxis for poets today.