Professor Pilinovsky of our own CSUSB English department presented a guest lecture in class today, with the loose working title of “Translation Issues, Research, and Cultural Themes in Composition” (my own putative offering, not to be confused with any trademarked label or formal designation). In no particular order, Pilinovsky eloquently and amusingly remarked on her personal experiences in terms of research–most interestingly, primary source research related to a doctoral dissertation (which itself arose out of an extended ‘affair’ with fairy tales; another story). Literate in a wide range of media, from Russian folklore to modern Western cinema, Pilinovsky was open to questions from the class, the majority of which bore connections to aspects of translation; however, elements of rhetoric, culture and pedagogy entered the mix as well. The presentation occured in a fairly informal academic setting, yet produced serious fruit vis-a-vis the research questions and ‘how-tos’ of the class, which seemed to benefit universally from this first-hand account out of the lips of an established authority in the field who has the advantage of having once been where we are now.
Proposed: a topos of relevant\irrelevant as a standard for evaluating Professor Pilinovsky’s participation today. Few would dispute her credentials and “right” to address a class full of future professional ‘compers’: instructors, writers, ESL teachers, who can say what else? Pilinovsky’s wealth of experience, talent (especially linguistic), and acumen regarding the overall state of the field–as well as what one might tentatively entitle ‘thematic intuition’, particularly with regard to her “reading” of fable-type themes from all manner of media–found a welcome ear in the case of this listener. Personal anecdotes related to her graduate research, and her manifest familiarity with methodologies, schools of thought, and various forms of praxis on questions of research and translation must be labeled relevant for present purposes, since those very topics represent something of the ‘theme’ of English 609. True, there were “at-risk” moments during the interaction where the possibility of veering completely off subject materialized, yet the Professor appeared at ease and properly oriented throughout, engaging both individual students and the class at large in dialogue. Acting (understandably) more as host than head instructor, Prof. Rhodes intervened at key moments in the presentation to ask her own questions, both of the class and our guest lecturer. Ultimately, I submit that the larger concerns of English studies emerged in a balanced fashion, with focus on select themes (as mentioned above) that are pertinent in themselves–and received treatment accordingly, albeit in a diversionary format. All library projects and no visiting professors make 609 students dull pupils, or something like that.
