The Engagement of Translation in Remodeling “Root-Seeking” Literature into World Literature: A Dictionary of Maqiao as an Example

Peng Lyu, Xiaoyan Huang

Abstract


The study provides an innovative insight into the engagement of translation in remodeling Chinese “root-seeking” literature into world literature. By selecting Han Shaogong’s A Dictionary of Maqiao and its English translation completed by Julia Lovell as a case, we reconceptualize the reconciling engagement of translation within the framework of translation as “re-narration” at four levels: narrative reference, narrative perspective, characterization and narrative distance. Through a textual and contextual analysis, Lovell’s “faithful recreation” witnessed by the dual subjectivity of the writer and the translator contributes to building up a textual and cultural dialogue with the target readers. It examines how narratorial voices as focalizations reshape the translator’s “re-narration” and how Lovell deals with transgression rejoining this process, and investigates how Lovell continues Han’s retelling of historical culture through characterization. Also, it analyzes narrative distance peculiarly represented by modality and sound patterns captured by Lovell, outlining Han’s resistance of “root-seeking” after historical shock and transition. This paper hopes to provide some ideas for promoting the understanding of contemporary Chinese literary works and world literature by virtue of translation, thus refining cultural exchanges and transmission.

Keywords


Engagement of Translation, “root-seeking” Literature, World Literature, A Dictionary of Maqiao

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aixelá, J. F. (1996). Culture-specific items in translation. In Román Alvarez & M. Carmen-África Vidal (Eds.), Translation, power, subversion (pp.52-78). Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Baker, M. (2014). Translation as re-narration. In Juliane House (Ed.), Translation: a multidisciplinary approach (pp.158-77). Palgrave Macmillan.

Chen, S. (1997). A Dictionary of Maqiao: an example of world elements in contemporary Chinese literature. Contemporary Writers Review, 2, 30-38. Doi: 10.16551/j.cnki.1002-1809.1997.02.004

Damrosch, D. (2003). What is world literature? Princeton University Press.

Genette, G. (1980). Narrative discourse: an essay in method (Jane. E. Lewin, Trans.). Cornell University Press.

Han, S. (2005). A dictionary of maqiao (Julia Lovell, Trans.). Dial Press.

Han, S. (2017). Maqiao cidian. Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House.

Hermans, T. (1996). The translator’s voice in translated narrative. Target 8(1), 23-48. https://doi.org/10.1075/target.8.1.03her

Hu, X. (2015). Three angles of narrative distance: structure, space and dialogue. Guizhou Social Sciences, 310(10), 49-54. Doi: 10.13713/j.cnki.cssci.2015.10.010

Jahn, M. (2021). Narratology 2.2: a guide to the theory of narrative. English Department, University of Cologne. URL www.uni-koeln.de/~ame02/pppn.pdf.

Jiang, C. (2012). Rethinking the translator’s voice. Neohelicon, 39(2), 365-81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-012-0144

Kinkley, J. C. (1993). Shen Congwen’s legacy in Chinese literature of the 1980s. In Ellen Widmer & David Der-Wei Wang (Eds.), From May fourth to June fourth: fiction and film in twentieth-century China (pp.71-106). Harvard University Press.

Kundera, M. (2002). The unbearable lightness of being (Han Shaogong & Han Gang, Trans.). Times Literature and Art Publishing House.

Leenhouts, M. (2016). Culture against politics: roots-seeking literature. In Kirk A. Denton (Ed.), The Columbia companion to modern Chinese literature (pp. 299-306). Columbia University Press.

Lefevere, A. (1992). Translation, rewriting and the manipulation of literary fame. Routledge.

Li, Q. (2000). Seeking for roots: anticultural return in mainland Chinese literature of the 1980s. In Pang-Yuan Chi & David Der-Wei Wang (Eds.), Chinese literature in the second half of a modern century: a critical survey (pp.110-23). Indiana University Press.

Li, Y. (2014). On Han Shaogong’s literary acceptance and creative transformation of Milan Kundera: from Unbearable Lightness of Being to Book of Day and Night. Foreign Literature Studies, 5, 147-156. Doi: 10.19915/j.cnki.fls.2014.05.019

Liu, Y., & Xu, J. (2016). How to understand the richness, complexity, and creativity of translation? – a conversation on the essence of translation. Foreign Languages in China, 13(1), 95-100. Doi: 10.13564/j.cnki.issn.1672-9382.2016.01.013

Lovell, J. (2006). The Politics of Cultural Capital: China’s Quest for a Nobel Prize in Literature: University of Hawai’i Press.

Lovell, J. (2011). Dropped off the map: Han Shaogong’s Maqiao. World Literature Today, 85(4), 25-26. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/843446

Määttä, S. K. (2004). Dialect and point of view: the ideology of translation in The sound and the fury in French. Target, 16(2), 319-339. https://doi.org/10.1075/target.16.2.06maa

Margolin, U. (2007). Character. In David Herman (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to narrative (pp. 66-79). Cambridge University Press.

McLaughlin, M. (2008). (In)visibility: dislocation in French and the voice of the translator. French Studies, 1, 53-64. Doi: 10.1093/fs/knm233

O’Sullivan, E. (2003). Narratology meets translation studies, or, the voice of the translator in children’s literature. Meta, 48, 197-207. https://doi.org/10.7202/006967ar

Pessoa, F. (1995). The book of disquiet (Han Shaogong, Trans.). Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House.

Sánchez, M. T. (1999). Translation as a(n) (im)possible task: Dialect in literature. Babel, 45(4), 301-310. https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.45.4.03san

Song, Y. (2018). The engagement of translation: theoretical basis and exemplifications. Foreign Languages and Translation, 98(3), 1-8. Doi: 10.19502/j.cnki.2095-9648.2018.03.001

Venuti, L. (1995). The translator’s invisibility: a history of translation. Routledge.

Venuti, L. (1998). The scandals of translation: towards an ethics of difference. Routledge.

Venuti, L. (2013). Translation changes everything: theory and practice. Routledge.

Wang, N. (2010). World literature and the dynamic function of translation. Modern Language Quarterly, 71(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1215/00267929-2009-019

Yan, F. (2013). The global genealogy of perception: recovering Mo Yan’s modernity. Comparative Literature in China, 90(1), 1-10.

Zhang, M. (2019). The “going global” of Chinese literature: the view from the agent – an interview with Julia Lovell, a sinologist and translator. Foreign Language Research, 206(1), 110-115. Doi: 10.16263/j.cnki.23-1071/h.2019.01.018




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijclts.v.10n.4p.34

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2013-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies

You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.