WL 404W: Literature and Translation

Translating Contemporary Chinese Literature without Orientalism: Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum Clan (Excerpt)

Shanelle Sham — 2018-04-26

Despite the popularity of translated Asian literature in the West, the window for contemporary Chinese authors’ works reaching an Anglophone audience remains narrow, as English readers have proven their gravitation towards scar literature (stories centringaround the absurdity of the Maoist era). Mo Yan’s character-lite novellas reject both the Western mythicize portrayal of China and the official Chinese account of its history. His recast of historical novels with rich, colourful, imagistic language has made him the very first People's Republic of China residence to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature. Mo Yan's achievement, though, is overshadowed by the Western denunciation of his involvement with the Chinese Communist Party and avoidance of using his international visibility as a soapbox to demand changes from his government.

While Howard Goldblatt's translation of Mo Yan's 1986 novel Red Sorghum Clan is straightforward and faithful, giving readers good access to Mo's magical literary world, he sacrifices the complex layering of Jiu’er’s characterization. My objective for this translation is to faithfully regurgitate the dimensions Mo gave to his female protagonist through a mythomaniacal landscapes depiction while avoiding Orientalized the rustic ‘Chineseness’ intrinsic to Mo Yan's literary image.

My translator’s note details my stylistic and orthography choices, contextualize my selection, as well as clarifies my philosophy with references to translation theorists such as Umberto Eco, Lawrence Venuti and Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood’s assertive feminist translation.

Nakajima's Colonial Mentality: Translation as Colonization in Colonial Korea

Emily Emiko McNeill — 2018-04-26

Colonization can be found in the national history of many peoples to this day. In 1910 when Japan began their colonization of Korea, they were late to the game that Western civilization had become systematically proficient. As a result of colonization’s dependence on representing the colonized as inferior; the act of translation became a tool for colonizing nations to cement their authority. It is in this way that the concept of originality becomes a metaphor for colonized nations becoming a translated copy to the colonizers original. Japan, like the colonizing nations before them, saw this connection and used translation to create a discourse that exemplifies Korea’s dependence on the Japanese original, as well as a strategy of control against resistance. Through his 1929 short story “Landscape with Patrolman: A Sketch of 1923”, Japanese writer Atsushi Nakajima mediates his mixed sense of colonized and colonizer through Korean patrolman and translator Cho who is forced to side with the colonizers while also being the colonized. By examining how translation has been used as a discourse for colonization and control, Nakajima’s text is seen as a rendition of his sympathies for the people Japan colonizes due to his own self-colonization, but also his ambivalence towards the ethics Japan’s colonial endeavors.

Re-Arranging Translation Culture in North America: What Could Literary Translation Gain from the Music World?

Melanie Hiepler — 2018-04-26

Literary translation and music arrangement perform the same task: both take original texts or songs and re-work them for new contexts. In Anglo-American culture, though, the similarity ends there. The role that fluency plays in the reception of translations as opposed to arrangements reveals that, between the literary and musical worlds, audiences take very different outlooks on the relationship between an original work and its derivative work. A comparison between Lawrence Venuti’s views on linguistic fluency in translation, as presented in The Translator’s Invisibility (1995), and a case study on fluency (i.e. culturally-perceived musicality) in the arrangements of American a cappella pop group Pentatonix reveals that, where Anglo-American audiences approach translations to lock onto an original text, the same audiences view arrangements as authentic, distinct developments in an original song’s creative evolution. Having identified this problem in literary translation discourse, this paper turns to Louise M. Rosenblatt’s transactional reader response theory and Roland Barthes’ notion of the death of the author as critical frameworks for rethinking originality and the development of a text or song’s afterlife. This paper considers a different way of thinking about the relationship between readers, “original” texts and songs, and their derivative works, and goes on to suggest that Anglo-American readers would do well to take a more critical perspective on the process of translation.

Translating Homosexuality: Manuel Puig’s, Kiss of the Spider Woman

Pracilla Naidu — 2018-04-26

Spanish is a very gendered language since each word has gendered pronouns built into the verb tense. Looking at the translation of a text from Spanish to English becomes interesting because the English language is not gendered, rather it is very gender neutral. Therefore, when translating from Spanish to English, it is debatable whether there is a gain or a loss in the translation. This paper looks at Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel, El beso de la mujer araña (Kiss of the Spider Woman) two English translations by Thomas Colchie and Alan Baker and compares each texts treatment on gender. In addition to analyzing Baker and Colchie’s translations, a third translation is created and compared to the two, analyzing how gender can be implied even when pronouns are not being used. This paper will analyze how masculinity and femininity are still present in translations, even when gendered pronouns are not used. Regardless of whether the language is gendered or not, the translations still hold a sense of gender in all versions of the text.

Translating the Bible for Children: The Importance of the Target Audience and the Role of the Translator in Making Meaning

Coryn Clough — 2018-04-26

Translated into some eight-hundred languages, the Holy Bible is one of the most translated pieces in the history of human written language. Within this broad scope of translation, there are not only target audiences of varying languages and cultures, but also of ages and levels of linguistic comprehension. Translations for children provide an extra challenge because they provide a complicated task of the translator to produce a text that, above all, cannot be misunderstood. By examining the translator prefaces, accompanying illustrations, and selected verses from two English children's Bibles, the role of the translator in ensuring the comprehensibility of the text is split into examples of foreignizing and domesticating translation methods. However, regardless of translation methods, both translator prefaces include a statement relinquishing responsibility for errors in translation which complicates the role of the translator as the one responsible for comprehension. Looking at the preface justifications in conjunction with the language of the texts themselves and theory from Bible scholar Nida, fostering understanding on the part of the target audience is ultimately revealed to be the responsibility of the translator, though acknowledgement of the child audience in the translator-text-audience interaction is also vital.

Intersemiotic Translation and Censorship in Catalan Poetry: Minority Language Marginalization in Francoist Spain

Liza Siamer — 2018-04-26

Translation has undeniably enhanced cross-cultural exchanges in times of political repression. This essay aims to demonstrate the politicization of translation in Francoist Spain and the degree to which intersemiotic translation influenced the linguistic practice of translation in Catalonia. First, I will be looking at intersemiotic translation as a tool that allows a text to escape the repressive language policies imposed by the Francoist regime while preserving its underlying meaning. My essay will focus on Jacint Verdaguer’s intersemiotic translation of the poem “L’emigrant” and Salvador Espriu’s poem “inici de cantic en el temple” and analyze the ways in which the poets erase themselves from the literary landscape in order for the poem to survive censorship. I will be looking at the biblical allusions used and the recontextualization of the poems in different time periods. The next section presents the success of intersemiotic translation in bringing engaging a transnational dialogue and epitomizing the politicization of translation. In the case of Catalan, the use of intersemiotic translation sets the tone for the language-power relationship reinforced by the Francoist repression. Finally, my paper rethinks translation in its practice to compensate for the minority status of Catalan and the potential aesthetic concerns arising from this need to translate to preserve a language from disappearing.

Between the Sheets: Looking at Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book with Gender-Translation Theory

Amanda Rachmat — 2018-04-26

Sei Shonagon’s, The Pillow Book, is a text that stands out from ancient literary genres as one that transcends barriers created from antiquity and culture. Over a thousand years has passed since it was written, and this iconic diary continues to be translated into not only many modern languages but also as intersemiotic translations such as films, plays, and art installations. Because much of what we know of Heian Japanese court life derives from this text, it is imperative to analyze these translations with a critical lens to ensure that Shonagon’s intent is preserved and that both translators and readers do not culturally appropriate the text into one that aligns with their own personal agenda. Therefore, Gender-Translation theory provides an ideal framework for examining this text because of it’s nature to draw from interdisciplinary theory. This paper will discuss the history and framework of Gender-Translation Theory in order to then use its translation tools to compare two English translations of Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book—those of Arthur Waley (1928) and Meredith McKinney (2006). By using tools provided by Gender-Translation Theory, such as analyzing the translator’s version of the female subject in translation, we will be able to understand the significance of examining gender in translation.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince: Dual-Targeted Audience

Fatima Magbanua — 2018-04-26

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince is a worldwide phenomenon considering it was translated hundreds of times over and across cultures. However, Le Petit Prince is so often mistaken for only a children’s book due to its simple language and colored illustrations displaying itself as a picture book. In fact, its apparent simplicity is what hides a world of unnoticed meanings that are embodied by the characters in the story: allegorical and philosophical meanings that only adults can grasp. This paper will discuss what children’s literature entails and what makes Le Petit Prince as dually addressed. From the replacement of vous and tu to you, from apprivoiser to tame and from perdre to waste, some aspects of the story are obscured, reducing its children audience. By an examination of both the original and the English translation, I will argue that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s original is designed for a dual audience. On the contrary, Wood’s English translation slightly loses the dual-audience aspect and targets more towards adult readers, thus slightly takes away what Saint-Exupéry intended for his child and adult readers. The reader then understands why The Little Prince by Katherine Wood somewhat restricts its child audience.

Tradition or Translation: Anthropomorphism in Nuer Literature

Nalia Diew-Loth — 2018-04-26

More than ever, translation in children’s literature has grown immensely, particularly in the space of other cultures. However, there has been little to no discourse on translation studies in exploring the use of anthropomorphism in writing. Nuer myths, such as What’s So Funny, Ketu?, explore what it might mean to accept the relationship of human and other species. The tale conjures up a number of questions about the limits and allowances of anthropomorphism in literature, and their relation to language, representation, and reality. The article aims to show how anthropomorphism explains the role of translation in the wide field of discourses pertaining to oral literature. It outlines the tradition of anthropomorphism in oral cultures and then explores how the difference of animal relations is recorded when written. As we tend to place animals in an entirely different category from humans, What’s So Funny, Ketu? seeks to illustrate animals outside the hierarchy and structure of human society and employ them to objectively challenge and question human hegemonies. In What’s So Funny, Ketu?, I will argue, that anthropomorphism serves as a means of translation employed to link realms that are conventionally separate, challenge traditional human structures and operate outside national boundaries.

'Maman' or 'Mother': A Closer Look at Word Choice in Translations of Albert Camus’ L’Étranger

Debora Elizabeth Ross — 2018-04-26

When the topic of French literature comes up, Albert Camus’ L’Étranger is one of the first novels that comes to mind. As one of the most translated novels worldwide, L’Étranger has global reach and continues to be one of the most influential French novels on the absurd. In translation, one of the key issues has to do with the translator’s word and language choice. A controversial, and often discussed, example is the first sentence of the novel. The first sentence has the ability to shape, and even change, the reader’s perspective. By analyzing and comparing Camus’ original French text to Stuart Gilbert and Matthew Ward’s respective English translations, we see how Gilbert and Ward’s choice of “Mother” versus “Maman” has an affect on the reader’s perception of the main character Meursault. Inspired by Venuti’s idea of the translator’s invisibility, by bringing the focus to the translator’s decision, we better understand why each translator selected a different word in translation. Acknowledging Gilbert and Ward’s role as a translator within the text provides a more active and inclusive voice that justifies their decisions instead of ignoring them. The reader then understands how Meursault is read differently across the three versions.

Logograms and Linguists: Logograms and Linguistics: An Analysis of the Figure of the Translator in Arrival

Anna-Beth Seemungal — 2018-04-26

When it comes to the representation of the theme of translation in global cinema, Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 Oscar-nominated film Arrival provides one of the most insightful and entertaining depictions of the figure of the translator. Arrival is more than just another alien film because its conflict is rooted in the concept of being ‘lost in translation’. The film’s tension diffuses only once a solution has been ‘found’ through proper translation of the aliens’ written language. Here the figure of the translator, represented by the character of Louise Banks, is called to interact closely with aliens who represent the “Other”. This raises the question, “To what degree does the translator become “Other” through the art of translation?”. While Louise does not exactly fit into the category of “Other”, she does experience forms of othering and becomes an “Outsider” through the process of translation. By analyzing Louise’s approach to translation, method of thinking, view and relation to language, this paper aims to show how the film suggests that being an Other or an Outsider can actually be an asset when it comes to translating, which coincidentally emphasizes the film’s call for openness rather than hostility toward otherness.

In the Deep, Dark Woods: Little Red Riding Hood and intersemiotic translations and adaptations in contemporary Japanese art and fiction

Jaiden Dembo — 2018-04-26

Little Red Riding Hood is one of the most prolific fairy tales across the globe, having been translated and adapted hundreds of times over and across cultures. Charles Perrault and the brothers Grimm’s versions work as foundational texts for which translators base their interpretations off of. Taking “Little Red Riding Hood” far East to Japan this paper examines the extremes of how contemporary artists have translated and altered a familiar tale and brought gender, sex and sexuality, and feminism into question. Kōnoeike Tomoko’s visual art Knifer Life and Ōkamizukin (Wolf Hood), and Yamada Izumi’s short story “In the Belly of the Wolf” are intersemiotic translations and adaptations that build on the original darkness of the European version with their own darkness. By analyzing these works through structuralist narratology and assessing how far and in what manner they diverge from the source text, we can explore the conflicting binary of female empowerment and objectification, the question of intended audience, and whether these translations are considered feminist (or what).

Hwang Sunwon's Cranes

Sze Wai Yeung — 2018-04-26

This project looks at the literature and translation history of Korean literature, and how the social and political movements has made Korean literature what it is today. It also explores the difficulties in translating between two closely related cultures. I translated Hwang Sunwon’s short story “Cranes” from Korean to Chinese in hope of creating a platform of amendment between the two culture and nation that is experiencing struggles because of political and economical tension.

Finding the Political Elements in Translations of Mihai Eminescu’s “Luceafarul”

Iulia Atala Sincraian — 2018-04-26

Still working on my abstract.

The Harmony Past Knowing: Research on & Experiments in Translating Surrealism

Dawson F Campbell — 2018-04-26

Approaching 100 years of the Surreal, it seems appropriate to return to the beginning. When André Breton and Philippe Soupault conceived Surrealism in 1919 with the creation of the first experiment in automatic writing, Les Champs magnétiques (Magnetic Fields), there was no way they could have imagined the prodigious influence that their movement would have on artistic culture up to a century later. Indeed, Surrealism has had a global effect, ergo we must turn our attention to the translators who helped disseminate the Surreal around the world. Scrutinizing Surrealism’s translators, however, brings us to an impasse: while they do, of course, discuss their translations, they provide no theoretical or conceptual model for translating the surrealist experiment. This paper, in conceiving two conceptual models for Surrealism, aims to devise—and, finally practice with a quasi-experimental translation of “Gants blancs” (White Gloves) from the seminal 1920 œuvre Les Champs magnétiques—a unifying theory for faithfully translating the experimental spirit of Surrealism while crafting a language true to, what Breton calls, the “convulsive beauty” of the source.

The Making of "le faulkner": A reflection on French of As I Lay Dying

Xuebing XU — 2018-04-26

In a certain period of literary history, some works confirm its status and (re)gain its authority due to the translation. William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying is an example. The novel was long time ignored by American critics and it was discovered and favoured in France, then later in others European countries. The French translator contributed a lot to the acquisition of reputation and to the literary influence of the novel.

By an examination of the French translation, this paper argues the accuracy and appropriateness of some techniques and the strategy employed by the translator, for example, few deforming approaches which some translation theories criticised can be easily identified in the translation. But no doubt, the translation won the praise for the novel, then enlarged the influence of Faulkner’s style on French literature.

The French translation of As I Lay Dying confirms the power of the translator in multiple roles: his translation with the heavy domestication finger print, his efforts of promotion, his involvement in the publishing network, etc.. As the result, As I Lay Dying is conserved as one of the masterpieces of Faulkner and continues to impress readers and influence writing in both its host and original countries.

Lost and Found in Translation

Melek Ortabasi — 2018-06-14