CBS Online Seminar: Translational Poetics

Title: Translational Poetics

Date: June 8, 2022

Time: 15:00 - 16:15

Abstract

China's rich cultural heritage is indelibly and inextricably linked to its literary tradition. Given the great differences between this tradition and that of the West, the question of China and the world is inescapable and has led to increasingly heated debates in recent decades. Needless to say, the connecting bridge between Chinese text and world literature is translation – there is little reason to believe that international audiences have a sufficient command of the Chinese language to read Chinese literature in its original. Apart from the linguistic differences between Chinese and English, the lingua franca of international publishing, the enormous cultural divide presents a serious challenge. Therefore, mapping the Chinese cultural world has become an urgent endeavor to describe, conceptualize, understand, and explain the fundamentals of Chinese literature. Meanwhile, a gradual but steady process of internationalization of Chinese literature is taking place as more and more Chinese literary texts are translated into English. Since translation is closely linked to transcultural rewriting, this particular form of rewriting is predicated on manipulation, which, despite its negative connotations, ideological, stylistic or otherwise, is usually involved in literary translation. Whatever form it takes, it is intrinsically transcultural in the sense that it must respond to cross-cultural challenges and interactions. While translational rewriting is necessary or even essential because of the lack of cross-cultural transferability, it can be variously motivated and circumstanced and variously functioning and regulating. Although China has demonstrated its openness and developed cosmopolitan ties with the rest of the world, much more can be done to promote intercultural communication. The critical function of translation is once again brought to the fore so that the greatest works of Chinese literature can become part of world literature. The real challenge is to better deal with cross-cultural untranslatability and establish a more vibrant and productive literary dialogue between China and the West.

About the Speaker

Yifeng Sun is Chair Professor of Translation Studies at the University of Macau, where he is also a Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences. He is former Vice President of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Babel: International Journal of Translation.