Creative translation and creativity via translation:

Thesis

This thesis makes an inquiry into the literary translation and creation in the early twentieth-century China, particularly between the years 1900 and 1925. I combine the theoretical approaches of both translation studies and intertextuality studies to form the overall methodological framework that informs the discussions in the thesis. Although the modern transformation of Chinese literature has long been discussed and debated in various scholarly works, which often attribute the transformation to foreign influences and reconstruction of indigenous literary tradition, a theoretical language is urgently required to articulate the exact process of literary adaptation and appropriation. Rather than taking the concept of “influence” at face value, I probe the intricate process of influence by examining the way Chinese writers and translators creatively translated and intertextualized foreign literary works to construct new literary texts. The two modalities of literary production – translation and intertextuality – call for the approaches of translation studies and intertextuality studies, and only when both approaches are taken into account can a fuller understanding of the literary scene in the early years of twentieth-century China be obtained.

I apply my methodology to the study of the transformation of emotional expressions which are most frequently found in love fiction. By combining translation and intertextuality, some Chinese writer-translators such as Bao Tianxiao and Zhou Shoujuan creatively translated foreign fiction, conveying emotions different from those intended by the original texts while at the same time introducing new modes of emotional expression to Chinese literature. Others, such as Su Manshu and Yu Dafu, borrowed foreign literary texts to construct their own literary creations, appropriating the emotions conveyed by the foreign texts. As a result of the vigorous adaptation and appropriation of Chinese writer-translators, new modes of emotional expression emerged in modern Chinese literature.

Authors: Liu, Q

• Alternative title: the transformation of emotional expression in early modern Chinese fiction (1900-1925)
• Publication date: 2013
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-qorbqg0wg
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: translation; modern Chinese literature; intertextuality; emotional expression
• Subjects: Literatures of other languages; Chinese