#15 Dec 23 - Studies on Translation Theories
#15 Dec 23 Cultural Studies Venuti “Bestseller” in The Scandals of Translation; Ken-fang Lee, “Far Away, So Close: Cultural Translation in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 4.2 (2003): 281-295.
1 意見:
The first reading from Venuti outlines how the series of Guareschi, an Italian novelist, can bring a huge success in America during the Cold War. Venuti analyzes this phenomenon in terms of the ideology it presents, the background of this phenomenon, the translation and editing process as well as the marginal position of the translator in this event of profit. In Venuti’s detailed analysis, the reason why the novels of Guareschi would create such a great hit in the US and then in the UK mainly lies in the value the novels presents. Its anti-communism and emphasis on the patriarchal masculinity in the family corresponds largely to the stereotype of the Italians in the American society. Moreover, the translating and editing of his novels also suggest that cultural expectations/constraints could never stop exerting their influences on the translation, especially when it is seen as a cultural product. But, however successful these translations may be, the translators could only get a relatively low payment. And this exclusion of translators from the profit seems to be even worse in the profit-oriented publishing industry in the US after the merger of small publishers. This profit-oriented tendency then in return re-enforces the translation of bestsellers in the market. And translation becomes a marginal role in the market place.
Another great-hit in the market is Ang Lee’s film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This film, as Ken-Fang Lee has pointed out, has revised the martial art genre and re-defined the meaning of Chineseness. Moreover, it is seen as a cultural translation. However, in order to present the so-called ‘China’ not only to the Chinese world but also the Western world, this film presents the imaginary China for the westerners. In this sense, film as a cultural product is also a hybrid, a blending of the domestic elements with the foreign perspectives.
From the above, I think the implication of these two articles is that both the import and export of translation (the novel and the film) would involve changing the perspective on the source culture in order to fit-in in the target society. In this sense, the domestication strategy is somehow inevitably unavoidable in the profit-oriented market of translation. Furthermore, I think film is an especially interesting cultural product, as its audience may at the same time be of the domestic and foreign cultures. And the reception of it may reveal even more the differences of the ‘imaginations’ between different cultures.
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