Century English Translation Of History. Stones From Afar: A Dream Of Red Mansions "research

This thesis is an unprecedented attempt to make an overall study on the history ofthe dissemination and translation of Hongloumeng in the English-speaking world,which can be traced back to 1830, when John Francis Davis, in his well-known "Onthe Chinese Poetry", translated some poetic accounts of Chia Pao-yu into English andcommented on them as well. For the purpose of highlighting the common nature ofnumerous activities translating and disseminating the work, I define them as"cross-cultural rewritings" with the reference to AndréLefevere's term "rewriting",thus unifying all these activities into one conception system. In practice, I investigatethe translation history and the dissemination history separately, with the latterincluding all the rewriting forms beyond translation. On the basis of the previousstudies, I try to clarify the entangling shaping forces for the image of the work in thenew cultural context and then proceed to explore the image, the position and theliterary fame of Hongloumeng in the world literature system within Anglo-Americancontext.ChapterⅠthoroughly analyses the translation history of Hongloumeng in theEnglish-speaking world, which can be divided into three periods: 1830-1900,1901-1959, 1960-present. In the 19th century, all of the four fragmentary translationswere made by British diplomats to China. The frequency of translation, theirregularity of publication, and the tendency of "interlinear translation" demonstratethe practical purpose of the translators and the reception of Hongloumeng as atextbook of Chinese language instead of a literary work. During the second period, theway of reception changed and the publishing houses in the United States played acentral role in producing four English versions of Hongloumeng which were intendedfor general English readers interested in Chinese literature. The translators madeadaptations rather than translations of the original work, eliminating a great manydetails while keeping the episodes they thought interesting to Westerners. Since the1960s, there has been an upsurge of educational institutions of Asian studies and adecline of market demand for Classical Chinese literature in the English-speakingworld, which led to an "academic turn" in English translation of Hongloumeng: Theincreasing number of professional readers quickened the birth of a completetranslation by David Hawkes in 1973, and the translation in turn was highly academic as to fulfill the demand of these professional readers. Therefore, this English versionof Hongioumeng is universally acknowledged by a restricted scholarly audience but isless popular among general readers than the versions of the previous period. Onething worth, knowing is that another complete English translation issued by ForeignLanguage Press in Beijing is considered far outmatched by Hawkes' version by bothscholarly audience and general readers in the English-speaking world. To concludethis chapter, I outline the trend of English translation history of Hongloumeng,summarizing the increasing influence of academic researches on translation activitiesand the decreasing popularity of the translations among general public. In addition,based on the findings out of this chapter, I point out some limitations of currentstudies in China on English translation of Hongloumeng.ChapterⅡis a historical study on the dissemination of Hongloumeng in theEnglish-speaking world. By the term "dissemination", I mean all the rewriting formsof the work beyond translation, including reviews, criticism, reference works, literaryhistories and anthologies, etc.. With the 1960s as a watershed, the dissemination ofHongloumeng in the English-speaking world is divided into two periods: the earlierperiod in which a variety of rewriting forms coexisted and the latter one preoccupiedby academic rewritings. In the first period, the residents of English-Speakingcountries in China were major contributors of review articles and their interestsshifted, around the beginning of 20th century, from the linguistic aspects to the literaryvalue of this book, which confirms the changed way of reception of the work Iassumed in ChapterⅠ. Since the 1920s, on the other hand, both the introductoryarticles for general English readers and the reviews by these readers themselves hadflourished, reaching its heyday in 1950s, and then declined, which, again, confirmsthe ebb and flow of market demand for classical Chinese literature I pointed out inChapterⅠ. Besides, the academic interpretations of the work underwent progressivespecialization during these early years. In the second period, academic researchesconstituted the mainstream of the rewritings of the work, among which theinterpretations from the angles of some Western critical theories, especially feminism,and the rewritings in the introductions, histories and anthologies of Chinese or Asianliterature have been functioning as major forces creating the image of Hongloumengin the English-speaking world. Thanks to the literary reputation gained in theserewritings, Hongloumeng was admitted into the Longman World Literature Anthology in 2004. Meanwhile, the fact that many historians, politics scholars and sociologistsalso take Hongloumeng as the subject of their researches further illustrates the imageof the work as an encyclopaedia of Chinese culture.Based on the findings in preceding chapters, ChapterⅢtries to explore whatexactly the image of Hongloumeng is like in the English-speaking world and todetermine its position as a world literature piece. Up to now, the process of thetranslation and dissemination of Hongloumeng has displayed two major tendencies increating the image of the work: the decanonizing of the work among thenon-professional readers and in general literary studies; the canonizing of the workamong area-specialist audiences and in terms of common sense. It is my contentionthat, under the tension caused by the concurrent forces decanonizing and canonizingthe original work, Hongloumeng, as a literary commodity, a world literature piece,and an object of academic studies, has assumed a certain image of "peripheralcannon" in the English-speaking world. As David Damrosh argued, the worldliterature system within Anglo-American context has developed into a new systemconsisting of a hypercanon, a countercanon and a shadow canon. Hongloumeng isadmitted into the world literature anthology and is highly reputable in terms ofcommon sense, but is neglected by general readers and in general literary studies. Allthese features of "peripheral canon" are in accordance with the properties ofDamorosh's "countercanon", therefore, the latter is the relevant term I employ todefine precisely the position of the great Chinese masterpiece in the new culturalenvironment.The study is based on substantial and authentic first-hand references and isinnovative for the attempt to explore the image-creating process of Hongloumeng andits position as a world literature piece in the English-speaking world. Furthermore,more illuminations would derive from this study for the output of Chinese literaturepatronized by domestic institutions.