Embodying translation in modern and contemporary chinese literature (1908-1934 and 1979-1999)a methodological use of the conception of translation as a site

Zusammenfassung

This dissertation argues that there are two main conceptions of translation: translation as a site and translation as a practice. Although they are both interrelated, each responds to different problems and concerns. Methodologically, translation as a site can be used as a tool on a range of literary investigations of different nature and upon texts and materials of different type, both synchronic and diachronic. After having validated the conception of translation as a site as a plausible method of literary analysis, this dissertation shows that translation between Chinese and Western cultures between 1908 and 1934 was practiced through embodiment, something which had several consequences: (a) over personal and social spheres: in the subjectivity of the writer and his or her characters, and the circulation of them in society; (b) over the process of cultural translation; (c) more generally, in the conceptualization of Chinese literature itself. Contrasting this situation with the context of Chinese literature between 1979 and 1999, this dissertation proves that, in spite of the mirage that might make us think that, due to globalization, the process of translation has become disembodied, embodied translation still plays and important role in cross-cultural communication. Chinese literature (and culture) becomes internationally visible precisely when it appears under embodied form in a process of cultural translation. This opportunity to be visualized is related to controversy and is also inscribed within certain imperatives. Thus, translation cannot be conceived as a simple bridge or as a neutral act of hospitality between languages and cultures.