The Reception of George Orwell in Taiwan

單德興(Te-Hsing Shan)

《Concentric： Literary and Cultural Studies》 40卷1期 (2014/03) Pp. 97-125

https://doi.org/10.6240/concentric.lit.2014.40.1.06

並列摘要

The popularity, reputation, and influence of George Orwell at home and abroad remain phenomenal more than sixty years after his death. In comparison with other foreign literary masters or popular writers, Orwell's reception in Taiwan, with the many different translations and paratexts of ”Nineteen Eighty-Four” and ”Animal Farm”, has been exceptionally warm, long-standing, even ”Orwellian.” This phenomenon has much to do with Taiwan's unique historical background, especially its geopolitical context and ideological position in the Cold War. If translation is an afterlife, as Walter Benjamin's famous metaphor goes, we cannot but wonder about Orwell's afterlife in Taiwan-a self-proclaimed bastion of anti-communism during the Cold War and a unique country in the Sinophone world. This paper mainly focuses on the translations and representations of Orwell's ”Nineteen Eighty-Four” and ”Animal Farm” in Taiwan over the past six decades. Whereas the former has often been read as yuyen, meaning both ”prophecy” and ”allegory,” the latter has been read as political fable and children's literature, thus extending the author's readership to schoolchildren. There have been two periods of particularly heightened interest in Orwell: one in the 1950s and the other around 1984. In addition to tracing representative translations of ”Nineteen Eighty-Four” and ”Animal Farm” over the years, this paper discusses how Orwell and his works have been represented by translators, publishers, writers, critics, and intellectuals alike. Taken together, they have made Orwell one of the most popular and respected foreign writers in Taiwan.

並列關鍵字

ideology ； afterlife ； reception history ； Cold War ； Taiwan

參考文獻

Asad, Talal. “The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social Anthropology.” Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Ed. James Clifford and George E. Marcus. Berkeley: U of California P, 1986. 141-64.

Anonymous. “Qiaozhi Ouweier ji qi Yijiubasi” 喬治・歐威爾及其「一九八四」 (“George Orwell and His Nineteen Eighty-Four”). Yijiubasi 一九八四 (Nineteen Eighty-Four). Trans. Qiu Suhui 邱素慧. Taipei: Yuanjing, 1981. 1-9.

Anonymous. “Bianzheshi” 編者識(“The Editor’s Preface”). Yijiubasi 一九八四 (Nineteen Eighty-Four). Trans. Peng Bangzhen 彭邦楨[under the pseudonym of Banghen]. Taipei: Liming, 1974. n.p.

Bai, Liping 白立平. “Fanyi yu zhengzhi: jianbuduan, lihailuan—tan Liqichun fanyi de Baishoutu” 翻譯與政治：剪不斷，理還亂─談“李啟純”翻譯的《百獸 圖》 (“Translation and Politics: On Baishoutu. Translated by ‘Liqichun’”). Translation Quarterly 翻譯季刊 43 (2007): 23-62.

Bassnett, Susan, and Andre Lefevere. Translation, History and Culture. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 1998.