Representing Taiwanese People's Postcolonial Identities: A Cross-Textual Study on the Translations of Orphan of Asia

Leo Li-You Chang ； Tian Luo

《翻譯學報》 新2卷2期 (2018/12) Pp. 51-80

摘要

The present study aims to investigate how far Taiwanese people's postcolonial identities could be represented via comparing a Japanese novel, Orphan of Asia (1945), with its Chinese (2008) and English (2006) translations. The research methods include a comparative analysis of the Japanese source text (ST) and its Chinese and English target texts (TTs), followed by a cross-textual analysis of these Chinese and English TTs. The key findings are firstly, compared with the Japanese ST and its Chinese and English TTs, more translation differences and problems were identified in the English TT, presenting different ways of expressing Taiwanese people's colonial situations, which as a result may or may not successfully represent Taiwanese people's postcolonial identities. Secondly, the present study shows that the translators' ideological intervention may influence the representations of Taiwanese people's postcolonial identities to some extent, pointing to the heterogeneity in postcolonial translation. Thirdly, the present study stresses the significance of using foreignization in postcolonial translation to potentially reshape the target readers' world knowledge. For future translation research on postcolonial identities, the present study provides implications of the analysis of translators' translation techniques related to ideological involvement.

關鍵字

postcolonial translation ； representations of postcolonial identities ； cross-textual analysis ； translation techniques ； ideological intervention