中國古典時期女作家的英譯形象─由《蘭花舟》到《彤管》

隨著西方女性主義理論的蓬勃發展，英美學界也對發掘女性作家和女性作品深感興趣。反映在中文古典文學作品的英譯上，先是有鍾玲和Kenneth Rexroth 於1972年選譯了《蘭花舟──中國女詩人選集》（The Orchid-Boat-Women Poets of China），繼之以李清照的詩詞英譯（1979）。而後陸續有其他女詩人的作品被譯成英文─如薛濤（1983,1987）、魚玄機（1998）、佛教女尼詩選（2003）、唐代女詩人選集（2005）。但最大規模的中國古典時期女作家的英譯，當屬1999年由孫康宜（Kan-I Sun Chang）和Haun Saussy編輯的《傳統中國女性作家－詩與批評論文選集》（Women Writers of Traditional China-An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism），以及2004年由Wilt Idema和Beata Grant編寫的《彤管－帝國時期的女作家》（The Red Brush-Writing Women of Imperial China）。這兩本書都是兼具學術深度及選譯廣度的鉅作。本文擬探討中國古典時期的女作家在這些英譯作品裡所呈現出來的形象。再則，這些形象與源文裡所認知的，是否有所差異？這些差異又告訴了我們什麼？

關鍵字

翻譯；中國古典時期女作家；女詩人；《蘭花舟》；《彤管》

並列摘要

With the second-wave feminism in the 1960s-1970s in the western world, it came to a rising interest in women writers and their works. It may come as no surprise that The Orchid-Boat--Women Poets of China, the first anthology of Chinese women poets, was published in 1972, followed by the translation of the complete poems of Li Ch'ing-chao in 1979. In the decades to come saw more translation of imperial Chinese women writers such as poems of Xue-Tao (1983,1987), Yu Xuanji (1998), Chinese Buddhist Nuns(2003), and women from Tang China (2005). In addition, both Women Writers of Traditional China -An Anthology of Poetry and Criticism (1999) and The Red Brush-Writing Women of Imperial China (2004) are translation works with historical breadth of coverage and academic depth. This article aims to explore the images of women writers of traditional Chinese in these works. Are they different from what they're perceived as in the Source Text culture? And what do these differences tell us?