Studying literary translations in periodicals
Methodological reflection and case studies from the 1970–80s in Hong Kong
Published online: 20 October 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00345.won
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00345.won
Abstract
This paper begins by reflecting on the general methodologies of studying translation in periodicals, summarized by
studying Hong Kong literary magazines and newspapers. It appeals for translation studies to pay closer attention to periodicals
and consider how the characteristics of periodicals affect translations. It starts with the most basic features, including the
heterogeneity in periodicals, the paratexts, and the periodicity, and proposes studying translations in periodicals can help us to
better understand the translation strategies and structural positions of a certain literary field. This paper then focuses on
three examples from the 1970s and 1980s in Hong Kong, including the column writings of Leung Ping-kwan, the literary magazine
Su Yeh Literature, and the translation of Pablo Neruda in various Hong Kong magazines, demonstrating cases of
various research scales. With these, it aims to argue that periodicals are not only a medium of translation and a record of
historical development but also active agents in the literary field.
Résumé
Cet article commence par une réflexion sur les méthodologies générales de l’étude de la traduction dans
les périodiques, que l’on résume par l’étude des magazines littéraires et des journaux de Hong Kong. On appelle
les études de traduction à accorder une plus grande attention aux périodiques et à examiner comment les caractéristiques des
périodiques affectent les traductions. L’article se penche d’abord sur les caractéristiques les plus
fondamentales, notamment l’hétérogénéité des périodiques, les paratextes et la périodicité, et propose que l’étude
des traductions dans les périodiques puisse nous aider à mieux comprendre les stratégies de traduction et les positions
structurelles d’un certain domaine littéraire. Cet article se concentre ensuite sur trois exemples des années 1970 et 1980
à Hong Kong, notamment les chroniques de Leung Ping-kwan, le magazine littéraire Su Yeh Literature et la traduction de Pablo
Neruda dans divers magazines hongkongais, démontrant des cas de différentes échelles de recherche. L’objectif est de
démontrer que les périodiques ne sont pas seulement un moyen de traduction et un témoin de l’évolution historique, mais
aussi des agents actifs dans le domaine littéraire.
Article outline
- The intersection of translation studies and periodical studies
- Methodologies and strategies for studying translations in periodicals
- Heterogeneity, paratexts, and periodicity
- Leung Ping-kwan: Studying a translator through his column writings
- Periodicals as translation actors
- Su Yeh Literature: Translations in a magazine
- Periodicals and the reconstruction of a literary field
- Translating Pablo Neruda in Hong Kong magazines
- Conclusion
Reference
References (90)
Abbas, Ackbar. 1997. Hong
Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Barthes, Roland. 1972. Critical
Essays, translated by Richard Howard. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Beetham, Margaret. 1989. “The
Periodical as a Publishing Genre.” Victorian Periodicals
Review 22, no. 3: 96–100.
Bly, Robert. 1973. “Tan babuluo.Nieluda” 談巴布羅.聶魯達 [On Pablo Neruda], translated
by Kwok-wai Li. Wen lin 文林 [Grove
magazine] 121: 14–16.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1993. The
Field of Cultural Production, translated by Randal Johnson. New York: Columbia University Press.
Chan, Chi-tak 陳智德. 2001. “Lin yi
liang shilun yu 50 niandai xianggang xinshi de zhuanbian” 林以亮詩論與50年代香港新詩的轉變 [Stephen Soong’s poetic theory and the transformation of
Hong Kong poetry in the 1950s]. Zuo
Jia 作家 [Writers] 111: 85–93.
. 2019. Genzhuo
wocheng: Zhanhou zhi 2000 niandai de xianggang wenxue 根著我城 :
戰後至2000年代的香港文學 [Rooted in my city: Hong Kong literature from the postwar years to
the 2000s]. New Taipei City: Linking Publishing Co.
Chan, Koon-chung 陳冠中. 2005. Wo zhe yi
dai xianggang ren 我這一代香港人 [My
generation of Hong Kongers]. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Chen, Pingyuan 陳平原. 2015. “Xin wenhua” de jueqi yu
liubo 「新文化」的崛起與流播 [The rise and spread
of “new culture”]. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe.
Cheung, Esther M. K. 2012. “Introduction to the New
Edition: New Ends in a City of Transition.” In City at the End of
Time: Poems by Leung Ping-kwan, edited and introduced by Esther M. K. Cheung, 1–19. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Chow, Kai-wing 周佳榮. 2017. Xianggang
baokan yu dazhong chuanbo 香港報刊與大眾傳播 [Hong Kong newspaper and mass communication]. Hong Kong: Cosmos Books Ltd.
Chow, Rey. 1998. Ethics
After Idealism: Theory, Culture, Ethnicity,
Reading. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Chu, Stephen Yiu-wai, ed. 2017. Hong Kong
Culture and Society in the New Millennium: Hong Kong as
Method. Singapore: Springer.
Constanza Guzmán, María. 2019. “Introduction.” Translation
and Interpreting
Studies 14 (2): 169–173.
. 2023. “Translation
and Print Culture in Latin America.” In The Routledge Handbook of
Latin American Literary Translation, edited by Delfina Cabrera and Denise Kripper, 311–329. London and New York: Routledge.
Córdoba Serrano, María Sierra. 2019. “Periodicals in/and
Translation in Different Disciplinary Traditions.” Translation and Interpreting
Studies 14 (2): 325–332.
DiCenzo, Maria. 2015. “Remediating
the Past: Doing ‘Periodical Studies’ in the Digital Era.” English Studies in
Canada 41 (1): 19–39.
Ernst, Jutta, Dagmar von Hoff, and Oliver Scheiding, eds. 2022. Periodical
Studies Today: Multidisciplinary Analyses. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Ernst, Jutta. 2022. “Translation.” In Periodical
Studies Today: Multidisciplinary Analyses, edited by Jutta Ernst, Dagmar von Hoff, and Oliver Scheiding, 253–254. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Even-Zohar, Itamar. [1978]
2021. “The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem (Revised in
1990).” In The Translation Studies
Reader, 4th ed., edited by Lawrence Venuti, 191–196. London and New York: Routledge.
Fan, Sin-piu 樊善標. 2019. Diting
zayin: Baozhi fukan yu xianggang wenxue shengchan (1930–1960 niandai) 諦聽雜音:報紙副刊與香港文學生產(1930–1960年代) [Listening to the noise: Newspaper supplements and
literary production in Hong Kong
(1930s–1960s)]. Beijing: Chung Hwa Book Company.
Fólica, Laura, Diana Roig-Sanz, and Stefania Caristia, eds. 2020. Literary
Translation in Periodicals: Methodological Challenges for a Transnational
Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Franco, Jean. [1971]
1973. “Dao nieluda zhi er – Zuihou yiwei langman
shiren” 悼聶魯達之二——最後一位浪漫詩人 [In memory of Neruda: The last romantic poet], translated
by Jin-hong Mok 莫展鴻. Wen lin 文林 [Grove
magazine] 12: 7.
Freitag, Florian. 2022. “Translation
and periodical studies: The Pionier’s rewriting of Frank Norris’s The
Octopus.” In Periodical Studies Today: Multidisciplinary
Analyses, edited by Jutta Ernst, Dagmar von Hoff, and Oliver Scheiding. Leiden: Brill.
Ge, Gong-zhen 戈公振. 2019 [1926]. Zhongguo baoxue shi 中國報學史 [A
history of Chinese journalism]. Jinan: Shandong huabao chubanshe.
Guo, Yanli 郭延禮. 2005. Zhongguo
jindai fanyi wenxue gailun (xiu ding ben) 中國近代翻譯文學概論(修訂本) [Introduction to modern Chinese literary translation (revised
edition)]. Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe.
Guo, Zhigang 郭志剛. 2006. Ershi shiji
zhongguo wenxue qikan yu sichao (1897–1949) 二十世紀中國文學期刊與思潮(1897–1949) [Chinese literary periodicals and thoughts in the
twentieth century
(1897–1949)]. Nanchang: Baihuazhou wenyi.
Hockx, Michel. 1999. “Playing
the Field: Aspects of Chinese Literary Life in the 1920s.” In The
Literary Field of Twentieth Century China, edited by Michel Hockx, 61–78. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
. 2011. Questions
of Style: Literary Societies and Literary Journals in Modern China,
1911–1937. Leiden: Brill.
Holock, Donald, and Shu-ying Tsau Holock. 1992. “‘Not
Marxism in Words’: Chinese Proletarian Fiction and Socialist Realism.” Journal of South Asian
Literature 27 (2): 1–28.
Huang, Ji-chi 黃繼持. 1998. “Xianggang
wenxue zhutixin de fazhan” 香港文學主體性的發展 [The development of subjectivity of Hong Kong
literature]. In Zhuiji xianggang
wenxue 追跡香港文學 [In search of Hong
Kong literature], edited by Ji-chi Huang 黃繼持, Wai-luen Lo 盧瑋鑾, and William Tay 鄭樹森, 91–101. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Huang, Jun-dong 黃俊東. 1972. “Xianggang
wenxue wenti taolun zhi liu: Cong ‘pipan xieshi zhuyi’ shuo qi” 香港文學問題討論之六:從「批判寫實主義」說起 [Discussion on Hong Kong literature, no.6: From
“critical realism” onwards]. Zhongguo xuesheng
zhoubao 中國學生周報 [Chinese student
weekly], 10531: 4.
Kwong, Connie Ho-yee 鄺可怡. 2010. “1985 nian
shanghai wenxue de wenxue pinglun” 1985年《上海文學》的文學評論 [Literary review in Shanghai literature,
1985]. Huadong shifan daxue xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue
ban) 華東師範大學學報(哲學社會科學版) [Journal
of East China Normal University (social sciences
edition)] (1): 95–101.
Lefevere, André. 1992. Translation,
Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London and New York: Routledge.
Leung, Ping-kwan 梁秉鈞, ed. and trans. 1971. Meiguo dixia wenxue xuan 美國地下文學選 [The new American
writing]. Taipei: Huan-yu.
, ed. and trans. 1972. Dangdai lading meizhou xiaoshuo xuan 當代拉丁美洲小說選 [Contemporary Latin American short
stories]. Taipei: Huan-yu.
. 1985. You
shi 游詩 [Journey: An exhibition of
poetry and etching]. Hong Kong: Xianggang zhonghua wenhua cujin zhongxin.
. 1988. “Fanyi yu
shixue: xiandaishi de zhuanhua yu celue” 翻譯與詩學:現代詩的轉化與策略 [Translation and poetics: The transformation and strategy
of modern poetry]. In Shizhengju
zhongwen wenxuezhou shizhounian zhiqing jinian lunwenji 市政局中文文學週十周年誌慶紀念論文集 [Anthology of essays from the annual Chinese literary
week], 130–137. Hong Kong: Urban Council Public Library.
Leung, Ping-kwan. 2009. “Poetry
Writing and Translation,” translated by Yidu Guo. In Belief,
History and the Individual in Modern Chinese Literary Culture, edited by A. K. Wardega, 129–136. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publisher.
Li, Bo. 2019. “Serialized
Literary Translation in Hong Kong Chinese Newspapers: A Case Study of The Chinese Mail
(1904–1908).” Translation and Interpreting
Studies 14 (2): 306–324.
Li, Bo 李波. 2022. “Xianggang
zaoqi wenxue qikan lianzai de fanyi yanjiu: yi xin xiao shuo cong (1907–1908) wei
li” 香港早期文學期刊連載的翻譯研究:以《新小說叢》(1907–1908)為例 [A study of translation in early literary periodical serials in Hong Kong: The Collection of New Fiction
(1907-1908) as an example]. Journal of Translation
Studies 6 (1): 53–77.
Liu, Lingyi 柳玲依. 1978. “Lading
meizhou wenxue de bianqian” 拉丁美洲文學的變遷 [The development of Latin American
literature]. Haiyang wenyi 海洋文藝 [Ocean
literature] 5 (4): 91–93.
Neruda, Pablo. 1951. Nieluda shiwenji 聶魯達詩文集 [Poems and proses of Pablo Neruda], translated
by Shuipai Yuan 袁水拍. Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe.
. 1973a. “Jieshi jijian shiqing” 解釋幾件事情 [I explain some things], translated
by Yesi 也斯. Wen lin 文林 [Grove
magazine] 121: 22.
. 1973b. “Jieshi yi xie shiqing” 解釋一些事情 [I explain some things], translated
by Shuipai Yuan 袁水拍. Pan ku 盤古 561: 42–43.
. 1973c. “Lun shi ge – wei nieluda xuanji e yi ben xie de xu” 論詩歌——爲「聶魯達選集」俄譯本寫的序 [On poetry: Preface for the Russian
translated version of Selected poems of Pablo Neruda], translator
unknown. Pan ku 盤古 631: 42.
. 2004. The
Essential Neruda: Selected Poems (Bilingual in English and Spanish), edited
by Mark Eisner, translated
by Mark Eisner, et al. San Francisco: City Lights Books.
Ngai, Ling-tun 危令敦. 2019. Dangdai
wenyi yanjiu: Yi xianggang, maxin, nanyue de wenxue chuangzuo wei zhongxin de kaocha 《當代文藝》研究:以香港、馬新、南越的文學創作為中心的考察 [A Study of Current
Literature: An examination focusing on the literary creations of Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and South
Vietnam]. Hong Kong: Cosmos Books.
Özmen, Ceyda. 2019. “Beyond
the Book: The Periodical as an ‘Excavation Site’ for Translation
Studies.” TranscUlturAl 11 (1): 3–21.
Pellatt, Valerie. 2013. Text,
Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in
Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Pykett, Lyn. 1989. “Reading
the Periodical Press: Text and Context.” Victorian Periodicals
Review 22 (3): 100–108.
Robbe-Grillet, Alain. 1989. For
a New Novel: Essays on Fiction. Translated by Richard Howard. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
Scholes, Robert, and Clifford Wulfman. 2010. Modernism
in the Magazines: An Introduction. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Shan, Te-hsing 單德興. 2007. “Lengzhan
shidai de meiguo wenxue zhongyi: Jinri shijie chubanshe yanjiu” 冷戰時代的美國文學中譯:今日世界出版社研究 [Translating American literature into Chinese in the
cold war era: The cultural politics and significance of World Today Press’s literary
translation]. Zhong Wai wenxue 中外文學 [Chung Wai
literary] 36 (4): 317–346.
Shen, Shuang. 2009. Cosmopolitan
Publics: Anglophone Print Culture in Semi-colonial Shanghai. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Song, Chris 宋子江. 2013. “Yuan
Shuipai he Lin Yiliang bianyi de meiguo shige” 袁水拍和林以亮編譯的美國詩歌 [Yuan Shuipai’s and Stephen Soong’s anthologization and
translation of American poetry]. Xiandai zhongwen wenxue
xuebao 現代中文文學學報 [Journal of
modern literature in
Chinese] 11 (1): 45–74.
Song, Chris. 2019. “Ronald
Mar and the Trope of Life: The Translation of Western Modernist Poetry in Hong
Kong.” In Chinese Poetry and Translation: Rights and
Wrongs, edited by Maghiel van Crevel and Lucas Klein, 249–264. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Tahir Gürçağlar, Şehnaz. 2019. “Periodical
Codes and Translation: An Analysis of Varlık in 1933–1946.” Translation and Interpreting
Studies 14(2): 174–197.
Tay, William 鄭臻, and Leung Ping-kwan 梁秉鈞, eds. and trans. 1970. Dangdai faguo duanpian xiaoshuo xuan 當代法國短篇小說選 [Contemporary French short
stories]. Taipei: Chen Chong.
Tay, William 鄭樹森. 1989. Dangdai
dongou wenxue xuan 當代東歐文學選 [East
European literature
today]. Taipei: Yun-chen.
. 1993. Dangdai
shijie jiduanpian 當代世界極短篇 [Contemporary very short shories of the
world]. Taipei: Er-ya.
. 2013. Jie yuan
liang di: Tai gang wentan suoyi 結緣兩地:台港文壇瑣憶 [Bonding between two places: A memoir of the literary world in Taiwan and Hong
Kong]. Taipei: Hong-fan.
Teng, Wei. 2018. “Pablo
Neruda in contemporary China: Translation between national and international politics
(1949–1979).” In Re-mapping World Literature: Writing, Book Markets
and Epistemologies between Latin America and the Global South, edited by G. Müller, J. Locane and B. Loy, 175–188. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
Toury, Gideon. 2012. Descriptive
Translation Studies – and Beyond, rev. ed. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
van Doorslaer, Luc. 2011. “The
Relative Neglect of Newspapers in Translation Studies
Research.” In Between Cultures and
Texts, edited by Antoine Chalvin, Anne Lange, and Daniele Monticelli, 45–54. Frankfurt and Main: Peter Lang.
Venuti, Lawrence. 1998. The
Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of
Difference. London: Taylor and Francis Group.
Wan, Kin-lau 溫健騮. 1972a. “Xianggang
wenxue wenti taolun zhi er: Pipan xieshi zhuyi shi xianggang wenxue de chulu” 香港文學問題討論之二:批判寫實主義是香港文學的出路 [Discussion on Hong Kong
literature, no. 2: Critical realism as the way out for Hong Kong literature]. Zhongguo xuesheng zhoubao 中國學生周報 [Chinese student
weekly] 10511: 3.
. 1972b. “Xianggang
wenxue wenti taolun zhi ba: Hai shi pipan xieshi zhuyi de daqi” 香港文學問題討論之八:還是批判寫實主義的大旗 [Discussion on Hong Kong literature, no. 8: The
banner of critical realism]. Zhongguo xuesheng
zhoubao 中國學生周報 [Chinese student
weekly] 10581: 4.
Wong, Ka-ki 王家琪. 2018. “Wenxue
fanyi zuowei pinglun: Yesi liu qi shi nian dai de xifang wenxue yijie” 文學翻譯作為評論:也斯六、七十年代的西方文學譯介 [Literary translation as criticism: Yesi’s
introduction and translation of Western literature in the 1960s and 1970s]. Zhong Wai wenxue 中外文學 [Chung Wai
literary] 47 (2): 125–179.
. 2020. Suye
sishinian: Huigu ji yanjiu 素葉四十年:回顧及研究 [Forty years of Su Yeh: A retrospective and research]. Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Co.
. 2021. Yesi de
xianggang gushi: Wenxueshi lunshu yanjiu 也斯的香港故事:文學史論述研究 [Yesi’s Hong Kong Stories: A study of the discourse of literary
history]. Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Co.
Wu, Fu-hui 吳福輝. 1994. “Zuowei
wenxue (shangpin) shengchan de haipai qikan” 作為文學(商品)生產的海派期刊 [The Shanghai journals as literary (commodities)
production]. Zhongguo xiandai wenxue yanjiu
congkan 中國現代文學研究叢刊 [Modern
Chinese literature research
series] 1994 (1): 1–15.
Ye, Michelle Jia 葉嘉. 2021. Tongsu yu
jingdianhua de huxian: Minguo chunian Shanghai wenyi zazhi fanyi yanjiu 通俗與經典化的互現:民國初年上海文藝雜誌翻譯研究 [The interplay of popularity and canonization: a study
of the translation of Shanghai literary magazines in the early Republican
China]. Taipei: Ainosco Press.
Ye, Michelle Jia. 2022. “A history from below:
Translators in the publication network of four magazines issued by the China Book Company,
1913–1923.” Translation
Studies 15 (1): 37–53.
Yesi 也斯. 1971a. “Shijie he shi gaibian le” 世界和詩改變了 [The world and poetry have
changed]. Kuai bao 快報 [Express], 10 November 1971.
. 1971b. “Yiqie dou fenshao qilai” 一切都焚燒起來 [Everything burns up]. Kuai bao 快報 [Express], 11 November
1971.
. 1971c. “Ji ju ti wai hua” 幾句題外話 [A few off-topic remarks]. Kuai bao 快報 [Express], 13 November
1971.
. 1973a. “San shi qi ge duzhe” 三十七個讀者 [Thirty-seven readers]. Kuai bao 快報 [Express], 29 January
1973.
