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Article published In: Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 16:3 (2021) ► pp.416–433

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Translating sexuality in the context of Anglo-American censorship

The case of Jin Ping Mei

ORCiD logo with link | Monash University
Published online: 5 February 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.19010.qi
Abstract
This article presents a descriptive study of the English translations of the classic Chinese novel Jin Ping Mei in the context of the Anglo-American literary censorship of obscenity in the twentieth century. By scrutinizing the strategies employed in the English translations of Jin Ping Mei, this article uncovers the dynamic interactions between literary translation activities and the evolving socio-historical contexts in the target culture. The resurrection of the archaic source text, particularly its erotic component, in the Anglophone world in the twentieth century was based on the (re)discovery of its value in the contemporary target context. In the case of Jin Ping Mei, equivalence at the linguistic and textual levels was simply not a concern of the translators and publishers, who had to decide how they would deal with the social reality of literary censorship, by submissively conforming to its demands, or by creatively confronting them.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • English translations of JPM in the context of Anglo-American censorship
  • Sexuality in translation: Strategies and their implications
    • Stratification of readership
    • Utilization of expert opinions
    • Recourse to discrepancy between texts and paratexts
    • Exploitation of “loopholes” in the legal system
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Olivová, Lucie & Ondřej Vicher
2022. On Translating Jin Ping Mei into Czech. In Encountering China’s Past [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 207 ff. DOI logo
Qi, Lintao & Shani Tobias
2022. Japanese Translations of Jin Ping Mei: Chinese Sexuality in the Sociocultural Context of Japan. In Encountering China’s Past [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 125 ff. DOI logo

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