Translation selection and the consecration of Dylan Thomas’s poetry in China: A sociological perspective

Jinquan Yu and Chunli Shen
Nanjing Normal University | Hangzhou Dianzi University

Dylan Thomas’s poetry can be seen both as minor Welsh literature and world literature. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of field and capital, this article explores the mechanism of translation selection and consecration of Thomas’s poetry in China by using his poetry published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press as an illustrative case study. In so doing, it is argued that the integrated forms of linguistic, economic, and symbolic capital associated with Thomas’s poetry, along with the expiration of its copyright, prompted the publisher to select his poetry for translation to maintain its own dominant position in the Chinese publishing field. The publisher, translator, and other agents have consecrated Thomas’s poetry as world literature in China. This article expands research on inter-peripheral translation flows and ‘sociologies of poetry translation’ and advances interdisciplinary studies of translation and world literature.

Publication history

Date received: 5 November 2022

Date accepted: 25 July 2024

Published online: 27 August 2024

Table of contents

With the acceleration of literary and cultural globalization, cross-border flows of literary works become increasingly frequent and significant. These are impossible without translation; as Venuti (2013, 193) argues, it is translation that “enables the international reception of literary texts.” However, translation is embedded in the power relations among national states and their languages. The international circulation of literary works among different languages facilitated by translation can thus be seen as “unequal exchanges that express relations of domination” (Heilbron and Sapiro 2007, 95). Moreover, translation depends on “a plurality of agents and state or commercial bodies — for mediation, funding, publishing, promotion, marketing — which intervene in the circuits of production and distribution for translated books” (Brisset 2010, 73). The agents of translation act as cultural gatekeepers and brokers who exert a significant influence on the selection, production, and consecration of translation in the target context (Milton and Bandia 2009; Roig-Sanz and Meylaerts 2018; Yu and Zhang 2021).

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