洞见、不见与偏见——考察20世纪海外学术期刊对中文小说英译的评论

Insights, Ignorance and Prejudice: A Study of 20th-century Academic Reviews of Translated Chinese Fiction in English

中国文学的域外接受问题一直是文学"中译外"研究的薄弱环节。在英美国家,翻译文学的受众颇为局限,主要集中于一批专业读者,由他们的评价管窥英译接受的情况是较为现实有效的方法。本文从20世纪主要国外学术期刊里搜集、整理了英译中文小说的400多篇译评,由此透视其在目标语社会的影响。基于译评数量、来源和内容,笔者分析了各个历史阶段中文小说海外接受的特征,指出英语世界对译本的整体认知度较低;评论家倾向于选择非文学视角来审读译本,由此了解中国社会现实,而不太注重作品的艺术性;但限于受热评的译作类型,这样的认识又难免片面。

We take a close look in this paper at overseas reception of translated Chinese literature, a topic long neglected in China's studies of translation. Since in major English-speaking countries, literary translations enjoy only a limited readership made up primarily of interested members of the academy, our investigation is based on a survey of over 400 reviews, published in overseas academic journals, of English translations of 20th-century Chinese fiction. The findings reveal the extent to which these translations were able(or unable) to exert influence on the target societies, and the characteristic way in which they were received by target readers during different periods as well. We conclude that as a whole, the English-speaking world knew very little about translated Chinese fiction. The reviewers did read the translations, yet in most cases only as a means for coming to grips with China's social realities, with little attention being paid to these works' artistic values. Since the selection of titles for review tended to reflect the reviewers' or the editors' preconceptions about China in the first place, the country's image projected from their comments was often skewed.Keywords: Chinese fiction; English translation; academic journal; translation review