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Book Review: Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives edited by Olga Castro and Emek Ergun

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Publisher: Routledge. Date of Publication: 2017. Language: English. ISBN: 9780367365813

Reviewed by

[wp-svg-icons icon=”user” wrap=”i”] John Chi Chon FONG [wp-svg-icons icon=”envelop” wrap=”i”]

Department of English, University of Macau, Macau

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 1, January-March, 2022, Pages 1–4. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n1.21

Received: 13 Sept 2021 | Accepted: 22 Oct 2021 | First Published: 05 February 2022

(This review is published under the Themed Issue Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Literary and Cultural Studies)
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Book Review: Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives edited by Olga Castro and Emek Ergun

Currently, there are hardly any works that explicitly claim the political title “feminist” or “activist” while fully exploring feminist translation. Without necessarily embracing and recognizing the transgressive or reactionary processes of translation in feminist movements and activisms, existing collections generally explore the “connections between gender and translation or women and translation” (p. 2). This essay collection suggests that the important role of translation in the trans/formation of feminist politics requires more analytical recognition. Hence, the authors put the “F word” back into the discussion in their chapters, focusing on the roles of translation in the development of feminisms.

The editors also claim that the recent Feminist Translation Studies (FTS) scholarship fails to reveal the current cross-cultural increased amount of attention given to feminist translation. They point out this gap “not only perpetuates the false impression that feminist translation is exclusively on and of the west, but also discourages further knowledge production on and of non-western realities by keeping new scholarship deterred or invisible” (p. 3). However, the book is still in English, and Europe and Anglo-America still take a large space in the collection. The very gap regarding FTS scholarship produced in non-hegemonic languages that they are criticizing remains a crucial one.

The essays collected in Olga Castro and Emek Ergun’s Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives seek both to address some major gaps in FTS and to inspire “the formation of new connections between translation studies, feminist theories, queer theory, linguistics, anthropology, postcolonial studies, history, philosophy, cultural studies, globalization studies, comparative literature and critical pedagogies” (p. 4). The essay collection is organized into three sections: Feminist Translation in Theory; Feminist Translation in Transition and Feminist Translation in Action. Theoretical frameworks in the feminist translation are the main focus in Section I, while case studies framed in different geohistorical contexts are detailed in Section III. The second section of this collection takes the form of a roundtable conversation that serves as a hinge and brings together seven leading scholars across disciplines as they discuss and share their opinions about what feminist politics of translation means to them.

As explained by the editors in the introduction, this collection is devoted to emphasizing the roles of translation in the making of the feminist transnational. They hope to re-envision “the future of the transnational as a polyphonic space where translation (as a feminist praxis) is embraced as a tool and model of cross-border dialogue, resistance, solidarity and activism in pursuit of justice and equality for all” (p. 1). In doing so, the editors argue for new, innovative feminist approaches to the study of translation in the era of transnational feminism.

The essays in Section I, “Feminist Translation in Theory”, propose inventive theoretical frameworks for feminist translation practice and study. José Santaemilia, in “A Corpus-Based Analysis of Terminology in Gender and Translation Research: The Case of Feminist Translation,” engages in a corpus analysis of the key terms used to define the field, focusing particularly on the usage and definition of “feminist translation” over the years. As Santaemilia put it, “in order to better understand where the field currently stands and is heading, we need a critical look at its key terms” (p. 6). The chapter presents an overview of the main concerns, debates, and current status of FTS in academia. In “Transnational Feminist Solidarities and the Ethics of Translation,” Damien Tissot draws on the philosophy of Paul Ricœur, Etienne Balibar, and Judith Butler. The author argues that, when conceived in translation, the universal can be a useful tool to achieve the project of politics and ethics of translation. Readers of this chapter will learn about what he calls “a feminist ethics of translation,” which sees translation as a way of “recognising and embracing the differences of the Other without fetishising them” (p. 6).

On the topic of English hegemony, María Reimóndez raises accusations that “an Anglo-Euro-centric epistemology is privileged over other kinds of knowledge” (p. 45), highlighting the shortcomings of the feminist translation praxis. The author proposes the notion of polyphony with references to Mikhail Bakhtin to argue that “the goal of feminist and postcolonial translation is to create a space for multiple voices to be heard” (p. 44). Similarly, Lola Sánchez, in her case study of the titles selected for publication in the Spanish book series Feminismos, reveals that while the presence of feminist knowledge/voices from other parts of the world is inexistent or scarce, most of the translated works are from countries with imperial powers (the US, the UK, France, Italy, and Germany).

Cornelia Möser, in “Gender Travelling across France, Germany and the US: The Feminist Gender Debates as Cultural Translations,” reconfigures translation “as a productive act of meaning-making … [that] undermines dichotomous gendered ideas about translation (when conceptualized as a copy, secondary and feminine), original (when conceptualized as authentic, primary and masculine) and nationality (that is conceptualized around claims of ‘authentic’ and ‘pure’)” (p. 80). The author analyzes the travels within feminist debates on “gender” in France, Germany and the US, exploring the productivity of translation. She also invokes scholars, such as Edward Said, Walter Benjamin, and Naoki Sakai, to emphasize the creative potential of translation for feminist knowledge production. The first section is concluded by Ergun and Castro’s chapter in which they present the theoretical framework behind their vision of feminist translation as a promising pedagogical tool and explain how it can be practised in different courses that aim to promote equality and help students appreciate differences.

The second section of the collection is a cross-disciplinary roundtable chapter where seven prominent feminist scholars—Richa Nagar, Kathy Davis, Judith Butler, AnaLouise Keating, Claudia de Lima Costa, Sonia E. Alvarez and Ay?e Gül Alt?nay—engage in a discussion about a variety of issues linked to the feminist politics of translation. This chapter demonstrates the rich epistemic potential of interdisciplinary studies and conversations on feminist translation. The participants explore the essential role of translation in the development and success of transnational feminist activism. As Butler states, “there can be no solidarity without translation, and certainly no global solidarity” (p. 113).

The book’s third section opens with Justine M. Pas and Magdalena J. Zaborowska’s essay, where the authors analyze the feminist translation strategies used in English translations of interviews conducted in Polish, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, and Hindi for the Global Feminisms project (GFP), an oral history project initiated at the University of Michigan, the US. The chapter illustrates how GFP’s translational strategies help explain to the readers the complexity, diversity, and legitimacy of international feminisms. In the next chapter, Annarita Taronna studies Italian writer Joyce Lussu’s activist translations and her intersectional feminism. Taronna discusses how Lussu has challenged the prescriptive translation norms with her translation method. In Lussu’s translations, concerns of local and global equality and justice prevail over preoccupations with “faithful” linguistic transfer.

In “Donne è bello and the Role of Translation in the Migration of ‘Consciousness-Raising’ from the US to Italy,” Elena Basilio presents an analysis of “Un programma per le femministe: prender coscienza” which was published in Donne è bello—a 1972 volume comprising a selection of translated essays of US-American radical feminists by the Italian feminist collective “Anabasi”. This chapter underlines the important role played by translation and translators’ strategies in the diffusion of radical feminist practices from the US to Italy. Similarly, focusing on the cross-border travels of feminist theories, Sergi Mainer contextualizes the historical and geopolitical development of anarcha-feminism and translation from Germany to Spain.

Rebecca S. Robinson, in her essay, attempts to explore how movements, such as SlutWalk, translated into other receiving cultures by examining the Moroccan case. The author focuses particularly on the translation of its controversial use of “slut” in the title of their campaign. In doing so, this chapter proves the dialogic power of translation and that SlutWalk was transplanted in Morocco to trigger public debates about street harassment and related gender norms. In “The Translator and the Transgressive: Encountering Sexual Alterity in Catherine Millet’s La vie sexuelle de Catherine M.,” Pauline Henry-Tierney highlights the relevance of feminist translator. Henry-Tierney’s analysis explains the subjective transformative experiences of the feminist translator by employing theoretical concepts devised by thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler. In the final chapter, Serena Bassi examines the Italian localization of the US-based “It Gets Better” (IGB) campaign. The chapter offers practical lessons for students of translation to rethink translation as a form of activism to construct their own identities.

The essays in “Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives” set out to be a major contribution to the field of Feminist Translation Studies. The diversity of voices and visions expands the definition of feminist translation from the conventional framing to a more intersectional one. The information covered in this volume provides the student of translation studies some additional and welcome relief to feminist theories and practices, enlarging their focus of feminist politics beyond a gender-only agenda. The volume will no doubt be valuable to those relatively new to FTS, as it provides innovative models and insights that are vital in the study of translation in the era of transnational feminism. This collection of essays is indeed a useful reference book for FTS.

Reference

Castro, O., & Ergun, E. (2017). Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives. Routledge.

Author’s bio-note

John Chi Chon FONG obtained his B.A. in English Studies from the University of Macau where he worked as a Research Assistant over the summer. His research interests include feminist translation, gender and language.

Pop Song Translations by Rolando Tinio as Script and Subversion of the Marcos Regime

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[wp-svg-icons icon=”user” wrap=”i”] Niccolo Rocamora Vitug [wp-svg-icons icon=”envelop” wrap=”i”]  

Faculty at the University of Santo Tomas and PhD Scholar at the College of Music, University of the Philippines, Quezon City, Philippines.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 1, January-March, 2022, Pages 1–21. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n1.17

Abstract received:  10 Feb 2021 | Complete article received: 13 June 2021 | Revised article received: 14 Aug 2021 | Accepted: 6 Sept 2021 | First Published: 5 February 2022

(This article is published under the Themed Issue Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Literary and Cultural Studies)
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Pop Song Translations by Rolando Tinio as Script and Subversion of the Marcos Regime

Abstract

Philippine National Artist for Theater and Literature Rolando Tinio was well-known for his translations. Though attention is rightfully given to the theatrical works he translated into Filipino, he is also known to have translated songs. One of the enduring sets of song translations that he made are recorded in the album “Celeste,” rendered by the singer and actress Celeste Legaspi. This album was released in 1976, not long after the establishment of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). Then First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos had an interest in the arts, looking at it as something to uphold because it served a function in the vision of the Marcos regime. What I seek to problematize is how the song translations followed a script—in line with the ideas of music theorist Nicholas Cook—based on the said vision. Such a script, according to Michel Foucault, might be the locus of both obedience and subversion. The identification of this script will be done by a reading of a representative pop song translation by Tinio, in the context of other materials that elucidate the script of the time—from the former first couple and one who held a key position in their regime. The reading will be supported by a reading of Tinio’s last translation work, that of Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, which was turned into a musical entitled Ang Larawan.

Keywords: music as script, translation, pop songs, Rolando Tinio, Teatro Pilipino, Marcos regime.

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Experiencing and Writing East Asian (Post)modernity

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Yue Zhang 

Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities; Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, China.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 1, January-March, 2022, Pages 1–4. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n1.00

Published: February 5, 202

(This editorial is published under the Themed Issue Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Literary and Cultural Studies)
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Experiencing and Writing East Asian (Post)modernity

Experiencing and Writing East Asian (Post)modernity

The articles on China and Japan in this special issue deal with modernity and postmodernity as exemplified by modern Chinese writers, such as Yu Dafu (1896–1945) and Fei Ming (1901–1967); contemporary Chinese and Japanese writers, such as Can Xue and Sayaka Murata; and the connections between modern life and antiquarian book collections in Macau. These articles, hailing from the different perspectives provided by history, philosophy, and translation studies, collectively contribute to our understanding of the literary manifestation, reflection, and representation of modernity and postmodernity in twentieth-century China and Japan.

Yidan Wang’s article, “Translingual, Transcultural, and Transboundary Scenes: Aesthetic Ideas and Discursive Practice in Yu Dafu’s Landscape Writing,” examines a representative writer of “New Literature.” Previous research on Yu Dafu has largely focused on Yu’s fiction (Denton 1992: 107-123; Levan 2012: 48-87). Wang’s article switches the focus to Yu’s travel writing and investigates his cross-cultural understanding of nature and landscape, arguing, “This paper aims to further explore the mechanism with which Yu began these works, selected multiple discourses, cooperated with authorities and commercial powers, and built a new imaginary of nature in modern China.”[i] Yu’s travel writing, such as “A Sentimental Journey,” “The Trifles of a Fuzhou Journey,” and “Travel Notes in Malacca,” integrates Western culture, such as German Baedekers, with Chinese travel literature in a way that highlights lively personal experience and the narration of local lore. Yu’s fusion creates a unique way of depicting beautiful natural scenery that surpasses the pedagogical approach of traditional travel guides.[ii]

A contemporary of Yu Dafu, Fei Ming is the focus of Candy Fan Wang’s article, “The Poesis of Fei Ming: How Does the Classical Merge with the Modernist.” This article investigates the characteristics of modern Chinese writer Fei Ming’s literary writing, focusing on his free verse modern poetry, by placing it in the context of Chinese literature and philosophy and Western symbolism. This cross-cultural comparative approach lends itself to analyzing Fei Ming, who was influenced by both the traditional Chinese culture of Confucian classics, Daoist canons, and Buddhist sutras as well as Western and especially British literature and culture (Liu 2001: 30-71). Concerning how Fei Ming handled this commingled influence, Wang argues, “[Fei Ming’s] ontological approach enabled him to treat classical Chinese poetry without prejudice and diminished the rupture between tradition and modern with the proposal that modern poetry should take the content of poetry and language of prose.” Fei Ming’s new literary concepts and practice made him a representative writer of the Peking Style.

Tingting Chen and Minhui Xu’s article, “Foreignized Translation of Onomatopoeia in The Last Lover” moves us from modern Chinese literature to a contemporary Chinese writer, Can Xue. Chen and Xu categorize the strategies that Annelise Finegan Wasmoen adopted in translating onomatopoeia in Can Xue’s novel The Last Lover. As a way of providing background for Wasmoen’s foreignizing translation strategy, this article defines the term onomatopoeia and introduces different ways of translating onomatopoeia from other languages into English: “italicized transliteration with target onomatopoeia,” “italicized transliteration with explanation,” and “italicized transliteration with context.” For these three approaches, this article investigates the possible reasons for the translator’s choices, focusing on the background of the translator (in particular, her background in comparative literature) and Can Xue’s engagement throughout the entire translation process. This article reveals the collaborative dynamic between the author and the translator: “The uncompromising author and the unwavering translator successfully delivered a difficult but interesting reading for target readers to experience a dreamlike irrational surrealism with the help of the exotic sound effects.” The article supports its major arguments by examining the text itself, several dictionaries, and appropriate peer-reviewed scholarship. Translation plays an important role in promoting contemporary Chinese literature abroad.

With Chon Chit Tang’s article, “Introduction to Antiquarian Chinese Book Collections in Contemporary Macau,” the issue expands beyond mainland Chinese writers to investigate Macau, a cultural hub that has brought together Chinese and European civilization for centuries. Tang’s article outlines the overall socio-political environment of Macau and then investigates the trajectory of antiquarian Chinese books in the context of Macau culture: their categorizations, preservation history, and contemporary usage and significance. The previous scholarship usually focuses on rare books in mainland China, but this article investigates the overlooked topic of antiquarian Chinese book collections in Macau and their interactions with contemporary Macau society. Government bureaus, educational institutions, religious sites, and individual bibliophiles have collected and preserved these antiquarian books. Based on his many years’ academic experience with antiquarian Chinese books in Macau and mainland China, Tang states, “The study of Macau’s antiquarian books will require an in-depth examination of the antiquarian books available to the public, including their editions, collations, prefaces and postscripts, the situations in which they were circulated, and so on. We should not only focus on enhancing the protection of antiquarian books but also learn to utilize and develop these resources.” The development of digital humanities methods, the publication of studies of antiquarian books, and consistent support from the government of Macau will lead to further investigations of antiquarian Chinese book collections in Macau. These collections will become a window into Macau’s rich local culture, a local culture with international heritage.

From China and Macau, we turn to contemporary Japanese literature with Jaseel P and Rashmi Gaur’s article, “Precarity and Performativity in Post-Fordist Japanese Workplace: A Reading of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman.” This article adopts Judith Butler’s theories of gender to interpret the Akutagawa Prize-winning novel. In specific, the authors examine “how anxiety-ridden precarious living conditions can also become a foundation for alternative performances troubling gender categories, thereby transcending the narrow social scripts rooted in exclusion and inequality.” This article engages existing scholarship on Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, such as that of Ayako Kano, Machiko Osawa, Barbara E. Thornbury, and Bryony White. A symbol of postmodernity, the convenience store epitomizes the fast rhythm of capitalist Japanese society. Murata draws on her own work experience in a convenience store to narrate the story and push its development. In order to survive and integrate into this utilitarian society, the leading female character, Keiko Furukura, has to abandon her personality and learn to imitate other people to become part of a homogeneous community. The authors actively apply Butler’s theories to the novel’s plot, providing new insights into the gender and identity issues of Japanese women working in precarity.

During the first half of the twentieth century, Chinese writers actively studied Western technology and culture, and applied it to the task of revolutionizing, restoring, and renovating China. Yu Dafu and Fei Ming both blended Western culture, such as British and German literature, into traditional Chinese ways of depicting nature and articulating one’s voice. They both attempted to improve Chinese literature and make it more lively and interesting with modern narrative methods. Can Xue actively participates in translating her novel into English and experiments with modern translation techniques, which demonstrates the author’s engagement in shaping the reception of contemporary Chinese literature. Just as writers have experimented with different approaches, including those that drew on the past, for experiencing and writing modernity, Macau’s antiquarian books have been digitalized, preserved and integrated into the contemporary life of the city. In postmodern Japan, Murata’s Convenience Store Woman demonstrates how Keiko, a part-time worker in a precarious work situation, deals with anxieties and other people’s expectations. These articles investigate many aspects of Chinese and Japanese literature, spanning multiple forms and genres. The authors, who are from mainland China, Macau, India, and Japan, bring a multidisciplinary approach to bear on modernity and postmodernity in China and Japan. Their different backgrounds contribute to the diversity of this special issue.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thanks go to my colleague and friend, Jeremy De Chavez, who provided me with this opportunity to co-edit this special issue. My speciality is premodern Chinese literary studies; so for this special issue on modern and contemporary literature, I sincerely appreciate the assistance of the reviewers, who helped me to select the articles through their reports and to improve their overall quality. This is sponsored by my MYRG project (MYRG2020-00018-FAH) at the University of Macau.

Notes

[i] The direct quotes in this introduction all draw from the articles in this special issue, sometimes with slight modification, so the footnotes of these quotes are omitted. The sources for all quotes not from this special issue will be identified through footnotes.

[ii] Yu Dafu is not alone integrating the narration of lore with literary genres. It is a practice that has a long tradition in China. For the treatment of lore and literature in premodern China, see Zhang 2022.

References

Denton, Kirk A.  (1992). “The Distant Shore: Nationalism in Yu Dafu’s ‘Sinking’.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, vol. 14.

Levan, Valerie. (2012). “The Meaning of Foreign Text in Yu Dafu’s ‘Sinking’ Collection.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, vol. 24, no. 1.

Liu, Haoming. (2001). “Fei Ming’s Poetics of Representation: Dream, Fantasy, Illusion, and ?layavijñ?na.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, vol. 13, no. 2.

Zhang, Yue. 2022. Lore and Verse: Poems on History in Early Medieval China. State University of New York Press.

Yue Zhang is Associate Professor of Chinese Literature and Graduate Programme Coordinator at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau, Macau, China.

Which tongue? The Imported Colonial Standard or Motherland Vernacular? Exploring “Death” as the Birth of Postcolonial Malaysia in Muthammal Palanisamy’s Funeral Chant

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[wp-svg-icons icon=”user” wrap=”i”] Kavitha Ganesan [wp-svg-icons icon=”envelop” wrap=”i”]  

Centre for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sabah, Malaysia.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 1, January-March, 2022, Pages 1–18. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n1.09

Abstract received:  18 March 2021 | Article received: 1 June 2021 | Revised : 6 Sept 2021 | Accepted: 8 Sept 2021 | First Published: 05 February 2022

(This article is published under the Themed Issue Contemporary East and Southeast Asian Literary and Cultural Studies)
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Which tongue? The Imported Colonial Standard or Motherland Vernacular? Exploring “Death” as the Birth of Postcolonial Malaysia in Muthammal Palanisamy’s Funeral Chant

Abstract

This article examines “death” in a funeral chant set in the plantation estates of Malaysia, and written in English and Tamil, as a metaphor for the birth of the nation. It explores how the death of communal linguistic elements, both in orality and symbolic references, lead to the deconstruction of motherland identity markers which are then replaced by the reconstruction of diasporic identities that are observable through the use of standardized English. For this purpose, the Malaysian Indian life-writer, Muthammal Palanisamy’s English version of an oppari (Tamil for funeral chant), which was published in Malaysia (2002) will be read in relation to the Tamil version published in India (2007) through transliterated and translated texts of the chant. In so doing, the paper highlights the inherent gap between the two versions that can be usefully deployed to address whether English is an enabling tool through which ethnic Indians can express their identities in a postcolonial nation like Malaysia or is it perpetually contaminated by colonial history and values. On the other hand, the paper also draws attention to the question of whether the displacement of the vernacular language, i.e., Tamil, witnesses the inevitable cultural death of a diasporic community or does it display a form of inclusivity within the polyglot linguistic environment of the adopted land, Malaysia.

Keywords: Malaysian Literature in English; migrant/diasporic Indian; national identity; funeral chant; plantation estates

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