Translating Theatre Symposium: Valerie Pellatt (Newcastle)

Dr Valerie Pellatt's paper from the Translating Theatre Symposium (Europe House, London, 21st October 2016), entitled "Does Foreignization in Translation of Chinese Drama Become Auto-orientalism and Perpetuate Stereotypes, and How Does Foreignization Assist or Impede the Process of Conveying Drama to a Non-Chinese Audience?"
Abstract:
This study describes and analyses the process of collaborative translation of a series of plays from Chinese to English by groups of Chinese native-speaker MA student translators; I examine how their revisions and adaptations during the translation and performance phases of the process reflected foreignization and domestication approaches.
The students were relatively experienced translators who had lived in the UK for just over a year, knowledgeable of their own culture and aware of the target culture. Each year for four years a twenty-first century play was translated collaboratively and staged and performed by the student translators themselves. They were surveyed on their reactions to and reflections on the project. Audiences were also surveyed. The first three plays in the series were by Wan Fang《有一种毒药》(‘Poison’),《杀人》(‘Murder’)
and《忏悔》(‘Confession’). These dealt with relationships between family and friends in the second half of the twentieth century and first few years of the twenty-first century. The fourth and fifth plays were by Meng Bing, a well-known ‘main melody’ playwright,
《大师》(‘The Master’) and《活在阳光下》(‘Living under the Sun’). These plays dealt with social issues of the twenty-first century.
The strategy of foreignization is discussed as a notion complementary to the breaking down of the Fourth Wall, as practised by Brecht and as in Chinese traditional drama, and as an aspect of Said’s travelling theory. A counter-argument is proposed from the viewpoint of auto-orientalism and occidentalism, especially with regard to plays for non- Chinese audiences. Is a conservative approach to selection and translation of plays which tends to foreignization an obstacle for non-Chinese audiences or an attraction?
Biography:
Valerie Pellatt lectures in Chinese Translation and Interpreting at Newcastle University, UK. She teaches Specialised Translation, Drama Translation and Public Service Interpreting. She has published on Chinese translation, Chinese children’s rhymes and poems, numbers in language and paratext. Her current research interests are paratext in translation and translation of modern Chinese drama.’