國立臺灣師範大學 碩士論文 Master's Thesis Graduate Institute Of
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國立臺灣師範大學 碩士論文 Master’s Thesis Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation National Taiwan Normal University 變裝皇后的言談及魯保羅變裝皇后秀中文字幕的分析 What it Means to Talk Like a (Chinese) Drag Queen: An Analysis of Chinese Translations of RuPaul’s Drag Race 指導教授：李根芳博士 Advisor: Dr. Ken-Fang Lee 研究生：裴杰明 Jeremy Peck 中華民國一零九年二月 February 2020 摘要 許多備受邊緣化的族群，都有屬於自己獨特的語言表達方式，可用來營造社群意識 和歸屬感。變裝皇后此一族群，於近幾年走入主流文化，隨著變裝皇后所帶來的影響力日 益增長，變裝皇后的語言也越來越大眾化。變裝的語言—特別是在魯保羅變裝皇后秀所出 現的語言—在美國同性戀社群，可說是相對的普遍，並成為一些同性戀者建立身份，與構 築或加強圈內社群的一種方式。在本文中，我希望透過研究魯保羅變裝皇后秀，當中所出 現的變裝語言所帶來的影響，以及對身份形塑和建構社群的重要性，並且分析中文字幕該 如何修正而不失原意。 關鍵字：變裝，變裝皇后，魯保羅，同性戀，翻譯 Abstract Many marginalized groups have their own unique ways of speaking that they use to create a sense of community and belonging. One such group that has been launched into the mainstream in recent years is drag queens. As drag grows in influence and relevance, the language of drag also grows in ubiquity and familiarity. The language of drag, especially in the American gay community, and particularly that which can be heard on RuPaul’s Drag Race, has become a means by which some gay people establish an identity and build or strengthen community. In this thesis, I examine the ways that drag language functions in Drag Race, how it is important to identity formation and community-building, and finally, how it is translated into Chinese. Keywords: drag, drag queens, RuPaul, LGBTQ, translation Table of Contents I. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………1 i. Background Information ii. Research Purpose iii. Research Questions II. Literature Review and Methodology ……………………………………………22 III. Discussion ……………………………………………………………………….32 i. Camp ii. Sisterhood iii. Reading iv. Pop Culture IV. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………70 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………………..73 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Ken-Fang Lee, for her encouragement and truly invaluable advice. I never thought that I would find so much value in studying RuPaul’s Drag Race, but Professor Lee was so enthusiastic about the idea from the very start that I felt confident enough to devote so much time to the topic. Each time I met with Professor Lee, she made me feel like my ideas were valid and thought-provoking. She guided me at times when I had no conviction and felt like I was just writing a thesis-length tangent about drag queens. Not only is she a voice for so many underrepresented people through her research, but she also helped me find my own voice in the vast field of translation studies, and for that, I am so incredibly grateful. Professor Lee’s Translation and Gender course was an eye-opening moment during my graduate career; it was during that class that I learned that translation is not just a literary tool but a way to be a voice for the voiceless. It was then that I realized that I wanted to devote the rest of my graduate career to researching the academically underrepresented LGBTQ+ community. I would also like to thank my thesis committee members, Dennis Chwen-Der Lin and Kelly Hu for their advice in improving my thesis. Professor Lin provided me with ample materials and scholarship to help me fill in the holes in the history of drag scholarship. Finally, I would like to thank my professors and classmates at the Graduate Institute of Translation and Interpretation (GITI) at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) for their support and all the knowledge they have shared these past few years. I am also indebted to Liou Jia-Song for his patience and diligence in helping me interpret the subtle differences in Chinese phrasing that I would not have been able to grasp on my own; his linguistic aptitude, as well as emotional support, were truly invaluable to the completion of this project. Chapter I Introduction i. Background Information Many marginalized groups have their own unique ways of speaking that they use to create a sense of community and belonging. One such group that has been launched into the mainstream in recent years is drag queens. Due in part to the great success that RuPaul’s Drag Race – an American reality competition series where the winner is crowned “America’s next drag superstar –” has enjoyed over its ten-plus seasons, drag has become increasingly popular in the United States and throughout the world. Not only is RuPaul’s Drag Race UK currently enjoying success during its first season, but a spinoff series in Thailand is wrapping up its second season, while franchises are in the works for Canada and Australia.1 Following the explosion of the Drag Race phenomenon, the language of (American) drag has also spread from the drag community to the gay community, and from there to mainstream heterosexual society. For proof, look to the ubiquity of Drag Race GIFs that are plastered all over the Internet. A search for “yas queen” or “shade” is likely to return a plethora of scenes taken straight from Drag Race. As Caroline Are writes for Quartzy, “Drag Race has become a cultural juggernaut that is influencing our everyday language and internet behavior.” Drag Race alumnae have also started appearing all over the entertainment industry, from Willam and Shangela acting in A Star is Born with Lady Gaga, to Milk and Violet Chachki runway modeling for Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul 1 Brooks, Raillan. “A Viewer’s Guide to ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race.’” The New York Times. 3 Oct. 2019. 1 Gaultier, to Shae Coulee, Miss Vanjie, and Mayhem Miller starring in pop music videos for major artists like Iggy Azalea.2 Drag Race as a television program has become a social phenomenon in itself. Beginning on the LGBT channel LogoTV, it became the most-watched show in the history of the network. It eventually moved to VH1 and grew significantly from there. The ninth season averaged a total of nearly 1.2 million viewers per episode, more than double that of Season 8. RuPaul Charles won the Emmy for best host of a reality show in 2016 and 2017, and Time magazine recently named him as one of its 100 Most Influential People of the year 2018.3 Drag Race marks the first time that interactions among groups of drag queens have been documented to such a degree. Not even the 1991 documentary Paris is Burning – a pivotal work of gay cinema that showed the world the formerly underground world of black and Latinx ball culture in late 1980s New York City – came close to Drag Race’s popularity and scope. Needless to say, Drag Race has grown into a worldwide phenomenon and drag as an art form and culture can no longer be ignored as a fringe underground movement. The show usually features around a dozen queens each season, with each episode ending in a “lip sync for your life” where the two queens who were judged to have performed most poorly compete in a lip sync battle. RuPaul tells the queen who she judges as having lost the lip sync to “shantay away” and they are eliminated from the competition. The challenges run the gamut of what a drag queen might be expected to do, from clothing design and construction, joke writing and stand-up performance, script-writing and acting, and even songwriting and singing. 2 Are, Carolina. “How ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Changed the Way we Speak.” Quartzy. 2 Oct. 2019. 3 Wortham, Jenna. “Is ‘Rupaul’s Drag Race’ the Most Radical Show on TV?” The New York Times. 24 Jan. 2018. 2 Aside from one of these “main challenges,” each episode also includes a runway segment where a queen walks the mainstage to show off her, sometimes handmade, look. The queens are judged based on their performance in the main challenge and on the runway. This format had proven quite successful as it has remained the same throughout numerous seasons and the show continues to grow in popularity. RuPaul is arguably the most successful queens of his era. Born to a poor family in 1960 in San Diego, RuPaul eventually moved with his sister to Atlanta in 1976. It was here that RuPaul saw his first drag performance and he was immediately hooked. He began perfecting his drag aesthetic and started bands and made music videos. When he moved to Manhattan in the late 1980s, drag had become a New York cultural phenomenon. He was a fixture at downtown clubs as a dancer and eventually released the album “Supermodel of the World,” featuring the song “Supermodel (You Better Work).” The song was a hit; designers like Todd Oldham and Isaac Mizrahi used it in their runway presentations during fashion week and it was nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards for best dance video. RuPaul was offered a regular modeling contract with MAC Cosmetics.4 Eventually, he would pitch Drag Race and take his success to new heights. Even as Drag Race grows more and more commercially viable, many members of mainstream heterosexual society still ask: what is drag and what does it mean to be part of the drag community? Is it different from being transgender? In his essay, “The Aesthetic of Drag,” Daniel Harris notes that “verisimilitude has never been the guiding aesthetic principle at work when gay men dress up as bearded nuns on roller skates, topless baton twirlers with rhinestone 4 Ibid. 3 pasties, or whorish prom queens in fuck-me pumps and bee-hive hair-dos.”5 In short, drag is not about “passing” as one gender or another, but is its own form of expression. Harris describes one form of drag: “The aesthetic of drag has evolved according to an entirely different set of historical and political factors which have increasingly distorted its relation to women’s clothing, thus contributing to its high degree of stylization.” This is one form of drag where stereotypes of femininity and drag are knowingly exaggerated.