Theorizing in Unfamiliar Contexts: New Directions in Translation Studies James Luke Hadley Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of East Anglia School of Language and Communication Studies April 2014 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution.” 1 ABSTRACT This thesis attempts to offer a reconceptualization of translation analysis. It argues that there is a growing interest in examining translations produced outside the discipline‟s historical field of focus. However, the tools of analysis employed may not have sufficient flexibility to examine translation if it is conceived more broadly. Advocating the use of abductive logic, the thesis infers translators‟ probable understandings of their own actions, and compares these with the reasoning provided by contemporary theories. It finds that it may not be possible to rely on common theories to analyse the work of translators who conceptualize their actions in radically different ways from that traditionally found in translation literature. The thesis exemplifies this issue through the dual examination of Geoffrey Chaucer‟s use of translation in the Canterbury Tales and that of Japanese storytellers in classical Kamigata rakugo. It compares the findings of the discipline‟s most pervasive theories with those gained through an abductive analysis of the same texts, finding that the results produced by the theories are invariably problematic. The thesis demonstrates that understandings of translation practice have been given to change over time, and vary substantially across cultures. Therefore, an individual theory is unlikely to be able to rationalize particular practices or features of translations irrespective of the cultural context in which they are found. Abductive logic aims to describe translations in particular, rather than translation in general. It can be used to infer factors that may have influenced translators‟ understandings of the roles their texts will take, and hence, their aims in translating. Many theories tend to be underpinned by inductive logic, which essentially restricts textual analysis to the application of pre-defined labels of translation phenomena. Abductive logic forms hypotheses based on the context in question, going far beyond this kind of textual categorization. 2 CONTENTS Acknoweldgements Introduction The Objective 8 Corpus Analysis 9 The Material 18 Geoffrey Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales 19 Koten Kamigata Rakugo 22 The Approach 27 The Explicitation Hypothesis 33 The Foreignization-Domestication Dichotomy 36 Theory and Case Analysis 40 Abductive Reasoning 42 Conclusions 44 Chapter 1 Mediation or Excogitatio: The Relationship of Chaucer's Translations to their Sources Introduction 47 Mediation and Target Audience Perspective 48 Translating to Improve Accessibility 49 Mediating by Glossing 52 Mediation and Source Text Perspective 56 Separating Story from Message 61 Mediation and Translating Faithfully 65 An Alternative to Mediation 69 Conclusions 72 3 Chapter 2 Help or Hindrance: Using Contemporary Theories to Analyse Chaucer's Translations Introduction 75 Explicitation and Innovation 75 Collocation as Gloss 77 Foreignization and a Foreign Setting 81 Accentuating the Foreign 85 Domestication and Domestic Norms 89 The Difference between Domestication and Appropriation 92 Conclusions 95 Chapter 3 Interweaving Ideas and Worlds: Rakugo and Planned Selection in the Translation Process Introduction 99 Chinese Texts Read in Japanese 99 Rakugo Translated from Chinese 103 Stories of Japanese Origin 105 One Storyteller to Another 111 Similarity and Variety 116 Creativity and the World of the Story 117 Conclusions 120 Chapter 4 Reasoning at Cross Purposes: The Reconciliation of Theory and Practice Introduction 123 Expected results and actual results 123 Traditions and Understandings of what it means to Translate 126 Bridging the Lacunae that Separate Traditions 131 Explicitation 131 Foreignization 136 Domestication 139 4 Conclusions 143 Chapter 5 The Organic Understanding: Exploring Translation as an Abstract, Evolving Idea Introduction 146 Kanbun-kundoku and its cultural impact 147 The Origins of Kanbun-kundoku 147 The Challenge to Existing Tradition 150 The Impact on Rakugo 153 The Development of Excogitatio 154 The Impact of the Vernacular 156 Empiricism‟s Contribution 159 The Genius of the Text 160 Genius Turning to Spirit 164 Implications for the contemporary tradition 166 Conclusions 166 Conclusion Introduction 170 Theory as Opinion 173 Theory as Shorthand 177 Theories and Time 178 The Diplomatic Solution and its Issues 182 The Alternative Approach 183 Appendices Appendix 1 189 Journal Mission Statements 189 Breakdown of the Kamigata rakugo stories of Beichō and Shijaku Katsura 191 Survey Results 197 Corpus Analysis 199 Appendix 2 206 5 The Translation of Circuitous Cat 206 Appendix 3 208 Source passages for the Tale of Melibee, 208 References Works Cited 210 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Rakugo Stories Reproduced in the Books of Beichō and Shijaku Katsura 191 Table 2: Results of Contemporary Translation Literature Survey 197 Table 3: Survey of Contemporary Translation Literature 199 6 ACKNOWELDGEMENTS I would like begin by thanking my research supervisors, Dr Alain Wolf, Dr Matthew Woodcock, and Dr Valerie Henitiuk, whose guidance and generosity have taught me so much. Dr Wolf in particular has become a friend as well as a supervisor. He has guided me, while simultaneously allowing me to learn from my own mistakes in an amazingly skilful way. Dr Woodcock‟s input has also been invaluable for my development. He has been generous with his time and understanding when I have struggled. Dr Henitiuk kindly gave me her own perspective on my work, providing comments that were of great encouragement. I would like to thank the other members of the School of Language and Communication Studies, staff, students, and administrators who have always been supportive and encouraging. I would also like to thank those members of the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing I have had the good fortune to meet and discuss my work with. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the Humanities Faculty and the School of Language and Communication Studies for generously funding my research. I am well aware of my great good fortune in being in the currently small proportion of PhD students that are not required to struggle to finance their studies. I would also like to thank the attendants and members of the various conferences, symposia, and research groups I have had the opportunity to engage with. These people have underlined for me the cooperative aspects of research. 7 INTRODUCTION This thesis will draw together a study of translation in the traditional Japanese form of storytelling known as Kamigata rakugo with a study of Geoffrey Chaucer‟s medieval use of translation in the creation of the Canterbury Tales. The aim will be to observe if the style of text analysis most favoured by contemporary translation studies is equally useful in these two cases. The aim of this introductory chapter is to illustrate what the main topics of this thesis are, how they will be addressed, and for what reasons. It will begin by illustrating the objective of the thesis, by identifying the dialogues and issues it addresses, and by expanding on the questions to be asked and their importance (8). Next, it will move on to introduce the material of study in the form of the two translation case studies to be examined in detail (18). Finally, it will illustrate the ways in which this material will be used throughout the thesis to ask if the approach to studying translation that is currently most widely used is equally applicable, irrespective of translation context (27). The Objective This study joins a small but developing turn, which appreciates that translation studies‟ historical focus on contemporary, European forms of translation is disadvantageous for the discipline to achieve its full potential. Perhaps the most vocal, and best-known proponent of the sentiment that translation studies should actively expand its field of enquiry is Maria Tymoczko, who has repeatedly advocated an increased focus on forms of translation derived from historically underrepresented contexts (Tymoczko, 2007, 2009). Tymoczko is supported by a growing interest in translations produced in the past and the subject of translation history (see for example Bassnett and Lefevere, 1990, O'Sullivan, 2012, Pym, 1998)1. She is also joined by scholars such as Judy Wakabayashi and Martha Cheung, who have become well known for working on translations involving the Japanese (for 1 Please note that O‟Sullivan‟s work is referenced here to indicate the entirety of the second issue of The Translator 2012, a special edition entitled Rethinking Methods in Translation History. This journal is introduced by O‟Sullivan‟s work referenced here, which also explores translation history as an object of study in more detail. 8 Introduction example Wakabayashi, 1998, 2008, 2012) and Chinese (for example Cheung, 2005, 2009, 2011) languages respectively. The move away from Euro-centrism has been demonstrated and aided by the publication in recent years of such volumes as Ricci‟s Translation in Asia: Theories, Practices Histories (2011), Wakabayashi