Intermedial Translation as Circulation

Jessica Siu-Yin Yeung

doi:10.1163/24056480-00504005

Abstract

Abstract We generally believe that literature first circulates nationally and then scales up through translation and reception at an international level. In contrast, I argue that Taiwan literature first attained international acclaim through intermedial translation during the New Cinema period (1982–90) and was only then subsequently recognized nationally. These intermedial translations included not only adaptations of literature for film, but also collaborations between authors who acted as screenwriters and filmmakers. The films resulting from these collaborations repositioned Taiwan as a multilingual, multicultural and democratic nation. These shifts in media facilitated the circulation of these new narratives. Filmmakers could circumvent censorship at home and reach international audiences at Western film festivals. The international success ensured the wide circulation of these narratives in Taiwan.

Highlights

We normally think of literature as circulating beyond the context in which it is written when it obtains national renown, which subsequently leads to international recognition through translation
I have surveyed the case of Chu Tien-wen, who collaborated with filmmakers in the New Cinema era, and have shown how she later became one of the cornerstones of contemporary Taiwan literature in the post-Martial Law period
In the New Cinema era, film censorship was more lenient than literary censorship, film as a medium afforded greater political and creative freedom for Taiwan writers and filmmakers to record the changing scenes of Taiwanese society after 1949 and to critique their society during the Martial Law period

Summary

Introduction

We normally think of literature as circulating beyond the context in which it is written when it obtains national renown, which subsequently leads to international recognition through translation. Chu Hsi-ning, was a Chinese anti-communist writer, her mother, Liu Mu-sha, a Taiwanese translator of Japanese literature She was a leading proponent of linking Taiwan literature to Chinese literature during the 1980s, her literary works became more critical of the kmt government and its ideology when she began to collaborate with filmmakers involved yeung with the New Cinema: “Episodes that implicitly undermine the Nationalist government’s political myth or criticize inherent problems in the present system began to appear in her screenplays and in her fiction” Became far more important as a screenwriter Following her debut with Growing Up to A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiaohsien, 1989), she wrote or co-wrote twelve screenplays (Taipei Golden Horse, “Film Synopsis” 129–71) during the New Cinema Period. I shall focus on the impact that these film adaptations have on government support for film and literature to explore the relationship between government support for Taiwan cinema and for Taiwan literature

Governmental Recognition of Taiwan New Cinema and Literature

Findings

Conclusion