Translating trauma narratives: a case study of the English translation of Yan Lianke’s Si Shu (The Four Books)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The intersection of trauma narratives and translation has increasingly received much attention from translation studies and literary criticism. Researchers have not treated the translation of trauma narratives in contemporary Chinese literature in much detail, although many studies have focused on trauma narratives in Chinese literature. By examining the English translation of trauma narratives in Yan Lianke’s novel Si Shu (The Four Books), this study investigates the translation strategies used to reconstruct trauma narratives in the target text as well as the reasons for adopting those strategies and thus to unravel the influence of translation on representing trauma from the aspects of perspective, characterization, metaphor, and image. The study argues that trauma can be rendered, transmitted, and transformed by translation, and further suggests that translators should consider the perspective, characterization, metaphor, and image deployed to represent trauma when translating trauma narratives in literary texts.