Yu Hua’s works in English translation: an interview with Allan H. Barr

Abstract

ABSTRACT This interview with Allan Barr was conducted via email by Baorong Wang between January and April 2020. Throughout the entire process, altogether seven batches of questions were sent out to the interviewee. The interview was designed by the interviewer with a slant on sociological approaches to literary translation, focusing more on the people involved and the contexts of the translations than on the texts. Specifically, the concept of the “translator’s habitus” developed by Daniel Simeoni was used to probe into Allan Barr’s personal decisions and choices, while Bruno Latour et al’s actor-network theory was drawn on to investigate the network of actors – American publishers, literary agents, editors, translators, etc. – involved in introducing Yu Hua’s works to the United States. The dialogue between the two provides the reader with personal observations about Allan Barr’s professional habitus and perceptive insights into the entire history of bringing Yu Hua’s works to English readers and their reception in the United States.