Ning Kou
School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang 11800, Malaysia
School of Foreign Languages, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
Sang Seong Goh
School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang 11800, Malaysia
This paper discusses the issues of rendering the horror aspect of war trauma in intralingual diachronic translations of Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio). The overall issue examined is how to effectively render the intense, intricate mood of war trauma and maintain access for modern readers. Though there have been studies on literary translation assessing different facets of cultural transmission, research on the particular challenges of depicting war trauma in intralingual diachronic translations, particularly in the light of historical and cultural distance between the source text (ST) and contemporary readers, remains scarce. It is with this intention that the current study seeks to fill this void by considering Zhonghua Book Company (ZBC), one of China's most prestigious antiquarian publishers. It pays attention to how these methods succeed in retaining the emotional and horror aspects of the ST, which are critical to the depiction of war trauma. Based on Yu’s (2002) theory of war trauma and Chen’s (1999) techniques of translation, the paper applies a comparative and descriptive methodology in examining certain cases of translation. The results illustrate the important contribution of intralingual diachronic translations towards cultural preservation alongside their capacity for enabling a dynamic interaction between historical and modern visions. The research highlights the relevance of translation as a tool not just of cultural preservation but also of overcoming temporal boundaries, providing useful insights to both the literary study of horror and the theory of translation.
[1] Jakobson, R., 1959. On linguistic aspects of translation. In: Brower, R.A. (ed.). On Translation. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, USA. pp. 232–239.
[2] Gottlieb, H., 2005. Multidimensional translation: Semantics turned semiotics. Proceedings of the Marie Curie Euroconferences MuTra: Challenges of Multidimensional Translation; 2–6 May 2005; Saarbrücken, Germany. MuTra: Homburg, Germany. pp. 1–29.
[3] Gottlieb, H., 2018. Semiotics and translation. In: Malmkjaer, K. (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies and Linguistics. Routledge: London, UK & New York, USA. pp. 45–63.
[4] Savas, B., 2018. Intralingual translation as a means of intergenerational communication: A linguistic approach. Journal of International Social Research. 11(55), 182–193. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17719/jisr.20185537190
[5] Karas, H., 2019. Intelligibility and the reception of translations. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice. 28(1), 24–42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2019.1612929
[6] Karas, H., Shyldkrot, H., 2021. Intralingual diachronic translation and transfer: The case of Old French. Romance Studies. 39, 189–207. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02639904.2021.2002553
[7] Karas, H., 2016. Intralingual intertemporal translation as a relevant category in translation studies. Target. 28(3), 445–466. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/target.28.3.05kar
[8] Pu, S.L., 2015. Liaozhai Zhiyi. Sun, T.H., Yu, T.C. (trans.); Yu, T.C. (annot.). Zhonghua Book Company: Beijing, China.
[9] Yu, T.C., 2002. Chinese fantastic or “terrorist” fiction and its aesthetic interests seen from “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” [in Chinese]. Literary Heritage [in Chinese]. 6, 60–67.
[10] Liu, Y.C., 2023. The horror writing of Strange Tales from Liaozhai. Communications in Humanities Research. 3, 554–559. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-7064/3/20220505
[11] Ge, J., 2022. Research on horror stories in Liao Zhai Zhi Yi [Master’s thesis]. Tianjin Normal University: Tianjin, China.
[12] Nayak, S., 2023. A brief history of evolution of Chinese language. Paripex Indian Journal of Research. 12(4), 78–79.
[13] Ma, R.F., 2019. Literary Pursuits of “Liaozhai Zhiyi” [in Chinese]. The Commercial Press: Beijing, China.
[14] Zhang, T., 2011. An Interpretation of “Liao Zhai Zhi Yi” [in Chinese]. Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House: Tianjin, China.
[15] Wang, A., 2021. Syncretism of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in Liaozhai Zhiyi in terms of filial piety. Heritage of Nusantara: International Journal of Religious Literature and Heritage. 10(2), 166–192. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31291/hn.v10i2.595
[16] Chen, P.Q., 1999. Modern Translation of Classical Chinese [in Chinese]. Yuelu Academy: Changsha, China.
[17] Pillière, L., Albachten, Ö.B., 2024. The Routledge Handbook of Intralingual Translation. Taylor & Francis: London, UK.
[18] Maaß, C., 2024. Intralingual Translation in Easy Language and Plain Language. In: Pillière, L., Albachten, Ö.B. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Intralingual Translation. Routledge: London, UK. pp. 234–251.
[19] Zoromba, M.A., Selim, A., Ibrahim, A.M., et al., 2024. Advancing trauma studies: a narrative literature review embracing a holistic perspective and critiquing traditional models. Heliyon. 10(16), e36257. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36257
Copyright © 2025 Ning Kou, Sang Seong Goh
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
