世界文學之作《鬼地方》之文化翻譯探討

Abstract

臺灣文學獎得主陳思宏所著《鬼地方》（2019 年）已由石岱崙（Darryl Sterk）翻譯成英文，於 2022 年在英語市場出版。《鬼地方》為臺灣後鄉土文學的作品，小說之於文化現象的豐富描繪，包括民俗宗教、風俗習慣、家庭與性別，及傳統意識形態等，在在挑戰譯者。本研究旨在探討《鬼地方》的譯者採用了哪些翻譯策略，以傳達臺灣文化現象給假定對其不熟悉的讀者。同時，本研究也分析翻譯方法如何反映其英文翻譯在世界文學體系內的形象。首先是對歷史上著名理論家過往文獻的回顧，顯示出主流的世界文學框架之演變，但主要聚焦在西方文學的討論，因此當運用於以臺灣文學作為世界文學分析時，仍存在不足之處。接著，對翻譯研究中現有的臺灣文學研究進行回顧，展示從世界文學的角度探討文化元素的翻譯問題，可以有助於更深入的分析。本研究以《鬼地方》英文翻譯為案例，透過比較文本分析，呈現譯者如何重新書寫臺灣文化並填補觀眾的知識缺口，例如透過更改角色名稱和增加文字來介紹文化現象，以提高小說的可讀性和理解性。本研究旨在提供文化翻譯和世界文學的雙重角度，以深入研究翻譯策略及其對讀者接受度的影響。

Taiwan Literature Award-winning novel Ghost Town (2019) by Kevin Chen (陳思宏) was translated into English by Darryl Sterk (石岱崙) and published in 2022. As a work of Taiwan’s post-nativist literature genre, the culturally rich portrayal of folk religion, customs, family and gender dynamics, and traditional ideologies in the novel presents many challenges to the translator. This research seeks to address what translation strategies are employed to convey cultural phenomena in the English translation of Ghost Town to an audience presumed to be unfamiliar with Taiwan’s culture, as well as how the translation approach reflects the image of its English translation within the framework of world literature. First, a review of historically prominent theorists demonstrates how mainstream frameworks of world literature have evolved while remaining largely focused on Western literatures, and therefore fall short when applied to the analysis of Taiwan literature as world literature. A review of existing research on Taiwan literature in translation studies then shows how the issue of translation of cultural elements could benefit from further analysis from a world literature perspective. Next, a case study of the English translation of Ghost Town employs comparative textual analysis to demonstrate how Taiwanese culture is rewritten, such as through the renaming of characters and addition of text to introduce cultural phenomena, in order to increase its accessibility and understandability to the English readership through intentional translation strategies which aim to fill perceived gaps in the audience’s knowledge. This research aims to contribute to enhancing the body of research on Taiwan literature in translation by providing a dual cultural translation and world literature perspective and offering an in-depth investigation of translation strategies and their potential impacts on reader reception.