Transediting classic English novels for children in China: a narratological case study of Gulliver’s Travels

ABSTRACT

The practice of transediting classic English novels for children is common in China, but remains under-researched. From a narratological perspective, this article explores this practice through a case study of Gulliver’s Travels. It first identifies the factors, including the view of childhood, common presuppositions of the features of children’s literature, censorship, and the mainstream educational philosophy in China, that may influence this practice. Then, it finds that the Chinese children’s editions of Gulliver’s Travels experience noticeable changes both on the story and discourse level, such as the excision of scenes that reflect satirical criticism and the shift from indirect speech to direct speech. Lastly, it points out that although the observed changes are understandable, some seem inappropriate for the target young Chinese readers due to the ignorance of the differences in children’s literature for readers of different ages. Therefore, this article suggests that literature for young readers aged 11 to 16 should challenge them cognitively and affectively, be somewhat subversive, and present a complete picture of the reality, and that translators of children’s literature should truly put themselves in the position of children and consider the needs of young readers of different ages.

KEYWORDS:

• Transediting
• classic English novel
• Chinese children
• narratology
• Gulliver’s Travels

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. It is worth noting that a translation task usually involves different editorial agents, including publishers, translators, editors, and proofreaders, who work cooperatively to ensure the final product is acceptable and attractive to target text readers. It means that transediting might be made by not only translators but also other agents. As this article is not concerned with which agent is responsible for certain changes in the target text, it simply uses the term “translator” to refer to all the agents that might be involved in transediting.

2. The first edition of Sun’s translation was published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House in 2003.

3. Admittedly, the features of a target text are inevitably affected by the translator’s habitus. However, since this article does not focus on a particular translator, it chooses not to discuss the influence of translators’ own wishes on the target text in the analysis.

4. Because Sun’s translation is faithful to the original text and no noticeable change is observed, this article will not quote examples from Sun’s translation.

5. According to the statistics posted on the website, Gulliver’s Travels has a total of 107,349 words. https://commonplacebook.com/art/books/word-count-for-famous-novels/

6. Unless otherwise specified, all translations of Chinese citations in this article are the authors’.

7. Since the focus is on the reporting clause, the complete dialogue of this scene in the Kaiming Press edition is not cited here.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kun Zhu

Kun Zhu is a PhD candidate at the School of International Studies, Zhejiang University. He obtained his M.A. degree in English Language and Literature from Shanghai International Studies University. His research interests include translation history and children’s literature translation.

Guoliang Guo

Guoliang Guo is Professor of English at the School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, where he serves as Director of Institute for Translation Studies. His research interests include literary translation, contemporary British fiction and short story theory. He has published over 30 academic articles in such journals as Foreign Literature Studies, Foreign Literature, Contemporary Foreign Literature. He has also translated and published more than 40 literary works, many of which are world renowned.