Abstracts
Abstract
This article interrogates the interpretive difficulties arising from the encounter with the Other in translation, specifically in the case where the subjectivity of the target text reader is implicated in the discursive constitution of identity in the source text. In contemplating how Anglophone Chinese Singaporean readers could interpret identities in Chinese literary works that invoke a strong sense of Chinese consciousness, I adopt Berman’s binary ethical framework in analysing the negotiation of Self and Other in translation. I posit that a positive ethics will be achieved if Anglophone Chinese readers position themselves as Other in their own language. On the contrary, a negative ethics ensues if the same group of readers embrace their identity as English-speaking Chinese as Self in the process of reading the Sinophone Other in the texts. The two conflicting positions create an epistemological dilemma on the part of the target text reader, thus raising the question of how identities can or should be negotiated in translation in the Singapore context, given that the cultural disposition of Anglophone Chinese readers is brought to bear on their reception of the cultural Other in translation.
Keywords:
- epistemological dilemma,
- ethics of translation,
- language ideological relation,
- cultural identity,
- Self-Othering
Résumé
Le présent article examine les difficultés d’interprétation de la rencontre avec l’Autre en traduction, plus particulièrement lorsque la subjectivité du lecteur cible intervient dans la constitution discursive de l’identité dand le texte source. En envisageant la façon dont les lecteurs anglophones de Singapour interprètent les identités dans les oeuvres littéraires chinoises qui font appel à une forte conscience chinoise, j’adopte le cadre éthique binaire de Berman pour analyser la négociation entre le Moi et l’Autre en traduction. Je postule qu’une éthique positive est possible dans la mesure où les lecteurs chinois anglophones se placent dans la peau de l’Autre dans leur propre langue. En revanche, le fait que le même groupe de lecteurs envisagent leur identité de Chinois anglophones comme le Moi à la lecture de l’Autre chinois entraîne une éthique négative. Ces deux positions contradictoires donnent lieu à un dilemme épistémologique chez le lecteur cible, dilemme qui pose la question de la négociation de l’identité en traduction dans le contexte de Singapour, du fait que la disposition culturelle des lecteurs chinois anglophones pèse sur leur réception de l’Autre culturel en traduction.
Mots-clés :
- dilemme épistémologique,
- éthique de la traduction,
- rapport idéologique à la langue,
- identité culturelle,
- recherche du Moi dans l’Autre
Appendices
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