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Part of
Translation of Autobiography: Narrating self, translating the other
Susan XU Yun
[Benjamins Translation Library 136] 2017
► pp. v–viii

Table of contents

Acknowledgements ix
List of tables xi
List of figures xiii
List of abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
1.Aims and scope of the book 2
2.Data selection criteria 5
3.Bilingualism in Singapore 7
4.Pseudo-original and assumed translation 9
5.Translator’s dilemma in Singapore 14
6.Organization of the book 16
Chapter 1.Distinctiveness of autobiography: Binary oppositions and theoretical dimensions 19
1.1Introduction 19
1.2Distinctive features of autobiography 20
1.2.1Autobiography and memoirs: Self or others 21
1.2.2Autobiography and biography: Subjectivity or objectivity 23
1.2.3Autobiography and fictive autobiography: Truth or myth 25
1.2.4Autobiography and canonical literature: Comprehensibility or exceptionality 27
1.2.5Autobiography and historiography: Private or public 28
1.3Review of studies on autobiography 30
1.3.1Shifts of critical focus 30
1.3.2Self-making and world-making functions 31
1.3.3Enactment and didactic role 33
1.3.4Referential and rhetorical value of language and style 34
1.3.5Competing voices and identity crisis in translation 37
1.4Conclusion 39
Chapter 2.Language of autobiography: Style and foregrounding 41
2.1Introduction 41
2.2Literariness in autobiography 42
2.2.1Criteria of literariness 42
2.2.2Subjective and objective language 44
2.3Stylistic analytical framework 45
2.3.1Foregrounding and familiarization 45
2.3.2Checklist of linguistic and stylistic categories 47
2.3.3Functional grammar and transitivity 49
2.3.4Linguistic criticism 50
2.3.5Integrated model of stylistic analysis 51
2.4Foregrounding analysis of Challenge 53
2.4.1Lexical categories: Underlexicalization 53
2.4.2Syntactic categories: Contrast 57
2.4.3Figures of speech: Subtlety 59
2.4.4Context and cohesion: Enhancement of coherence 61
2.5Conclusion 64
Chapter 3.Point of view in autobiography: Character, narrator and implied author 67
3.1Introduction 67
3.2Narrative-communicative situation 67
3.2.1Levels of analysis 68
3.2.2Narrative-communicative situation 71
3.3Implied author, narrator and character relationship in autobiography 74
3.3.1Implied author ≠ real author 74
3.3.2I-narrator ≠ implied author 76
3.3.3I-character ≠ I-narrator 79
3.3.4Hypothetical narrative structure in autobiography 82
3.4Point of view theories 84
3.4.1Psychological aspects: Internal and external perspectives 84
3.4.2Visual aspects: Focalization 85
3.4.3Ideological aspects: Slant and filter 88
3.4.4Linguistic aspects: Mind style 90
3.5Conclusion 96
Chapter 4.Narrating and experiencing self: Mimesis within diegesis 99
4.1Introduction 99
4.2Constituting consciousness 100
4.3Deixis, modality and speech/thought presentation 101
4.3.1Deixis and reader’s consciousness 102
4.3.2Modality and the speaker’s consciousness 105
4.3.3Speech and thought presentation: The narrator’s/character’s consciousness 108
4.4Character’s consciousness: The mimesis 111
4.4.1DS 111
4.4.2FIS 114
4.4.3DT and FIT 117
4.5Narrator’s consciousness: The diegesis 119
4.5.1NRSA and NRTA 119
4.5.2IS and IT 122
4.5.3Paradoxical FDT 123
4.6Interplay between character and narrator 126
4.6.1Empathy 126
4.6.2Irony 129
4.7Conclusion 132
Chapter 5.Implied translator: The “other” voice in translation and rewriting 135
5.1Introduction 135
5.2The implied translator and the “other” voice 136
5.3Rewriting 139
5.3.1Narratorial differences 139
5.3.2Poetics and patronage in rewriting 143
5.4Foregrounding and transitivity in Type I texts 147
5.4.1Overlexicalization 147
5.4.2Syntactic foreignness 150
5.4.3Circumlocution and overevaluation 152
5.4.4Incoherence 155
5.5The “other” voice in Type III texts 157
5.5.1Faithful translator with “passive” voice 157
5.5.2Skilful translator with “active” voice 160
5.6Conclusion 165
Chapter 6.Translating the “other”: Unreliable narrator and discordant voice 167
6.1Introduction 167
6.2The “other” consciousness in translated narrative 167
6.3Fallible filter, unreliable narrator and discordant narration 170
6.4Fallible filters and translator-conscious irony 172
6.4.1Irony and empathy retained 173
6.4.2Irony and empathy created 178
6.4.3Irony and empathy erased 181
6.5Unreliable narrator and translator-unconscious irony 185
6.5.1Factual discrepancy 185
6.5.2Attitudinal inconsistence 189
6.5.3Ideological discordance 193
6.6Conclusion 201
Conclusion 205
1.Seeing the point and hearing the voices 205
2.Towards a multidisciplinary and transnational framework 209
3.Final remarks 210
References 213
Index 221
Index (Chinese) 231


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