The fuzzy interface between censorship and self-censorship in translation
Tan Zaixi | Shenzhen University | Beijing Foreign Studies University
The present research explores how the self-censoring mechanism is established in the translator’s mind and how
this internal mechanism interfaces with external, institutional censorial policies to affect both the process and the outcome of a
translation. The paper begins with a discussion of the ubiquitous nature of censorship and how the translator internalizes various
coercive censorial forces. Based on detailed case studies of three well-known censorship/ self-censorship-affected Chinese
translations – those of Lolita, Animal Farm, and Deng Xiaoping – this research finds that when
certain values, ideologies, cultural practices and moral presuppositions become internalized by translators, their censorial
behavior is no longer a coerced option but an active choice of their own, and also that there is often no clear dividing line
between what is coerced (censoring) and what is one’s own (self-censoring) action in contexts where ‘politically/ culturally
sensitive’ source texts are bound to be scrutinized by the censor’s/ self-censor’s eye before they enter the translations
market.
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Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Wang, Dingkun
2020. Censorship and Manipulation in Audiovisual Translation. In The Palgrave Handbook of Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility, ► pp. 621 ff.
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