Translation selection and the consecration of Dylan Thomas’s poetry in China: A sociological perspective
JinquanYu and ChunliShen
Nanjing Normal University | Hangzhou Dianzi University
Abstract
Dylan Thomas’s poetry can be seen both as minor Welsh literature and world literature. Drawing on Bourdieu’s
concepts of field and capital, this article explores the mechanism of translation selection and consecration of Thomas’s poetry in
China by using his poetry published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press as an illustrative case study. In so doing, it
is argued that the integrated forms of linguistic, economic, and symbolic capital associated with Thomas’s poetry, along with the
expiration of its copyright, prompted the publisher to select his poetry for translation to maintain its own dominant position in
the Chinese publishing field. The publisher, translator, and other agents have consecrated Thomas’s poetry as world literature in
China. This article expands research on inter-peripheral translation flows and ‘sociologies of poetry translation’ and advances
interdisciplinary studies of translation and world literature.
With the acceleration of literary and cultural globalization, cross-border flows of literary works become increasingly
frequent and significant. These are impossible without translation; as Venuti (2013, 193)
argues, it is translation that “enables the international reception of literary texts.” However, translation is embedded in the power
relations among national states and their languages. The international circulation of literary works among different languages
facilitated by translation can thus be seen as “unequal exchanges that express relations of domination” (Heilbron and Sapiro 2007, 95). Moreover, translation depends on “a plurality of agents and state or
commercial bodies — for mediation, funding, publishing, promotion, marketing — which intervene in the circuits of production and
distribution for translated books” (Brisset 2010, 73). The agents of translation act as
cultural gatekeepers and brokers who exert a significant influence on the selection, production, and consecration of translation in
the target context (Milton and Bandia 2009; Roig-Sanz
and Meylaerts 2018; Yu and Zhang 2021).
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