Fear and Strategy: Xiao Qian and Wen Jieruo's Chinese Translation of Ulysses

恐懼咸與翻譯策略：蕭乾和文潔若的尤利西斯中譯本

The stream of consciousness mode is a key feature of James Joyce's Ulysses, but 沁ao Qian and Wen Jieruo have turned a blind eye on this as they followed a more socio-political strategy to drop Joyce's psychological modes altogether from their translation. Xiao and Wen have a reason for choosing said strategy despite Xiao's familiarity with the technique. Several factors forced them to drop the stream of consciousness mode in favor of a politically-correct format. After all, historical developments did not allow literary Modernism to thrive and Ulysses to be accepted in 20th -century China. The quarrel between the leftists and the rightists among men of literature contributed to this negative atmosphere. Then, the rise of communism made things even worse with the state's subsequent coercion of writers and translators to toethe official line. But perhaps the single most determining factor was the Cultural Revolution and its attendant atrocities. Xiao was labeled a rightist, purged by Mao's Red Guards, banished to a Chinese gulag, and was forbidden from writing after his release. Political persecution made him extra cautious, and their decision to jettison Joyce's stream of consciousness mode is understandable. In Translation and Conflict, Mona Baker brings forward the concept of ''selective appropriation,'' which she argues to be evident in patterns of omission and addition that are traceable in the target text itself. Relevant historical events, personal accounts from Xiao and Wen, as well as more recent studies by PRC scholars show that their strategy of purging the stream of consciousness technique altogether from their translation is a classic example of selective appropriation resulting from self-censorship, of adopting a translation strategy in consideration of political reality. This paper examines Xiao and Wen's translation strategy by comparing sample excerpts, and provides a historical account of decisive historical events.

意識流為尤利西斯最重要表現風格，蕭乾與文潔若卻採取更為政治正確的翻譯策略，放棄喬伊斯原文關鍵文體表現方法。蕭氏夫婦雖然熟悉意識流，但因時代客觀因素不得不放棄。中國一九三零年代前後文人左右派系鬥爭激烈，使得現代主義文學在中國發展困難重重，甚至無法生根，也負面影響了尤利西斯一書的接受度。後來共產主義崛起，共產黨橫掃中國後迫使知識份子走社會主義路線。無數文學界菁英在文革時代受盡紅衛兵鬥爭迫害，蕭氏夫婦無法倖免。共產黨整風反右，蕭乾被扣上右派罪名抓去勞改，獲釋後並被判不得從事寫作。一九九零年代蕭氏夫婦受託翻譯尤利西斯一書，歷經多年政治破壞，格外小心謹慎，儘管早期喜愛心理敘述表現風格，但最終所採取翻譯策略完全放棄意識流。在她「翻譯與衝突」一書中，夢娜貝克提及「選擇性挪用」（selective appropriation）一詞，指翻譯輸出譯文中因意識形態等原因，譯者刻意增加或省略的作法。透過中國當代歷史演變之探索、兩位譯者論述、以及近代中國學者相關研究，可明顯看出蕭氏夫婦放棄意識流風格正是選擇性挪用典型例子，是二位譯者面對政治現實而自我抑制（self-censorship）的必然後果。本文透過文本比較探討蕭乾與文潔若如何偏離喬氏原文的意識流風格，並深人分析他們所採取的翻譯策略，及抉擇背後之時代背景和其他關鍵因素。