The Translation/Mutation of Romantic Love: An Exploration of the Translation History of Modern Romances in Taiwan after 1960

Author
Degree
PhD
University
National Taiwan Normal University
Publication year
2012
Comment

The thesis is not written in English, but there is a long abstract in that language:

Romances have long been an established genre in the west. In the medieval times, romances are stories about heroes and knights, with romantic love being one of its important elements. The defining qualities of this genre might have varied through the centuries, yet it was the amazing popularity and sales figure of Harlequin romances in the latter half of the 20th century that would reshape its definition. Following the success of Harlequin, publishers in U.S.A. rushed into this market and published tons and tons of romances. Many of these were translated into different kinds of languages, exported overseas, and were well-received all over the world. As a result, modern romances are now associated with a certain kind of love narratives, defined by Ramsdell as “[a] love story in which the central focus is on the development and satisfactory resolution of the love relationship between the two main characters, written in such a way as to provide the reader with some degree of vicarious participation in the courtship process.” Romance Writers of America called it, “[a] Central Love Story. In a romance, the main plot concerns two people falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. The conflict in the book centers on the love story. The climax in the book resolves the love story……In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.”(http://www/rwanational.org/romance)

Also included in the genre of modern romances are the Modern Gothics. It is generally agreed that the Gothic boom in U.S. A. began with the Mistress of Mellyn, written by Victoria Holt in 1960, which was then translated into Taiwan, first serialized in the newspaper and then released as a single title in 1961. The translation was an immediate hit and paved the way for more translation of Victoria Holt’s works to come, with Mary Stewart’s suspense romances soon following suit. As for non-Gothic romances, Barbara Cartland’s works were first translated into Taiwan in 1977—another great hit that led to an onslaught of translation of Harlequin romances and its like to come. It was calculated that from the late 70s to early 90s, translated romances flooded into Taiwan at a publishing rate of dozens of titles per month and dominated the local romance market. Then they gradually faded out of the market in late 90s, partly due to the enforcement of the copy right law and mostly because its market shares were gradually eroded by works written by local romance writers, who copied the success formula of translation romances, injected their works with elements from Chinese Culture, got more and more popular, and finally overthroned
their predecessors.

This dissertation aims to explore the transmutations of modern romances translated into Taiwan after 1960, tracing the rise and fall of this genre, and tries to figure out the reason for its popularity and its impact. It might serve to ask: what’s the difference between this imported genre and the more traditional Chinese love stories? What’s its greatest appeal to Taiwanese women readers? Could it be that women readers in Taiwan are drawn to it by its exotic flavors? What foreign elements are found lacking in the repertoire of the Target Literature, as in the works of Local Romance Queen Xiong Yao, e.g., the erotics, and needed to be imported from abroad through translation? Most important of all, what kind of re-writing, adaptation and localization was involved in the process of its introduction and translation? What kind of domestication of the Source Text was taking place in translations?

It is argued that the translation of romance might be viewed as the dynamic process of localized translation/mutation. As it has been pointed out in this article, the transmutation took place in both ways. On one hand, before the enforcement of the copy right law, translators, constrained by the norms of the Target Culture, might translate the Source Text in such a way that it suffered great changes during the translation process. On the other hand, the Target Literature might be transformed because of the translation itself. In this way, the translation history of the modern romances might be regarded as the enrichment of the Target Culture through the import of foreign elements.

It remains to be pointed that while Even-Zohar’s Polysystem Theory will be cited to examine the translation/mutation of modern romances in Taiwan after 1960, Giddens’ definition of romantic love and confluent love will also help in the analysis of the gender relationship in these works. It was argued that, the idea of romantic love, starting with its Chinese translation at the turn of the 20th century, have had a great impact on the Chinese women readership. The dissertation will also trace the embodiment of romantic love, and possibly, the budding of confluent love, in the translation/mutation of the romantic writings. An intimate relationship based on independence, gender equality, freedom of choice and self-reflexivity is Giddens’ vision of confluent love. Could it be the vision of women’s writings of romances, too?