Translational Fiction: The Negotiation Process in Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide

10.29716/TKSFLL.201706_(29).0001

雷靜(Grace, Lei Jing)

translational fiction ； fictional turn ； negotiation ； The Hungry Tide ； 翻譯 ； 協商 ； 殖民主義 ； 果許 ； 《餓潮水》

淡江外語論叢

29期（2017 / 06 / 01）

1 - 21

英文

In the 1990s, Else R. P. Vieira proposes a ＂fictional turn＂ in translation studies to mean ＂the incorporation of fictional-theoretical parameters as a source of theorization on translation.＂ Adriana S. Pagano goes one step further to argue that the fictional turn contains features in dual dimensions: (1) the fictionalization of translation; (2) fictions as a source of translational theorization. Following first Vieira and Pagano's ＂fictional turn＂ and then André Lefevere and Susan Bassnett's notion of ＂negotiation,＂ I argue that Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide showcases the livelihood of the locals in the Sundarbans, which is seen as a good example for translational process. There is translation and negotiation among the three main characters-Piya, a cetologist as well as an Indian-American who has no mastery of local languages of India; Fokir, an illiterate fisherman of the Sundarbans who boasts his knowledge of the local environment; and Kanai, a businessman from Calcutta fluent in several languages, who comes to the Sundarbans to collect a parcel his late uncle has left for him and coincidentally becomes the translator between Piya and Fokir. I first examine the shift from ＂fictional turn＂ to translational turn and then analyze Ghosh's The Hungry Tide as a ＂translational fiction.＂ For my part, Ghosh's translational process in fiction consists of various layers of power relations imbedded in the novel, which reveals an in-depth dimension of its translational value.

維也拉（Else R. P. Vieira）於上世紀九十年代提出了翻譯研究的｢小說轉向｣（fictional turn）。作為翻譯研究中的學科動向，這種｢小說轉向｣的特徵是合併小說和理論的參數，作為翻譯與其他闡述過程的理論化來源。同樣的，帕嘉諾（Adriana S. Pagano）更進一步指出，圍繞在｢小說－理論－翻譯｣三元素的小說轉向具有兩個特徵：（一）翻譯的小說化，即作品中用翻譯來反映小說中女性/譯者/移民的｢中間狀態｣（in-betweenness）；（二）小說作為翻譯理論化的來源，並以翻譯╱譯者為主題的小說，成為研究翻譯╱記憶╱歷史的表述物件。在本文中，我將果許（Amitav Ghosh）的《餓潮水》（The Hungry Tide）視為結合小說、理論和翻譯三元素之｢翻譯小說｣，並以｢協商｣和｢翻譯｣的視角重讀小說中三位主要人物－比雅（Piya）、佛可（Fokir）和柯耐（Kanai）－作為分析對象，說明印度小說家果許如何在各種對立的價值觀，例如文化與自然、政府與難民、殖民者與被殖民者、全球與地方等衝突，試圖找到中介立場，同時也思考小說家如何翻譯過去，讓歷史在現在可以得到救贖的可能性。

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