Unspeakable Love—On Translations of Three Controversial Novels by Crown Publishing

• Main Authors: Wen, Tse-Yuan, 温澤元
• Other Authors: Lai, Tzu-Yun
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/9heney

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 翻譯研究所 === 106 === Crown Magazine and Crown Publishing were established by Mr. Ping Xintao in 1949 and 1965 respectively. To this day, Crown Culture Corporation remains a significant force in the publishing industry in Taiwan. Mr. Ping upheld clear publishing ideals to reach their target readers in education and entertainment. Furthermore, to maintain revenue he actively promoted popular literature, contributing greatly to not only Taiwanese literature but translated literature. This study focuses on three translations published by Crown Publishing during the period martial law in Taiwan; Lolita, The Color Purple, and Flowers in the Attic. All three novels share a commonality of explicit use of language and controversial themes. Although these three novels later became bestsellers, they were once banned in the United States and some European countries. Lolita describes the relationship between an underage girl and a middle-aged man with tendencies of pedophilia. Flowers in the Attic has themes of family taboo and incest. The Color Purple is about black society in the United States. In the novel men are often violent towards women, while the two female leads end up in a homosexual relationship. The three novels garnered much international attention resulting in the controversial works being introduced to Taiwanese readers. Due to the pressures of martial law coupled with stylistic strategies from the publisher, all three novels were heavily edited by the editors/translators with the resulting translations varying greatly from the original texts. Through a comparative textual analysis, this study analyzes the measures taken by the editors/translators to edit the novels. Besides textual analysis, semi-structured interviews were conducted with former editors and translators of Crown Publishing in order to explore their motivations in translating these novels and the reasons behind their manipulations.