Jin Ping Mei English Translations: Texts, Paratexts and Contexts [Paperback]

Introduction  Part I: Contextualisation of Texts  1. Jin Ping Mei: Texts, Genre and Research  Part II: Paratextual Reconstruction of Contexts  2. Adaptations of Jin Ping Mei: A History Rewritten  3. Rediscovering the Agential Network Through Archives  4. Researcher as Translator: An Interview-based Case Study  Part III. Textual Comparisons  5. When First Name Does Not Come First  6. Novel(-istic) Use of Poems  7. Translation of Sex and Sexual Translations  Conclusion

This book investigates the English translations and adaptations of the sixteenth century classic Chinese novel Jin Ping Mei. Acclaimed the No.1 Marvellous Book of the Ming dynasty, Jin Ping Mei was banned soon after its appearance, due to the inclusion of graphically explicit sexual descriptions. So far there have been more than a dozen English adaptations and translations of the novel.

Working within the framework of descriptive translation studies, this book provides a translational history of the English versions of Jin Ping Mei, supported by various paratexts, including book covers, reviews, and archival materials. It also conducts textual comparisons to uncover the translation norms at work in the only two complete renditions, namely The Golden Lotus by Clement Egerton and The Plum in the Golden Vase by David Roy, respectively. The notions of agency, habitus and capital are introduced for the examination of the transference of linguistic, literary and cultural aspects of the two translations.

The book represelƒ8