Translation as Trans-Literal: Radical Formations in Contemporary Chinese Art

Citation

Hass AW (2016) Translation as Trans-Literal: Radical Formations in Contemporary Chinese Art. In: Jasper D, Youzhuang G & Hai W (eds.) A Poetics of Translation: Between Chinese and English Literature. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, pp. 215-237. http://www.baylorpress.com/Book/55/466/A_Poetics_of_Translation.html

Abstract
This essay explores the relationship between the visual elements in the Chinese script and in Chinese art -- the art of Chinese script -- and translation as a textual process. It first uses Benjamin's influential essay "The Task of the Translator" ("Die Aufgabe des Ubersetzers") to set up the question of translatability, of reading between the lines (interlinearily), and of transliteration. It then looks at East-West translation of visual art, and focusses especially on contemporary Chinese artists who explore and problematise the calligraphic nature of Chinese writing, ending with questions of a mystical sense that return us to Benjamin's notion of translatability, and to a re-worked notiong of the trans-literal

Keywords
translation; trans-literal; Walter Benjamin; Chinese script; Chinese contemporary art; ink art

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Dr Andrew Hass

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