Discoursing Translation in Early Modern China: On Lu Xun's Dual Registers

Abstract

Stylistically, Lu Xun’s oeuvre is characterized by two distinct registers: His own creative writing features a smooth, clean vernacular that is perfectly intelligible to the native ear; his later works of translation, however, are replete with awkward syntax transplanted from foreign languages. Using the concept of “habitus,” this paper explores Lu Xun’s ideas on translation and translationese, with an eye on the socio-cultural narra- tives surrounding their production. It argues that Lu Xun’s predilection to translationese originated in his professional habitus as an elite intellectual, which accrued from anti- traditionalist discourses circulating in the scholarly field in early twentieth-century China. On the other hand, it is hypothesized that his own writings had their epistemological roots in his initial habitus, specifically in his early training and practice as a Chinese clas- sicist. Lu Xun’s case illustrates the conflicting dispositions of an author-translator within the context of intense language power relations, and the complex textual behaviours that ensue from such dispositions.