Canonization Through Translation and Retranslation: English Translations of Journey to the West

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the various translations of Journey to the West, including three abridged versions by Arthur Waley, Anthony Yu and Julia Lovell. It examines the translation and retranslation of Journey to the West as a typical case of how literature can be canonised through translation. It also explores how Lovell’s retranslation in the contemporary context differs from Waley’s and Yu’s translations, and why Penguin would include two translations of the same Chinese novel in Penguin Classics.

The book provides not only a refreshed understanding of the classic work of literature Journey to the West and its translations, but also new insights into how books can be canonised through translation and retranslation in other languages and cultures. The study utilises a mixed-method approach, including both qualitative and quantitative methods featured by digital humanities based on large-scale corpora, examining style and genre through comparative analyses of the translations and retranslations.

This book is of interest to students and scholars in translation studies, language and literature studies, digital humanities, and Chinese studies.

Binhua Wang is Chair/Professor of interpreting and translation studies at University of Leeds, UK. His publications include many articles in leading journals and several monographs, such as New Orientations in Interpreting Studies and Interpreter Education (Routledge). He is the editor, with Jeremy Munday, of Advances in Discourse Analysis of Translation and Interpreting (Routledge).

Yuan Ping is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of English and International Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University and a Lecturer in Translation Studies in the School of Foreign Languages at Hangzhou Dianzi University in China.