EVENTS

Translation is central to the circulation of literary works. However, when this journey occurs via an intermediary language through relay translation, it raises important questions of fidelity, authorship, and cultural transfer. Relay translation refers to a chain of translation where the final translation is made from a translated text and not the original text.This seminar undertakes a comparative study of Mo Yan’s novella 变 (Biàn) written in Chinese, its English translation Change by Howard Goldblatt, and the Hindi version ‘हम, तुम और वो ट्रक (Hum, Tum Aur Voh Truck) translated by Pushpesh Pant. Employing a Descriptive Translation Studies framework, it undertakes a triangular comparative analysis of linguistic, cultural, and paratextual elements of Biàn. It examines how meanings shift through the title, cover, proper nouns, and regional idioms in the Hindi version of Biàn. The analysis highlights how relay translation reshapes meaning, alters tone, and negotiates cultural contexts. By tracing how Biàn is reinterpreted in Hindi through English, the seminar underscores translators agency in shaping literary reception and describes how global literary circulation often depends on such asymmetrical and layered processes of mediation.

Speaker

Nishit Kumar is a trained Sinologist with a PhD in Chinese from Jawaharlal Nehru University. His doctoral research, ‘China and the Nobel Prize: Reception and Impact of the Literature Prize to Mo Yan’, examined the intersections of literature, translation, and cultural politics. He was awarded the ICS–HYI Multi-Year Doctoral Fellowship in China Studies, under which he pursued research at Peking University and Harvard University. He has presented his research at prestigious international conferences including the AICCS, AAS-in-Asia, the American Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference, the Pacific and Modern Language Association Annual Conference. His recent publications include ‘Representation of Chinese and Indian Literature in World Literature: Through the Lens of the Nobel Prize: Models of Reception and Cultural Politics’, ‘Role of “Others” in the Award of Nobel Prize in Literature: Case of Mo Yan’, and ‘Howard Goldblatt’s Translations of Mo Yan’s Works into English: Reader Oriented Approach’.

Chair

Sabaree Mitra is a Professor of Chinese in Jawaharlal Nehru University and an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. Her teaching and research have spanned the fields of contemporary Chinese literature and criticism, Chinese cultural history, gender issues, India-China cultural relations and regional interaction. Her latest publication is, an edited volume titled China’s May Fourth Movement: New Narratives and Perspectives, published by Routledge in 2023. She is also the Editor of the ICS quarterly journal, China Report, published by Sage.

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