Sociological formation and reception of translation

Abstract

This study draws on Bourdieu’s conceptualization of the international circulation of ideas to examine the sociological formation process of a translation. Taking the translated Chinese novel Border Town as an example, this study investigates the three phases of that process: selection; labeling and classification; and reading and reception. It discovers that the first two phases have created favorable conditions for the reception of the translated novel, but the translation was not well received. This article argues that the reception of a translation depends on the success of every phase of the sociological formation process. The reception of a translation is constructed and consecrated through the joint efforts of different agents in each phase. Only through a holistic sociological consideration of the dynamics of the formation process can we reach a real understanding of the reception of a translated work.