Translating Heteroglossia

According to James I. Crump, Chinese vernacular fiction is characterized by extensive use of “pastiche,” which includes both verbatim incorporation of other identifiable texts and generic parodies. This penchant finds its supreme manifestation in A Dream of Red Mansions (Honglou meng 紅樓夢). The vast variety of discourses and voices in Dream can be read as a manifestation of heteroglossia, and are intended to function dialogically, in the Bakhtinian senses of these terms. This essay examines the exact circumstances in which the two widely-read full English translations of Dream were produced and compares them in terms of their recognition and treatment of heteroglossia. I argue that although the Yangs’ may be characterized as “literal” in the sense of rendering “word for word,” what Hawkes achieves in his translation should be considered a higher level of literalness in the sense of “text for text.” While Hawkes consistently strives to retain the linguistic hybridity and subtle contrasts in the original, the Yangs often smooth out the checkered texture of the text by adopting a plain “international” English and resorting to copious footnotes.