Translating sexuality in the context of Anglo-American censorship
What is it about?
Literary censorship of obscenity in the Anglophone world continued to impact English translations of foreign works until the 1970s. This paper examines the interaction between censorship and translation using the many English versions of Jin Ping Mei for a case study. From the 1920s to the 1960s, translation strategies gradually evolved from "conforming" to "confronting".
Why is it important?
The nexus between censorship and translation in other cultures have been well explored, yet relatively few efforts have been made to probe into the Anglophone literary censorship in the field of translation studies. However, translation has been a major channel for erotic works to circulate in the Anglophone world. This paper situates its case study of Jin Ping Mei not only in the immediate context of Anglo-American censorship of the 20th century, but also in the long tradition of translated erotica in the west.