This article looks at translations and adaptations of Hamlet in China, several early translations by Tian Han, Shao Ting, and Liang Shiqiu, and then more contemporary adaptations in film and theater, including versions by Lin Zhaohua, Li Guoxiu, Xiong Yuanwei, and Feng Xiaogang. Offering new insights into the nature of translation, language, and cross-cultural communication, the book will interest students and specialists in translation, linguistics, literary theory, philosophy of language, and cultural studies. Certain Western classics have become increasingly popular in China, such as two film versions of Hamlet in 2006 alone. This revised second edition productively updates each of the new approaches, incorporating the latest research, and adds a new conclusion addressing the future of translation studies. Illustrating the importance of translation theory to the current debates in cultural studies, Gentzler raises important theoretical questions challenging assumptions of the leading translation theories. In this critical overview, he explores the strengths and weaknesses of each method, tracing the connections among the different schools of thought.
Edwin Gentzler examines five new approaches – the translation workshop, the science of translation, translation studies, polysystem theory, and deconstruction – all of which began in the mid-1960s and continue to be influential today. Contemporary Translation Theories traces the growth of translation theory from its traditional roots through the recent proliferation of theories, fueled by research in feminism, poststructural, and postcolonial investigations.
