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Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext

in Translation
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Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext

in Translation
Edited by
Valerie Pellatt
Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in Translation,

Edited by Valerie Pellatt
This book first published 2013
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2013 by Valerie Pellatt and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-5305-4, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-5305-7
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
Valerie Pellatt
Part I: Ideological and Political Motivation and Control

in the Use of Paratext
What Remains: The Institutional Reframing of Authorship

in Translated Peritexts ................................................................................. 9
Caroline Summers
Paratexts in the English Translation of the Selected Works

of Mao Tse-tung ......................................................................................... 33
Hou Pingping
Part II: Publishers’ Use of Paratext
Paratext, an Alternative in Boundary Crossing: A Complementary

Approach to Translation Analysis ............................................................. 49
Szu-Wen Kung
Czech Publisher’s Strategies: Paratexts of Literary Mystification ............ 69

Lenka Müllerová
The Role of Metadata in Translation Memories ........................................ 79

Joss Moorkens
Part III: The Paratext of Stories and Poems
The Significance of Texts in Children’s Picture Books............................. 91

Yvonne Tsai
(Ir)reciprocal Relation between Text and Paratext in the Translation

of Taiwan’s Concrete Poetry: A Case Study of Chen Li ......................... 103
Yi-Ping Wu and Ci-Shu Shen
vi Table of Contents
Dubbing Du Fu: Paratext and Hypertext ................................................. 121

Brian Holton
Contributors ............................................................................................. 127
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INTRODUCTION
VALERIE PELLATT
Over the latter half of the twentieth century, as translation scholars and
practitioners realised the wealth, the complexity and the variety inherent in
the rendering of text from one culture to another, translation studies have
embraced ever more cross-disciplinary inquiry. We have gone beyond the
bounds of purely linguistic and literary study, turning to cultural concerns,
pragmatics, psychology, sociology and more. The fairly recent and
growing interest in the role of paratext continues the spirit of innovation
that characterises translation studies in the twenty-first century. Scholars
are concerned with the cultural implications of paratext, its cultural
significance and political, ideological and commercial power. As with any
aspect of translation, paratextual material creates complex decision-
making on the part of the translator, the editor and the publisher. In this
volume, we explore the ways in which these agents render the paratextual
elements of a variety of texts, ranging from the ideological manipulation
of prefatorial material and book reviews, to the handling of crucial
metadata which instructs translation software.
Paratext is the text that surrounds and supports the core text, like layers
of packaging that initially protect and gradually reveal the essence of the
packaged item. Much current research draws on and is inspired by the
work of Genette. Genette was writing about literature: he did not tackle the
complementary issues of paratext which is translated, or translation as
paratext. Seminal studies such as those by Tahir-Gürçaglar (2002) and
Watts (2012) have brought paratext of and in translation into sharper focus.
In this volume we regard paratext as any material additional to,
appended to or external to the core text which has functions of explaining,
defining, instructing, or supporting, adding background information, or the
relevant opinions and attitudes of scholars, translators and reviewers.
Paratext is not necessarily written or verbal material. As some of our
contributors show, non-verbal material is a powerful shaper of reactions
and attitudes.
The range of paratext is vast, encompassing authorial comment and
external comment and explanatory material. Most of the contributors to
2 Introduction
this volume use Genette’s analysis of paratext as a basis to enable the

study of translation and paratext. Genette notes that paratext varies greatly
from text to text, and that in the “media age” there has been a proliferation
of discourse around texts that was unknown in previous eras (1997: 3).
Twenty years on from Genette’s ground-breaking work, we can see that
paratext is more or less infinitely varied, and plays subtle roles that writers
may not even be aware of. In this volume we are mainly concerned with
paratext, attached to or inserted in the core text, and epitext, comment
which is external to the published volume.
The most visible categories of paratext include the footnote or endnote,
the preface and foreword, the introduction and the epilogue or afterword.
Less visible, but equally powerful types of paratext are the contents pages,
the index, titles and subtitles, chapter synopses, and blurb on dust jacket
and flap. In addition to these verbal paratexts, most publications contain a
degree of non-verbal paratext, which may be in the form of illustrations,
including photos, tables, charts and diagrams, dust jacket design and also
the scarcely visible, but highly influential visual presentation, including
fonts, paragraphing and layout. This sums up the range found in a
published book, and each of these elements influences the reader to a
greater or lesser degree. Works such as those by Harvey (2003) and
Powers (2001) have contributed to our understanding of the non-verbal
elements in publication. In some publications, the question arises: which
of the graphic and the text is the core text and which the paratext?
Paratext has “spatial, temporal, substantial, pragmatic and functional
characteristics” (Genette 1997: 4), all of which have a profound influence
on the reader. Genette lists four functions of paratext: designating or
identifying; description of the work (content and genre); connotative value;
temptation (ibid: 93). The first two on the list appear straightforward and
objective, but as is shown in the papers in this volume, even a title may not
be so innocent. Even the contents pages and index must inevitably be
highly selective, in the former case providing a very extreme, minimal
summary, and in the latter case providing a mention of items considered
important by the indexer. This very reduction in itself shapes the reader’s
approach to the core text. Of course, the functions of paratext may be
serious: the introduction and footnotes in a volume provide all-important
academic background information. Yet games and deceptions may also be
involved.
Peritextual items of “connotative value” are the preface, introduction,
footnotes etc, which overtly contribute meaning – not impartial denotative
meaning, but the connotative value placed on the text by the author or a
colleague or supporter. Preface and introduction purport to contribute
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Valerie Pellatt 3
explanation and justification. In addition, and perhaps more importantly,

they prime the reader, who will set about the first chapter with a set of
expectations controlled or at least guided by the writer of the introduction.
In the case of a translated work, the introduction or preface may shape the
intercultural reading of the text very substantially. The final function in
Genette’s list is related to the connotative value – all the priming work
done in the introduction and the advertising work done in the blurb are
designed to entice the reader.
Paratext primes, explains, contextualises, justifies and through
beautification, tempts. Epitext, in the form of reviews, can serve these
purposes, but may also serve to reject and refute the text and deter the
reader. Authors, editors and publishers do not rely solely on the written
word to achieve these effects. A large component of the paratext
surrounding any text is non-verbal. Chief of these are dust jacket design
and layout of the text. The dust jacket is a major temptation for any reader.
In spite of, or perhaps because of the advent of e-books, paper books are
still sought-after and read. They have become objects of beauty, designed
for treasuring and inheriting. It is not uncommon to find a dust jacket
which in no way reflects the content of the book but is simply sensational
and sexy. Once inside the book, the reader is subject to the manipulation
of the layout – attractive font, interesting motifs, and easy-on the-eye
spacing. A canny publisher will provide illustrations to enhance the
priming begun by the verbal messages of the introduction. The non-verbal
components of paratext are powerful tools in the presentation and
manipulation employed by the translator or the commissioners of a
translation.
A discussion of paratext in translation begs two questions: what are the
functions and effects of the paratext of the source text, and to what extent
are these functions and effects necessary, retained and of positive
relevance in translation. The translator is first and foremost a reader, and
interprets the text and transmits the translation thereof according to that
interpretation. In this volume the contributors explore a number of
significant examples of the translation of paratext, and translation as
paratext, which may include deliberately added material such as
explicitation and translator’s notes. As translators we create paratext the
moment we put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. The transition of
even the smallest fragment of source text to target text constitutes an
explanation, a re-phrasing, a re-structuring. The zone of transition is
between source and target language and between source and target culture.
The zone of transaction is tripartite, between source writer, translator and
target reader.
4 Introduction
Three papers in the volume deal with overt political and ideological
control of the core text by means of epitext and paratext. As found in well-
known studies by O’Sullivan and Harvey (2003), and more recent studies
by Frias (2012) and Gerber (2012), several of our contributors report the
influential role of non-verbal paratext: cover designs, illustrations and
layout. Two of the papers investigate the challenge of conveying the
sounds of poetry in translation, and one deals with metatext as a
technological tool. All our contributors reveal the complex, powerful
influence that paratext has on translation and translated works.
Caroline Summers similarly discusses way in which paratext reveals
political stances and at the same time is used to manipulate the reader,
through a study of the presentation of Christa Wolf’s work at different
times and for different audiences. Information about Wolf’s relationship
with the Stasi inevitably led to a reconfiguration of her status and
reputation, and a different author-function in the original source text and
the later translation. A writer’s persona or author-function may be
dramatically changed in the social, political and linguistic contexts of the
receiving culture, and this in turn may have an effect on reception in the
source culture. Summers traces this metamorphosis in Wolf’s work Was
bleibt (What Remains), and the controversy surrounding the work in the
1990s.
Pingping Hou’s contribution involves the writing of one of the great,
and controversial, figures of the twentieth century, Mao Tse-tung (1893-
1976). In contrast with the stark controversies over Gage’s quasi-historical
work and Wolf’s fiction, the paratext of translations of Mao’s writing and
speeches investigated by Hou is aimed at “friendly” target readers. Hou
discusses the effect of the paratext of two “official” translations of the
work and the degree of translational compliance therein. Given the
monolithic nature of Mao’s regime, and the continued reverence in which
he is held, in China, at least, a dissenting view would be unlikely.
Szu-Wen Kung’s article also investigates a case of “friendly” and
indeed “missionary” translation and the paratext supporting it. Kung’s
article gives a comprehensive view of the issues attached to publication of
literature, and shows how Taiwan agencies have endeavoured to bring
Taiwan literature to an American audience. She shows that, among the
various strategies employed by publishers and editors, book cover design
wields extraordinary power.
Lenka Müllerová focuses on the intricate links between author,
publisher and reader under the watchful gaze of authoritarian regimes. She
shows how names of authors and titles of books reveal and conceal
important political messages in the source culture. Not only do readers
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Valerie Pellatt 5
understand when identities are disguised or missing, they are aware that
omission and deception are messages in themselves. They are complicit in
a complex political game played out through paratext.
Joss Moorkens’ article brings us into the realm of modern media and
translation technology. He describes the use of metadata in a study of
inconsistencies found in Translation Memory data, and their effectiveness
in retracing the steps of the translator. He shows how central metadata are
to the whole process of translation, having not merely a role in the
translation and localisation process, but also having value as a
retrospective tool in studies of TM data. Metadata help us to trace back to
a translator, date, and time, and to leverage and update material. Moorkens
shows what an important role metadata play, and also how lack of support
for them may result in inappropriate translation.
Yvonne Tsai takes up the complex notion of the interaction and
relative status and role between text and illustration. Children’s books are
gaining increasing recognition in the translation world, and picture books
are a field of publication in which very often the graphic elements of the
volume dominate, and pre-school children’s imagination is fired by the
pictures. Tsai discusses the educational, psychological and social value of
the picture book, and explores the extent to which the picture is
paratextual to the written text, or the written text is paratextual to the
dominant “text” of the picture.
Yi-Ping Wu and Ci-Shu Shen explore concrete poetry, a type of text
which combines verbal and non-verbal elements and creates a very
particular type of challenge for the translator in rendering the poet’s
manipulation of visual and aural elements of the text. They show how
fluid the concepts of translation and paratext can be, yet how limiting. The
provision of paratext not only has limitations in itself, but limits the
understanding of the reader. Epitext, such as interviews with the poet, may
provide more appropriate interpretation and understanding than immediate
and controlling paratext.
Brian Holton, by contrast, considers the rendering of classical Chinese
poetry. His paper is in two parts, the first noting the importance of the
traditional Chinese commentary, and suggesting that translators might find
these rich paratexts helpful to modern translation. His discussion chimes
with that of Wu and Shen, in the issues of the seeming untranslatability of
sounds, and the use of the target language to create an evocative version
for the target reader. In the second part, he illustrates how commentary on
the technicalities of Chinese poetry can assist the translator, using as an
example his rendering of one of Du Fu’s poems in Scots, focusing
particularly on the aural nature of source and target texts. This article was
6 Introduction
first published in Magma Poetry, 53, 2012, and we are grateful to Brian
and to Magma for permission to include it in this volume.
Bibliography
Frías, Jose Yuste, (2012). “Paratextual elements in translation:
paratranslating titles in children’s literature”, in Gil-Bardají, A., Orero
P. and Rovira-Esteva, S. (eds) Translation Peripheries: Paratextual
Elements in Translation. Bern: Peter Lang.
Gil-Bardaji, Anna, Orero, Pilar. and Rovira-Esteva, Sara. (eds) (2012)
Translation Peripheries: Paratextual Elements in Translation. Bern:
Peter Lang.
Genette Gérard. (1997). Paratexts: Thresholds of interpretation. trans.
Jane E. Lewin Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gerber, Leah. (2012) “Marking the text: paratextual features in German
transaltions of Australian children’s fiction”. In Gil-Bardaji, A., Orero
P. and Rovira-Esteva, S. (eds) (2012) Translation Peripheries:
Paratextual Elements in Translation. Bern: Peter Lang.
Harvey, Keith (2003) “‘Events’ and ‘Horizons’: Reading Ideology in the
‘Bindings’ of Translations”, in María Calzada Pérez (ed.) Apropos of
Ideology. Translation Studies on Ideology – Ideologies in Translation
Studies, Manchester: St. Jerome, pp. 43-70.
Powers, Alan (2001) “The Evolution of the Book Jacket”, in Front Cover:
Great Book Jackets and Cover Design, London: Mitchell Beazley.
Tahir-Gürçaglar, ùehnaz (2002) “What Texts Don’t Tell: The Use of
Paratexts in Translation Research”, in Theo Hermans (ed.) Crosscultural
Transgressions. Research Models in Translation Studies II: Historical
and Ideological Issues, Manchester: St. Jerome.
Watts, Richard (2000) “Translating Culture: Reading the Paratexts of
Aimé Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal”, TTR: Traduction,
Terminologie, Rédaction 13(2): 29-46.
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PART I:
IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL MOTIVATION

AND CONTROL IN THE USE OF PARATEXT
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WHAT REMAINS:
THE INSTITUTIONAL REFRAMING
OF AUTHORSHIP IN TRANSLATED PERITEXTS
CAROLINE SUMMERS
Abstract
As narrative theories of translation demonstrate, the reconfiguration of
texts in the social and linguistic contexts of a different culture opens them
up to new interpretations (e.g. Baker 2006). Particularly in literary texts,
the writer’s persona or author-function (Foucault 1977) is also renegotiated
by contact with different languages and cultures. Cumulatively and
dynamically constructed through texts, paratexts and contexts, the author-
function emerges differently from source and translated texts.
Understanding authorship as a narrative that is reconfigured in
translation, we can see how the author-function of the German writer
Christa Wolf has been (re)constructed through her translation into English.
Often referred to in Anglophone studies and reviews as the most
significant East German writer, Wolf has simultaneously acquired
emblematic status and been reconfigured by her translations and by their
paratexts, which act as powerful interpretive frames. The shifts in narrative
emplotment engineered by the publishing strategies that frame Wolf’s
texts in English translation demonstrate the vast differences that
characterise her author-functions in Germany and elsewhere. These
differences have proved influential upon domestic understandings of Wolf,
particularly in the early 1990s, when Wolf faced controversy in Germany
over the publication of her text Was bleibt (What Remains) and her
revelation of her involvement with the Stasi.
By exploring the narratives dominant in the paratexts of the English
translations, this paper examines how these have played a crucial role in
reframing Wolf’s writing through translation. Looking particularly at the
translation of Was bleibt, it shows how differing author-functions emerge
and develop through the presentation of the translated text.
10 What Remains
Introduction: Christa Wolf and Was bleibt

Christa Wolf was one of the most prolific and internationally successful
writers to emerge from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR),
and remains one of Germany’s best-known contemporary authors, whose
death in December 2011 was mourned in and beyond Germany. However,
German and non-German responses to Wolf’s writing have not always
been so unanimous, and have often been strongly influenced by the
differing receiving contexts of the texts and their translations. This is best
demonstrated by contrasting German and Anglophone responses to events
following German reunification in 1989/90. In the context of angst-ridden
and public debates about questions of guilt and victimhood circulating in
post-war and post-1990 German discourse, and especially during the
Literaturstreit which questioned the political and moral integrity of writers
who had remained in the GDR (Anz 1991), Wolf was a target for those
seeking to criticize the “failure” of East German writers whose apparent
complicity with those in power had allowed them to benefit from the
patronage of a repressive state whilst others suffered. Amongst the factors
making Wolf a particular focus of such criticism was the publication of
her story Was bleibt (1990a), a closely autobiographical text that had been
written in 1979: the story, describing the experience of a female writer
being observed by the East German secret police (Stasi) and providing
insights into the psychological suffering of the narrator, became a focal
point of the Literaturstreit debates (Huyssen 1991: 127). Wolf was
lambasted by prominent members of the German literary institution such
as Frank Schirrmacher (1990) and Ulrich Greiner (1990), who saw her text
as a belated attempt by a member of the socialist elite to align herself with
the victims of repressive GDR socialism. Wolf’s position was exacerbated
in 1993, when she revealed that she had worked as an Inoffizielle
Mitarbeiterin (unofficial collaborator), for the Stasi from 1959-1962
(1993a). Her brief Stasi cooperation was emphatically interpreted by many
German commentators as affirmation of deep-seated complicity with a
corrupt regime, and exposed her to further heavy criticism.
While the hostility between East and West German intellectuals did not
go unnoticed by the Anglophone press, American and British commentators
were reluctant to pass judgment. Only days before Wolf’s 1993 revelation,
the New York Times published an article on the alienation of East German
intellectuals since Reunification, framing them sympathetically as having
been “the Oprah Winfreys and Phil Donahues of the nation” (Hafner 1993)
and describing Wolf as “East Germany’s most famous writer, […] a kind
of Mother Confessor”. As far as the German response to Wolf was
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Caroline Summers 11
concerned, Hafner explained that “no one has doubted her talent; it’s her
politics they question” (my emphasis). Meanwhile, in the UK, the
Guardian cautioned that “we should hesitate before passing judgment”
(Christy 1993). The American and British response to the Literaturstreit
and to Wolf’s revelation suggests a receiving context drawing on different
frameworks of morality that did not emplot her first and foremost as a
perpetrator. The differences between German and Anglophone attitudes
towards Wolf in the early 1990s suggest the importance of institutional
context in the determination of authorial identity. This study of the 1993
English translation of Was bleibt shows how this institutional dominance
is particularly evident in paratexts, where discursive voices compete for
control over the interpretive frame of the text. Wolf’s example not only
affirms the importance of the paratext as threshold to the text, but also
problematizes the stable and unified concept of authorship at the heart of
Genette’s model.
Authorship as Narrative
Whilst Barthes (1977) pronounces the death of the author in favour of
the authority of the reader and of the text itself, Foucault (1977) argues for
the ongoing significance of authorship as a discursive category or author-
function that prescribes textual meaning, the agency of which is not
identical to that of the individual writer. By publishing a literary text, a
writer implicitly requests the status of “author”, a discursive function
constituted both by interpretations of the text and by its relation to the
institutions in which it is embedded. In return, this discursive construct
provides a framework of textual interpretation, identified under the name
of the author as the author-function. The author is “what gives the
disturbing language of fiction its nodes of coherence” (1981: 58): as a
“node”, the author simultaneously unites disparate textual statements and
embeds herself in the wider networks of the literary institution. Foucault
identifies the institutional context of authorship as influential when he says
of the discourse drawn together under an author’s name that “its status and
its manner of reception are regulated by the culture in which it circulates”
(1977: 123). Discursive authorities such as publishers, editors, reviewers
and readers act as (distorting) mirrors of the author-function, selecting
material for publication and presenting it to readers. The participation of
the media and other discursive authorities in the construction of the
author-function is not only passive, maintaining through their presence the
institutions in which the author circulates, but also active, since their
position within these institutions enables them to determine and define
12 What Remains
what or who an author “is”: Anna Kuhn describes Wolf’s German author-
function as “an image that the media itself had been instrumental in
constructing” (Kuhn 1994: 200).
Translation, which encourages the emergence of a new author-function
by re-articulating the writer’s texts in new textual and contextual forms,
shows how an “author” is (re)constructed through linguistic transfer to a
new discursive context. The translated writer, lacking a continuous
presence in target-language discourse, is especially reliant on others
embedded in that discourse for the circulation of her author-function.
Translation tests Foucault’s model against his own genealogical approach,
revealing its reliance on a monolingual frame of reference: by considering
it a commentary rather than an original statement, he is unable to account
for the discursive shifts that accompany the translation of a text to generate
this different author-function. The multiple interpretive possibilities that
surround the author and the text are recognized by theories of social
narrative, which understand the telling of stories as “an ontological
condition of social life” (Somers and Gibson 1994: 38). Sociology explores
narrative, the organization of selected events through the revelation of
temporal, causal and relational links between them, as an essential
structuring framework in human knowledge and experience. This can be
combined with Foucault’s concept of the discursive function as a
framework for understanding the construction of translated authorship.
Since a narrating “I” posits not only a “we” but also a “you”, narrative
establishes community by assuming an “other” (Cavarero 2000: 20). The
translated author is positioned in relation to the “self” of the institutions
that control discourse, but also implicitly to a discursive concept of
otherness, that which is excluded from discourse. From a Foucauldian
point of view, the translated author’s success depends on the consonance
of her author-function with the ordering unities of target-culture discourse,
and on submissiveness to its “prohibitions” (Foucault 1981: 52). The
narrative instinct is seen as “the impulse to moralize” (White 1980: 18),
with the narration of events directly linked to the moral frameworks in
which the narrator is embedded. Wolf’s author-function in Germany
depreciated in value in the early 1990s as those with the right to narrate
her authorship embedded her actions in moral frameworks that condemned
her, while her Anglophone author-function has been narrated within
British and American discourses that do not embed her collaboration with
the Stasi in the same specific narratives. Thus translation constitutes a
transfer between linguistically and ideologically defined discursive spaces,
where different framing values are dominant. The translated author’s
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Caroline Summers 13
identity is subject to negotiation by the institutions of the receiving

discourse and their narratives of self, over which the writer has no control.
Accounting for the pervasive presence of narration, sociologists have
identified different types of narrative that reflect the various discursive
levels on which it operates (e.g. Hart 1992; Gergen and Gergen 1997; Carr
1997; Crites 1997; Pratt 2003). Somers and Gibson (1994) identify four
types of narrative: ontological, or the personal narratives of individuals;
public, or institutional narratives; conceptual, or disciplinary narratives
that define theoretical terms; and metanarratives, which define seemingly
universal categories of identity and experience. Their model has been
successfully applied in recent years as a framework for analyzing
translation and interpreting (Baker 2006, 2007, 2010a, 2010b; Baldo 2008;
Boéri 2008; Valdeón 2008; Harding 2011). They also list four features of
narrative behaviour: relationality, or the meaningful associations between
events; temporality, or the temporal ordering of events; the causal
emplotment of relationships between events; and the selective appropriation
of particular events for inclusion in the narrative. Thus Foucault’s concept
that the author is a discursive construction, purporting to offer a coherent
and comprehensible account of the author’s writing and actions, can be
understood as one of the essential social narratives that make up the
contextualizing framework of the literary text. Analysis of Wolf’s
translated texts shows how this author-function is constructed by the
institutions that circulate it, and how it demonstrates features of narrativity.
This can be seen most clearly in the interpretive frames constructed by the
paratexts of the translations.
Sites of the Institutional Framing of Authorship: Paratexts

As Baker (2006, 2007) shows, the concept of framing can be
reconciled with narrative to offer insights into the transfer of experiences
to new contexts through translation. The framing of a narrative suggests to
the receiver before the first encounter what it is “about”, and this
information guides the receiver’s response. Such interpretive prompting is
an integral feature of the translation process, which mediates between the
differing contexts of the narrative and its receivers. Thus translated
authorship is problematized by the writer’s lack of authority over the
frames placed around the translated text, which are often controlled by
institutional agents such as publishers, editors and reviewers. As the most
easily identifiable site of interaction between the text and its surrounding
discourse, the paratext, or the presentational material surrounding the text,
frames the translation (both in a figurative and in the most literal sense) for
14 What Remains
its target-culture readers. Paratexts are identified by Genette as “the most

socialised side of the practice of literature” (1997: 14), an understanding
shared by others who have adopted Genette’s concept: Richard Watts
claims that “it is only in circulation that a text assumes its significance,
and the paratext is perhaps the most useful site for understanding how, for
whom, and at what potential cost that significance was constructed” (2000:
42-43). As a first, and in some cases only, encounter with the social
narratives embedded in the text, the paratext delimits the reader’s
“horizons of expectation” (Harvey 2003: 48) with regard to the text and to
the author-function. Urpo Kovala (1996: 135) explains that the paratext
“works together with the entire universe of discourse of a certain society at
a certain point in time”, identifying it as a frame embedded in its own
institutionalized context. Although ostensibly a mediating, permissive
space, from a Foucauldian perspective the role of the paratext is one of
control and authority. Genette attributes this authority to the “author”;
however, he does not acknowledge the problematic discursivity of
authorial identity. This is reflected in the criteria he uses to identify
paratexts.
Genette sub-divides the paratext into peritext (features of the text in its
published form such as prefaces, notes, and cover material) and epitext
(texts circulating independently from the book itself, such as interviews,
letters and marketing material). He acknowledges the possibility of
multiple “senders” (1997: 8), but insists that the crucial, unifying criterion
of the paratext is that the material be “characterised by an authorial
intention and assumption of responsibility” (1997: 3). On this basis, he
explicitly excludes from the paratext key sites of authorial construction
such as reviews and scholarship which are not “authored” by the writer.
However, bearing in mind the vital participation of literary and social
institutions in the construction of the author-function, it can be argued that
the author “authorizes” the construction of such texts by participating in
the narratives of publishers and other institutions. Genette’s definition of
the epitext as the “conveyor of a commentary that is authorial or more-or-
less legitimated by the author” is compatible with secondary texts such as
reviews if we accept that these are “text-specific meta-discourses” (Tahir-
Gürçaglar 2002: 44), authorized or authored by the author-function. Thus
a discursive understanding of authorship necessitates a revision of the
paratext as defined by Genette. Most significantly, this discursive
understanding of authorship also demands the reconsideration of the status
of the translated text in Genette’s model. The assumptions made by
Genette throughout his book about authorial control of the paratext lead
him to define translation as an authorized, derivative process that extends
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Caroline Summers 15
the writer’s authorship, an approach for which he has been criticised by

Translation Studies scholars (Tahir-Gürçaglar 2002: 46-7). His categorization,
like Foucault’s, of translation as commentary to the “original” text is
undermined by a narrative approach to cultural transfer, in which the
meaning of the text is subject to change as it enters a new discursive
context, fragmenting the identity of the individual “author”. In such a
framework, translations assume the status of texts in their own right,
something which is not acknowledged by Genette, and which invites a
closer examination of the paratexts to (rather than the paratext as) the
translated text.
Particularly in translation, where linguistic, spatial and temporal
boundaries distance the writer from the target text, the author’s authority
over paratextual elements that introduce her writing to target-culture
discourse is minimal. Normally controlled by the publisher, the paratext
negotiates the “otherness” signalled by the translated status of the text
(Watts 2000). Watts describes a process of “cultural translation” in the
bindings of the “foreign” text that results in reducing the cultural
specificity of the source text, in order to attract and reassure readers
unfamiliar with the narrative realities of the writer’s social context (Watts
2000: 39, 2005: 19). Keith Harvey draws on Michael Cronin’s claim that
“proactive translation is as much an attempt to create an audience as it is to
find one” (Cronin 1996: 153), to show how the paratext constructs the
reader’s horizons of expectation. As demonstrated by both Watts and
Harvey, whether the bindings of the text choose to conceal or endorse its
otherness, it is not the writer but (in this case) the publisher who assumes
authorial authority in order to meet the reader at the threshold to the text.
Such involvement of multiple third parties problematizes the premise of
unified authorship central to Genette’s definition of the paratext. Although
neglected by Genette, the translated text is an exemplary object of study
for the complex question of paratextual authorship, as it necessitates the
(re)negotiation of the relationship between the text and its audience, which
is often out of the control of the individual writer.
Genette’s paratextual categories provide a valuable starting point for
analysis of the multiplicity of points at which the text interacts with
surrounding discourse. However, his criteria of paratextual identification
do not account for the instability of authorial authority at the “threshold”.
His model is both complemented and contradicted by theories of
authorship that assume the interdependence of authorial identity, textual
meaning and discursive context and invite a reconsideration of his main
paratextual criterion, “authorial intention”. Revealing authorship as a
problematic notion and looking specifically at how this has been significant
16 What Remains
in the development of Wolf’s Anglophone author-function, a narrative and

Foucauldian approach demands a reconsideration of Genette’s paratextual
categories to account for the translation as a legitimate “text” with
paratexts that reveal the institutional negotiation of textual meaning. The
importance of such a revision is clear from the following analysis of the
1993 translation of Wolf’s much debated story. The translation is
particularly interesting from a peritextual perspective, which will be the
focus here: in particular, this article explores how authorship is shaped by
the “ideological closure” in the paratext (Kovala 1996) that results from
institutional mediation of the text.
What Remains and Other Stories

The two English translations of Was bleibt show how the difficult
questions it raises are pre-empted and often concealed at the physical
thresholds to the text, reframing the relationship between Wolf’s
ontological narrative and the specific public narratives of the GDR. Martin
Chalmers’ translation for the literary magazine Granta in 1990 was
framed by a thematic narrative bringing various contributions together in a
volume entitled What Went Wrong?. The second translation was
completed by Heike Schwarzbauer and Rick Takvorian for a collection of
Wolf’s translated stories published by her American publisher Farrar
Straus Giroux (FSG), which appeared very shortly after her Stasi
revelation in 1993. The volume was published simultaneously by Virago
in the UK, and was republished in 1995 by FSG in collaboration with the
University of Chicago Press (UCP): the text of the three editions is
identical. Whilst Wolf’s author-function is more visibly reframed in the
peritexts to the translation in Granta, which are strongly marked by the
institutional identity of the magazine, the peritexts to the published book
reveal just as much intervention on the part of the institution in the
framing of the text and its authorship, as the following analysis of the two
American editions shows.
Within the category of paratext, the peritext is defined by Genette as
including elements contained within the physical unit of the book. His list
of possible peritextual elements is extensive and includes the dust jacket
and covers,1 title pages and intertitles, dedications, epigraphs, prefaces and
notes. He acknowledges the discursive contest for dominance in the
1
These can be listed as Covers 1-4, where Cover 1 is the front cover and Cover 2
its inside, followed by Cover 3 as the inside back cover and Cover 4 as the back
cover.
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Caroline Summers 17
framing of the text when he observes that the publisher’s peritext, those
elements of the peritext for which the publisher is answerable such as the
contents page and publicity material included in the volume, “encroaches
on the prerogatives of an author” (1997: 23). This article examines the
negotiation of authorial identity in the peritexts to the 1993 collection,
between Wolf’s author-function and the public narratives of Anglophone
literary institutions. The 1995 FSG/UCP version is the most accessible in
print of the three editions, and is therefore the focus of this discussion: a
high degree of similarity can be assumed between the 1993 and 1995 FSG
editions so both will be discussed together.
External Peritexts
Genette identifies the title of a book as a paratext, explaining that “the
title (like, moreover, the name of the author) is an object to be circulated –
or, if you prefer, a subject of conversation” (1997: 75). By selectively
foregrounding “What Remains”, the title What Remains and Other Stories
achieves two framing effects simultaneously: it frames “What Remains” as
the centrepiece of the book, and simultaneously as a “story”, framing
Wolf’s writing as fiction. The cover designs (Figs 1 and 2) also foreground
“What Remains”, using a smaller font for the second half of the title. The
author-function is clearly invoked: in Fig. 1, the large font size used for
the title is repeated for Wolf’s name, and in Fig. 2 the eye follows a Z-
shaped path from the title in the top right-hand corner to the name of the
author in the bottom left-hand corner.
The emphasis in the peritext on Wolf’s author-function is affirmed in
the FSG editions by the lack of a publisher logo on this front threshold to
the text: identity with the writing is left to the author, consolidating the
positioning of the text in an individual authorial narrative. The publisher’s
name appears in a small font on the spine and the back cover, deferring to
the author as the unifying origin of the volume.
Apart from their shared emphasis on “What Remains” and clear
identification of Wolf as author, the covers are very different, although
both images implicitly foreground particular details of the “What
Remains” narrative. The image of the teapot in Fig. 1 recalls the narrator’s
breakfast:
The coffee had to be hot and strong, filter coffee, the boiled egg not too
soft; homemade jam was preferred, dark bread. Luxury! Luxury! I thought,
as I did every morning upon seeing everything assembled on the table – an
everlasting feeling of guilt which penetrates and heightens our every
pleasure – those of us who have known want. (Wolf 1995: 234)
18 What Remains
Fig. 1: FSG edition (1993b)
Fig. 2: FSG/University of Chicago (1995)
Food and drink is a cohesive motif for the collection, often appearing
at moments of crisis or climax: the moment in “Exchanging Glances”, for
example, when the narrator’s joy at finding an abandoned supply truck is
haunted by the appearance of the concentration camp prisoners, and the
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Caroline Summers 19
tense supper at the end of “Self-experiment” when Anders tacitly

challenges the professor to recognize her/his new identity. Fig. 2 depicts a
solitary female figure walking down a street lined with the watchful faces
of the houses: the dark brown and red colouring of this front cover
establishes a gloomy and oppressive atmosphere. The size of the figure
and the narrowing of the street as it tapers away from her, where no sky
can be seen, are claustrophobic. The image of the street is reminiscent not
only of Was bleibt, in which the narrator speculates about being followed
on a walk to the shops, but also of other stories in the collection: “I can
still observe the first transitions to the pictures one sees before falling
asleep; a street appears leading to that landscape I know so well without
ever having seen it” (Wolf 1995: 39), “I went out into the street in my
bitter shame. I ridiculed it. Straight as an arrow, I sneered. Street to the
heart of the matter… Street of coincidence, I swore at it. Newspaper
street.” (Wolf 1995: 117). Whilst emphasizing “What Remains”, the cover
motif unites the contents of the book in a selected framing narrative of the
narrator’s oppression. Wolf’s author-function is thus framed, by the choice
of illustration, as a victim narrative rather than narrative of guilt.
The back cover of the 1995 edition continues the colouring of the front
and is almost entirely covered with white text, which stands out against
this dark background. In the top left-hand corner, the category “fiction” is
printed in orange, standing out because of its colouring (the only other text
of this colour is the name of the University of Chicago Press at the bottom
left). Like the genre indication of “stories” in the title, this categorization
in a conceptual narrative of “fiction” frames Wolf’s writing as a creative,
if not completely imaginary, engagement with social narratives, ascribing
less importance to the autobiographical aspect of the texts by distancing
the author-function from the writer’s ontological narrative. 2 This
distinction between the writer’s public narrative of authorship, emphasizing
her mastery of literary categories, and her ontological narrative, embedded
in politically charged public narratives, reframes the autobiographical
parallels of the texts. Their categorization as “fiction” makes Wolf’s
exploration of identity and selfhood a diegetic rather than a mimetic act:
the narrator is recounting rather than undergoing a process of self-
discovery. This reflects an author-function not emplotted in the
relationship of “truth” to the writer’s ontological narrative that made Wolf
vulnerable to criticism in Germany following her revelation in 1993.
2
Interestingly, Kovala (1996: 136-7) finds the opposite is true of the early
twentieth-century Finnish paratexts studied: these demonstrate an emphasis on
biographical and social context, rather than on the literary context of the writing.
20 What Remains
The please-insert3 is preceded by a quote from “Exchanging Glances”

(Blickwechsel). In context, the quotation frames the narrator’s ontological
narrative in a public narrative of post-war German guilt mixed with
victimhood, as the narrator’s sense of complicity in the plight of the
concentration camp survivors (“the ragged”) manifests itself and
disappears. In isolation on the back cover, the extracted quotation invokes
less specific metanarratives of deprivation and guilt:
Now the ragged would put on our clothes and stick their bloody feet in our
shoes, now the starved would seize hold of the flour and the sausage we
had just snatched. And to my horror I felt it was just, and I was horrified to
feel that it was just, and knew for a fraction of a second that we were guilty.
I forgot it again.
This peritextual threshold frames the text in recognizable categories

(“guilt”, “horror”) that convey the strength of the narrator’s reaction but do
not identify her experience (or that of the author) as specifically German.
This apparent universality is confirmed by the explanation that the
book “collects Christa Wolf’s short fiction, from early work of the sixties
to the widely debated title story, first published in Germany in 1990.
These short stories shed light on her work as an artist and political figure,
and as a woman”. The categories of “artist”, “political figure” and
“woman” continue the universalizing narratives of the quotation from
“Exchanging Glances”. The please-insert implies that the book contains a
comprehensive collection of Wolf’s short fiction, concealing the inevitable
selective appropriation of the chosen texts. There is no acknowledgement
of the publishing history of the writing (the unexplained reference to
“What Remains” as the “widely debated title story” is the only suggestion
of the debates that surrounded its publication in Germany), nor is there an
attempt to recognize the significance of such a narrative in connection
with Wolf’s German author-function or at the particular moment at which
it was published. The please-insert goes on to mention three stories
individually:
“‘What Remains’, the title story, powerfully describes what it is like to

live under surveillance by the Stasi police and how such a life gradually
destroys normalcy for a writer. An interior monologue reveals the fear and
3
Genette defines the please-insert as a printed text containing information about
the work, designed to be included in its publication (1997: 104-5). The term comes
from typical usage in the early twentieth century, when the please-insert was
typically printed separately and inserted; Genette observes that this is no longer the
case and that this text often appears on Cover 4 of a book (25).
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Caroline Summers 21
self-consciousness of the author as the secret police eventually disrupt the

balance of her life.
Examining the power of memory, ‘Exchanging Glances’ captures the
collision of childhood and war, as Wolf recollects her family’s flight from
the Russian Army during World War II. She remembers imagining her
own dead body and watching prisoners released from a concentration camp
with a combination of fear and something more painful than fear:
knowledge.
In ‘The New Life and Opinions of a Tomcat’, a satire of life in a
totalitarian state, Max the cat and his owner, a psychology professor, work
on a secret project called ‘Tohuha’, short for Total Human Happiness.”
Opening with a summary of “What Remains”, this affirms the

emphasis of the collection on its title story and recalls the front cover
design in its description of the writer’s ruined normalcy and her self-
consciousness. An “other” is causally emplotted as perpetrator in the
narrator’s ontological narrative: in “What Remains” the Stasi destroy the
writer’s normalcy and disrupt her balance, and in “Exchanging Glances”
the Russian Army pursue the young narrator and her family. Again, there
is no indication of the ambivalent status of Wolf’s victimhood, and both
summaries appeal to “universal” narratives of “the writer” or “childhood
and war”. The third example encourages a generalized framing of Wolf’s
satirical story that not only avoids the particularity of the GDR context but
invokes a narrative of “totalitarian” states in which the persecuted or
dissident writer is framed as a heroic victim and her fear confirms her as
such. The please-insert offers an overview of the stories within the volume
in terms of the metanarratives with which they engage. As the title story
and as a constantly foregrounded focus of the collection, “What Remains”
is framed as emblematic of these.
The exclusion of nuances in the publication history and socio-political
context of What Remains and Other Stories is consolidated on the back
cover of the translation by the concluding sentence of the please-insert,
which assures the reader that, “encounters with topics ranging from sexual
politics to the nature of memory, these unpretentious, and sometimes
chilling, stories are a fascinating introduction to Wolf’s work”. Again,
framing by selected recognizable concepts encourages the Anglophone
reader to look beyond (or overlook) the specific East German public
narratives that have contextualized Wolf’s writing. Most significantly, this
final section of the please-insert frames the book as an introduction to
Wolf’s writing. The publication of an “introductory” collection of Wolf’s
texts after more than twenty years of success as an international author
might suggest that her Anglophone author-function survived the debates of
22 What Remains
reunification and the furore of her Stasi scandal to invite a fresh surge of
interest.
The conceptualization of the book as an introduction, especially in the
absence of explanatory notes, implies the accessibility of Wolf’s “short
fiction”. However, this assumption belies the thematic and structural
complexity of the texts: writing about “Juninachmittag” in 1965, Wolf
warned editor Günther Caspar at Aufbau that “das, was bei mir herauskäme,
etwas ganz anderes wäre als etwa eine amerikanische ‘short story’” (Wolf
1965). The peritext does not encourage the reader to recognize that Wolf’s
stories diverge from the familiar format of the fictional “story”: instead,
the texts and the author-function are framed by the category of
introduction and a conceptual narrative of literature as fiction. The
unproblematic framing of the narrator’s observation by the Stasi in “What
Remains” as fiction avoids problematic questions about the “truthfulness”
and “authenticity” of the narrative that troubled its German publication.
The please-insert is followed by quotations from two reviewers: the
author and journalist Herbert Mitgang, a regular reviewer for the New
York Times, and the novelist Mary Gordon. The favourable comments of
both act as consecrating frames for Wolf’s writing. Mitgang comments
that
What Remains and Other Stories… is clear and farsighted. The eight
heartfelt stories in the book show why she has been respected as a serious
author since her 1968 novel, The Quest for Christa T… Wolf uses her own
experiences and observations to create universal themes about the controls
upon human freedom.
Tracing Wolf’s author-function right back to the (German) publication

of Wolf’s Nachdenken über Christa T. in 1968, he frames her as both a
“serious author” and a writer who uses her own life to engage with
“universal themes”. The “universality” of Wolf’s interest in “controls
upon human freedom” masks the specificity of the freedom she hopes to
discover within socialist narratives. Similarly, Mary Gordon states that
“Christa Wolf has set herself nothing less than the task of exploring what
it is to be a conscious human being alive in a moment of history”, drawing
on the universal category of “human being” to identify Wolf’s approach
and selectively avoiding an association with the public narratives of the
GDR as the specific space in which Wolf hoped to realize this human
consciousness. The ostensibly universal, humanist frame established by
both these reviewers contributes to the familiarity of the narratives in
which Wolf’s author-function is framed by the peritext.
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Caroline Summers 23
At the bottom of the back cover, the book is contextualized in Wolf’s

author-function alongside other selected texts: “Christa Wolf’s novels
include Accident and The Quest for Christa T. The Author’s Dimension is
available in paperback from the University of Chicago Press”. Here, the
recognizable titles of Wolf’s most recent previous work and of one of her
biggest successes endorses the text in hand for those already familiar with
Wolf’s author-function, as well as promoting earlier texts to readers
unfamiliar with Wolf’s writing, for whom the volume is truly introductory.
The note continues: “Wolf has worked as an editor, lecturer, journalist and
critic. She lives in Berlin”. This is the only biographical information
offered in the peritextual frame of the book. The omission of the
Literaturstreit and Stasi scandal from the selective contextualization of
What Remains and Other Stories in relation to the writer’s ontological
narrative frames her author-function as uncontested and as accessible to
the Anglophone reader, determined by freely available texts and by
recognizable categories of identity (editor, lecturer, journalist, critic). It
also reinforces the distinction between the writer’s ontological narrative
and her public narrative as “author”. Within the volume, the internal
peritexts demonstrate a similar tendency to distance Wolf’s text and
authorship from narratives of the GDR that frame them as problematic.
Internal Peritexts
The first textual material in the 1995 edition is on the verso of the
flyleaf, where books “Also by Christa Wolf” are listed. Genette describes
the listing of the author’s other work as “a sort of personal catalogue of the
author’s” which can nonetheless also strongly reflect the publisher’s
interests (1997: 100). Here, the list notably omits Divided Heaven, the
1965 translation by Joan Becker of Wolf’s Der geteilte Himmel. The
omission suggests that, marked as “other” by its GDR origin and by this
point also the subject of criticism for its distorting emphasis on socialist
doctrine (Koerner 1984; von Ankum 1993), Divided Heaven has been
overlooked in an Anglophone narrative of Wolf’s authorship dominated by
FSG. 4 The exclusion of a translation whose promotion is not in the
commercial interest of the American publisher and which has been
considered ideologically problematic by Anglophone voices, shows how
4
Exceptions to this trend are: the earliest British edition of The Quest for Christa
T. (Hutchinson, 1971), The Reader and the Writer (Seven Seas, 1977), The Fourth
Dimenson (Verso, 1988) and In the Flesh (Verba Mundi, 2005). In each of these
four editions, Divided Heaven is either listed among Wolf’s previous texts or
briefly mentioned in a note on the author.
24 What Remains
the public narrative of the publishing institution might intervene in the

author-function whilst appearing to let the author’s texts speak for
themselves. Although the author-function is granted prominence, this is
“managed” by the publisher.
The collection has two title pages. The first, on the recto opposite
“Also by Christa Wolf”, shows only the “half title” (Genette 1997: 32) of
“What Remains”, selectively emphasizing it as a focal point of the volume.
The verso between the two title pages names the translators, and on the
next recto the second title page shows the full title of What Remains and
Other Stories followed by Wolf’s name, and the name of the publisher in a
smaller font. On all these pages, and on the title page and first page of
each story in the collection, the text is indented from the left by a motif of
three thick vertical lines. This uniformity draws several texts into one
narrative which, in this ‘introductory’ collection of Wolf’s writing,
emphasizes Wolf’s author-function as the narrative that unites the texts.
This “introductory” status, as well as the cohesion and uniform origin of
the stories implied by their identical presentation and the absence of
information about their individual peculiarities, again shows how
intervention by the publisher frames the author-function.
Finally, the contents page of What Remains and Other Stories suggests
the ordering of the stories in the book as a narrative of progression from
“Exchanging Glances” to “What Remains”. The order of contents is as
follows:
Table 1: Contents of What Remains and Other Stories
Title (EN) Title (DE) Written First

Published
Exchanging Glances Blickwechsel 1969-70 1970
Tuesday, September Dienstag, der 27. 1960 1974
27 September
June Afternoon Juninachmittag 1965 1967 (GDR)
1971 (FRG)
Unter den Linden Unter den Linden 1969 1974
The New Life and Neue Lebensansichten 1970 1974
Opinions of a eines Katers
Tomcat
A Little Outing to Kleiner Ausflug nach H. 1969-72 1980 (FRG)
H. 1989 (GDR)
Self-experiment Selbstversuch 1972 1973
What Remains Was bleibt 1979/1990 1990
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Caroline Summers 25
The organization of the contents encourages emphasis on particular

stories as key points in the overall narrative: the three stories cited on the
back cover are positioned as the first, middle and final items in the book.
The positioning of “What Remains” as the last item, the story having
already been selectively emphasized by the title of the book and its
separate title page, temporally emplots it as the culmination of the
authorial narrative developed throughout the earlier stories. This emplotment
overrides the peculiarities of individual texts and their publication, and
enforces a cohesive narrative of progression throughout the book. As
Table 1 shows, the arrangement of the texts does not strictly follow the
chronological order of writing or first publication; however, the frame
established by the publisher on the back cover of the volume, of
introduction to and progression through Wolf’s author-function, implicitly
frames this arrangement of the texts as the linear realization of such an
order. The almost chronological placement of the texts, beginning with
“Exchanging Glances”, in which the narrator is a teenager, consolidates
the final emphasis on “What Remains” as the last of the stories to be
written and the last to be published. The ordering of the stories reveals
how the intervention of the publisher controls the narration of the author-
function within the volume.
From this point onwards, there is no other peritextual material. Whilst
many of the peritextual elements identified by Genette (such as a preface
or additional notes) are absent from the framing of the texts in What
Remains and Other Stories, it is possible to see, even from the few
structures that do surround the text, that the institutional narrative of the
publisher intervenes more than the reader is encouraged to recognize. The
temporal and implicit causal emplotment of the texts in What Remains and
Other Stories, suggested by their ordering in the volume, traces a narrative
of progression from the post-war anxiety of “Exchanging Glances” to the
narrator’s self-conscious attempts to maintain normality in “What
Remains”. The external peritexts embed this development in metanarrative
categories, affirming the international relevance of Wolf’s writing through
the relationality of her author-function to “universal” narratives of
experience rather than to specific public narratives of the GDR that would
problematize the coherent narrative of her authorship.
Before concluding, it is worthwhile to consider the role of the Other
Stories as peritexts: as well as contributing to an accumulated narrative of
authorship in the volume, each Erzählung can be considered a text in its
own right, in relation to which the others by implication adopt the status of
peritext. The selective appropriation of material for the volume is
significant, particularly in light of the implied totality of the collection
26 What Remains
seen on the back cover: the book offers an introduction to Wolf’s work by
way of her short fiction, but does not acknowledge the selection of texts
for inclusion and the consequent exclusion of others. The texts in the
collection are some of Wolf’s best known stories; however, they do not
represent the entirety of her short fiction from this period. Moskauer
Novelle (1961), for example, was Wolf’s first published text and has never
been translated. It is similar in length to Was bleibt so would not have
been out of place in the book, but it is a reflective text rather than a “story”,
and is characterized by the same “messianic fervour” (Buehler 1986: 70)
for socialist realism as the reviews Wolf wrote for the literary periodical
Neue deutsche Literatur . As Wolf later noted, her reviews from the period
strongly und uncritically endorse party values, and Moskauer Novelle is
the most orthodox of her texts as far as her adherence to institutional
narratives of socialism is concerned.
Aside from selecting texts that are not strongly characterized by East
German public narratives, the book excludes a vast body of Wolf’s “work”
by omitting, from this introduction to her writing, her essays, interviews
and speeches, in which she articulates clearly the aims and challenges that
have informed her development as a writer. This selective focus on fiction
is confirmed by the “Also by Christa Wolf” listing at the beginning of the
book, which reveals the imbalance in the published translations numbering
five works of “fiction” and only one of non-fiction. The public narrative of
the publisher interferes “silently” in the circulation of the author-function,
directing the selection of texts and the framing of the collection as
fictional writing. Temporal, causal and relational links between the stories
are established by the implied cohesion of the collection, and by the
metanarratives identified in the external peritexts as the thematic focus of
the writing, so that each story is framed in relation to the other pieces as
well as being positioned in a narrative of authorial development
throughout the volume.
“What Remains”, as the last piece in the collection, is temporally
positioned as the culmination of the narrative of authorship and is framed
by the narratives of previous texts in the book. Isolated from the public
narratives that contextualized Wolf’s GDR author-function and
problematized Was bleibt at the time of its publication, “What Remains” is
framed as a “story” in which the writer’s ontological narrative is semi-
fictionalized in order to reflect on universal metanarratives. Thus
categorized, the translation does not boast the same status of “truth” about
Wolf’s ontological narrative that was destabilized in Germany after the
revelation of her Stasi cooperation and led to further attacks on Wolf’s
author-function. The implied cohesion and accumulated narrative of the
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Caroline Summers 27
collection of stories causally and temporally emplots “What Remains”, the

last narrative in the collection, as the provisional conclusion rather than a
disruption of Wolf’s author-function.
Conclusion
One has to know the background of the whole development of writing in
my society to explain that this is not just a narcissistic occupation, my
writing. I’m a person who is very strongly rooted in the society in which I
live, and what I usually write about are the conflicts between individuals
and the societies in which they live – and the society is always shown as a
very strong factor in the individual’s life. (Wolf 1993d: 272)
Wolf’s comment in an interview from 1983 expresses her constant

endeavour to engage with the public narratives of GDR discourse in her
writing, and its inseparability from her authorial concerns. However, the
peritexts to What Remains and Other Stories demonstrate that, even for a
text so deeply and explicitly embedded in source-culture discourse, the
author-function is often dominated by the functions of discursive
institutions by which the writer’s texts are circulated. The framing of the
stories as a cohesive group and as “fiction” ensures that the public
narrative of Opfer/Täter and the specific moral implications of this for the
interpretation of Was bleibt are selectively excluded from its framing in
translation. The peritext is a site of negotiation, not only with dominant
narratives of the receiving discourse and with the public narrative of the
publisher, whose own “ideological” and commercial interests must be
served by the publication of the text. Although Wolf emphasizes the
relevance of GDR discourse as the background to her authorial and
ontological narratives, translation has isolated her text from this context by
framing it with an author-function based in universal narratives of identity
and a conceptual narrative of “fiction”. Serving neither the wishes of the
author nor the institutional voices of the source culture, this Anglophone
author-function has informed and has been informed by the paratextual
framing of Wolf’s writing in translation.
The peritexts of the three editions of What Remains and Other Stories
show how each text in the collection contributes to a unifying narrative of
authorship, in which the individual peculiarities of the stories are less
important than their coherence with universally recognizable categories of
identity and experience. The commercial interests of FSG “encroach on
the prerogatives of the author” (Genette 1997: 23) in the selective
appropriation of particular texts for the volume and the selective emphasis
on fiction as a category. The focus on the relationality of the textual
28 What Remains
narratives to familiar public or metanarratives rather than “other” public

narratives contributes to the control of the author-function by the publisher
as editorial gateway. The tendency to view Wolf’s writing as “fiction”
with no moral obligation to truth, hence freeing her from the culpability
identified by her German critics, is also seen in a letter written by 174
American academics to the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit in 1993,
in support of Wolf (Zeit 1993). The letter distinguished between the
writer’s politics, embedded in local public narratives, and her writing,
appropriated into universal metanarratives: its signatories claimed that
Wolf’s previous concealment of her Stasi involvement from the public
lessened the autobiographical but not the literary value of Was bleibt. The
framing of Wolf’s author-function as distant from the specific public
narratives that made her revelation problematic in Germany goes hand in
hand with emphasis on the relevance of her writing for “universal”
discourse. Arguing for a distinction between the politics and the writing,
voices in the Anglophone institution emplotted Wolf’s Stasi involvement
as human error, rather than as political duplicity.
Wolf’s example shows that authorship is a discursive function,
dependent on texts and their receiving contexts for its construction and
subject to variation. The translated author in particular must surrender
control to institutions in order to achieve circulation. This invites a
reconsideration of the paratext defined by “authorial” intention, which is
revealed as critically unstable. The intervention in German discourse by
advocates of Wolf’s Anglophone author-function emphasizes the importance
of viewing translation as a text in its own right and therefore as a valuable
object of paratextual study, where the institutional construction of
authorship is evident. As the site of important and sometimes difficult
negotiation, it reveals institutional intervention very clearly and shows that
the author does not maintain control over the paratext. The discursive
vulnerability of the translated author-function, lacking a continuous and
authoritative discursive presence in the target language and reliant on the
intervention of publishers and translators, enables and even necessitates
the frequent reinvention of the translated author in and by her paratexts.
www.ebook777.com
Caroline Summers 29
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im vereinten Deutschland, Munich: Edition Spangenberg.
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—. (2006) Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account, London and
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Cronin, Michael (1996) Translating Ireland: Translations, Languages,
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Foucault, Michel (1977) “What is an Author?”, trans. by Donald F.
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113-138.
30 What Remains
—. (1981) “The Order of Discourse”, trans. by Ian McLeod, in Robert

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Genette, Gérard (1997) Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, trans. by
Jane E. Lewin, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gergen, Kenneth J. and Mary M. Gergen (1997) “Narratives of the Self”,
in Lewis P. Hinchman and Sandra K. Hinchman (eds), Memory,
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631-68.
Koerner, Charlotte (1984) “Divided Heaven: By Christa Wolf? A Sacrifice
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213-230.
Kovala, Urpo (1996) “Translations, Paratextual Mediation, and
Ideological Closure”, Target 8(1): 119-147.
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Caroline Summers 31
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Aimé Césaire’s Cahier d’un retour au pays natal”, TTR: Traduction,
Terminologie, Rédaction 13(2): 29-46.
Wolf, Christa (1961) Moskauer Novelle, Halle: Mitteldeutscher Verlag.
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158.
—. (1993a) “Eine Auskunft”, Berliner Zeitung, 21 January.
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Schwarzbauer and Rick Takvorian, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
—. (1993c) What Remains and Other Stories, trans. by Heike
Schwarzbauer and Rick Takvorian, London: Virago.
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Author’s Dimension, trans. by Jan van Heurck, New York: Farrar
Straus Giroux and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 271-282.
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Schwarzbauer and Rick Takvorian, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux
and Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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American Germanists Show Solidarity with Christa Wolf), 18 June.
www.ebook777.com
PARATEXTS IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

OF THE SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG
HOU PINGPING
Abstract
This paper is an investigation of the use and function of the various
paratexts in the English translation of the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung.
The focus is on the two “official” English versions, which are the products
of translational activities organized and supervised by organs under the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. An analysis is made
of the arrangement, the content and the wording of the publication notes,
the introductory notes, the endnotes, and the special complimentary
markers. Moreover, a comparison is made of two introductory notes from
different sources for the same article contained in the Selected Works: one
is from the Selected Works, the other is from a book by a western scholar.
The comparison and analysis show that apart from their introductory and
explanatory functions, paratexts clearly serve ideological purposes. The
paper concludes that the paratexts in the official English versions of the
Selected Works are politically and ideologically essential in guiding
readers before and during their reading journey.
This paper represents part of the research of The English Translation of
the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, under Project Innovation,,):
funded by Shandong University, China.
An Overview of the Selected Works and Its English

Translations
Mao Zedong1 has exerted great influence not only on China, but on the
world as well. This is largely attributable to the massive publication of his
1
In both the LW and IP editions of the Selected Works published in London and
New York in the 1950s and the official English version published in Beijing in the
1960s, the name of Chairman Mao was transliterated into Mao Tse-tung. In other
34 Paratexts in the Translation of the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
works and the wide publicity of his theories. The most important of his
speeches and articles are included in the official edition of the Selected
Works of Mao Tse-tung (hereafter referred to as the Selected Works 2 ).
There have been different editions/versions of the Selected Works,
including the five-volume version published by the Jin Cha Ji Daily
Newspaper Agency in 1944, the version published in the central Jiangsu
Liberated Area in 1945, the version published in the Shandong Bohai
Liberated Area in 1948, the version published by the Northeastern Bureau
of the Party in 1948, and the version published by the Shanxi-Hebei-
Shandong-Henan Central Bureau in 1948 (Pang and Jin 2003:138).
In this paper, the Selected Works exclusively refers to the official
Chinese version compiled by the Committee for the Publication of the
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung under the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China, and published by the People’s Publishing
House. The first volume of the Chinese version was published in October
1951, the second volume in April 1952, the third volume in April 1953,
and the fourth volume in 1960. For the majority of Chinese people, The
Selected Works has a special status among all of Mao’s writings, which is
largely due to its massive publication and extremely wide circulation3 in
the 1950s, 60s and 70s. For a time it was almost Mao’s only work
official English translations of Mao’s works published in China, the same spelling
is adopted. This paper uses the Pinyin transliteration (e.g. “Mao Zedong”) for
Chinese names, persons’ names and names for places. However, for book titles it
retains the names as are used on the title page, some of which are in Wade-Giles
transliteration (e.g. “Mao Tse-tung” or “Mao Tsetung”). For quotations from
books, the original transliteration is retained.
2
The Quotations from Chairman Mao (generally known as The Little Red Book in
the west) and the Selected Works are closely related to one another in that the main
source of the Quotations was the Selected Works. Statistics conducted by this
author show that among the 427 items included in the Quotations, nearly ninety
percent were from the five volumes of the official edition of the Selected Works.
3
According to Liu and Wu (1993: 118-123), the planned publication for the first
volume was 600,000, but the demand was far greater, and the actual publication
was even greater. The publication for the second volume was 1,500,000.To
guarantee the smooth circulation of the Selected Works, Party organizations at all
levels made plans for the publicity and study of the Selected Works, and
distribution groups headed by the managers of Xinhua Bookstore both at the head
office and the branches were formed. Meanwhile, the news on the publication of
the Selected Works was covered by major newspapers. People in each large city
lined up and jostled with one another to purchase the Selected Works. In Tianjin,
on the day the first volume of the Selected Works arrived, all 12,000 copies sold
out. As time went on, the sales figures skyrocketed.
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Hou Pingping 35
available to most of the Chinese people. Only in recent years have more of
Mao’s works been published, in particular the 10-volume Collected
Writings of Mao Zedong compiled by the Department for Research on
Party Literature under the Central Committee of the CPC and published by
the People’s Publishing House.
Beginning in the 1920s, Mao Zedong’s works began to be translated
into foreign languages and published in the organizational periodical of
the Communist International, the Comintern. During the War against
Japanese Aggression (1937-1945), a specialized publicity group headed by
Zhou Enlai and other Communist leaders was established under the South
China Bureau and entrusted with the task of translating Mao Zedong’s
works and disseminating them to foreign countries (Zhang Airu 1993).
The compilation of the Selected Works under the central Committee of the
CPC started in late 1940s, and by June 1949 the proofs, over one million
characters long, were submitted to Mao Zedong, but many of the selected
articles were rejected by him (Pang and Jin 2003:139-140). In May 1950,
a Politburo meeting chaired by Mao Zedong endorsed the decision to form
a Selected Works Publication Committee. The meeting also agreed that
Mao Zedong would personally preside over the editing and publishing
work (Liu and Wu 1993:106). At about the same time, a special committee
for the English translation of the Selected Works was formed. The
committee was headed by Xu Yongying, with such renowned scholars as
Jin Yuelin, Qian Zhongshu, Wang Zuoliang and Zheng Ruzhen as
committee members (Yao 2003).
Like the compilation of the Selected Works, its translation was an
important political task. For this reason the translators were carefully
selected to make sure that they were both academically dependable and
politically reliable. With Party financing and support they were transferred
from their work units to translate the Selected Works. The translation was
conducted collectively, with several of the devoted translators working in
a group. The English translation of the Selected Works was carried out
almost concurrently with the Chinese compilation. Since the Chinese
source text was frequently edited, the English translation involved
substantial extra effort on the part of the translators (ibid). This English
version of the Selected Works that was collectively translated by Chinese
scholars was not published in China. Rather it was published by Lawrence
and Wishart (hereafter referred to as LW) in London and by International
Publishers (hereafter referred to as IP4) in New York in 1954. Later in the
4
The English version published by International Publishers in New York in 1954
is identical in content with the LW version. The only difference between the two
editions is in the notes from the publishers. The publisher’s note in the IP edition
early 1960s, another round of officially organized translation of the

Selected Works was conducted. This time, there were foreign experts
involved in its final editing and polishing. This English translation was
based on the 1954 English version and was published successively in the
early 1960s by the Foreign Languages Press (FLP) in Beijing.
In April, 1977, Volume V of the Selected Works was published by the
People’s Publishing House. In September of the same year, an English
translation of Volume V was published by FLP. Though Volume V was
meant to be a natural continuation of the first four volumes of the official
version of the Selected Works, it differs from the other four volumes in
that its compilation and translation were both carried out after the death of
the Chairman. For political reasons, Volume V was rather short lived: only
five years after its initial publication, China’s National Publication Bureau
issued a notice suspending its distribution.
Paratexts in the LW and FLP English Versions

It is generally agreed that power and ideology have an overall
influence on translation. They not only govern what is to be translated, but
also the translation strategy, and even the way the translated text looks and
is received. In other words, ideological interference exists in almost all
aspects of a translation, especially a political text such as the Selected
Works.
The word “paratext” here refers to various kinds of text complementary
materials, which includes the design of the dust jacket, the front page, the
title page, the publication note, the introductory notes, the annotations and
other translational markers. Paratexts generally provide important
background material for the translated text and therefore give readers a
bigger picture of the translation in question, yet their functions go far
beyond this. Differently designed paratexts for a text can bring about very
different emotions among readers even before they begin reading the text.
Later in this paper, a comparison of the introductory notes to the article
“Report of an Investigation into the Peasant Movement” in Volume One of
the Selected Works well illustrates this point. In other words, apart from
being introductory and explanatory, paratextual devices can also serve an
was inaccurate in stating that the edition was “translated and published in England’
and that it was “based on the Chinese edition of four volumes, which first appeared
in Peking in 1951…”. First, the translation was carried out in China, not in
England; second, the four volumes of the Chinese version came out successively
instead of all coming out together in 1951. In fact, Volume IV of the official
Chinese version did not come out until September of 1960.
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Hou Pingping 37
ideological purpose by initiating readers into a biased pre-designed

reading experience.
Both the LW and FLP editions of the translation of the Selected Works
were products of the collective effort of prestigious Chinese scholars and
senior revolutionaries. Both rounds of translation activities were organized
by China’s Central Publicity Department under the Central Committee of
the CPC. Translators were carefully selected by the Chinese government
to ensure the translations’ full compliance with the official ideology.
Therefore it is understandable why translational compliance is quite
discernible in both the texts and paratexts of both translations.
Cover, Dust Jacket, Title Page and Portrait Page:

The LW Edition and the IP Edition
The official English edition of the Selected Works was first published
by LW in London in 1954 and shortly afterwards by International
Publishers in New York the same year. The English editions published by
the two left-wing publishers are identical, with the only difference being
the note from the publisher.
Both the LW and IP editions have red covers signifying a Marxist or a
Communist ideology. Both publishers attached considerable importance to
the publication and produced a very pleasing book design. The
International Publishers edition has the title of the book on the dust jacket,
and the number of the volume and the name of the publisher on its front
cover. The title of the book, the number of the volume and the publisher’s
logo is on its spine. On the two inside pages of the dust jacket there was
not only an introduction to the content of the four volumes, but also
favorable comments from major magazines and periodicals. Included was
a New World Review comment: “The publication of Mao Zedong’s
writings in English will be for Americans a font of inspiration in the
common effort to achieve peaceful and mutually beneficial relations”. A
comment from the Library Journal included: “Recommended as the
currently official version of Mao’s most important writings, and hence as
indispensable as the works of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin”. Since the
information on the dust jacket of a book is essential for many readers in
judging its content, these comments have ideological significance in
guiding and, to a degree, governing the readers’ reading experience.
Both editions share the following features: on the title pages of the first
volume, together with the title of the book, the volume number, and the
name of the publisher, both have an impressive portrait of Mao Zedong
that shows great dignity, authority and elegance. In the LW edition, the
name of “MAO TSE-TUNG” in the title is highlighted by being larger

than the subtitle “SELECTED WORKS”. In the IP edition, the name of
the book is slightly changed to “MAO TSE-TUNG - Selected Works” in
order to highlight the impressive image of Mao Zedong and his name. The
design has a most eye-catching effect both in the way the portrait of Mao
Zedong is portrayed and the way his name is presented. The spine of the
IP edition has the title of the book, the volume number and the publisher’s
logo all in gold on a background of red.
In accordance with the text arrangement in the original Chinese, the
articles in the translation are arranged chronologically falling into four
different historical periods. They are, the Period of the First Revolutionary
Civil War (1921-27), the period of the Second Revolutionary Civil War
(1927-37), the period of the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-45),
and the period of the Third Revolutionary Civil War (1945-49). The
contents section shows clearly what is included in each volume. The
arrangement of the articles is generally as follows: the title, an explanatory
note presenting background information, the body of the text, when the
article was written, and the end notes. In the original Chinese, the
introductory notes about an article’s background are presented as footnotes,
that is, they appear on the bottom of the first page while content
explanatory notes for expressions, names and places appear at the end of
an article in the form of endnotes. In the translation, however, the
introductory notes are put at the head of the article immediately after the
title. Since many of the introductory notes that provide background
information for the articles contain ideologically significant judgments, the
highlighting of these introductory notes in the translation more effectively
provides ideological guidance for the targeted readers. After all, compared
with the Chinese readers of the Selected Works, foreign readers knew
much less about the situation in China and the political background at the
time the articles were written.
The FLP Edition

The dust jacket of the FLP edition of the English translation of the
Selected Works is golden in color. Its front cover has a sublime profile of
Chairman Mao on the upper part, and the book title on the lower part, with
the name MAO TSE-TUNG highlighted both in red and in larger font. The
volume number is at the bottom of the front cover. The book’s spine has
the English title on the upper part and the Chinese title on the lower part,
with the name of the publisher at the bottom. On the first title page, the
emotionally-laden sentence “WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!”
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Hou Pingping 39
printed in red is most eye-catching. This page is followed by a page with a

portrait of Mao Zedong and his name in Chinese below the portrait, all of
which is carefully covered with a glossy and transparent empty page. This
delicate design is ideologically meaningful for it forcibly conveys to the
reader that the great helmsman is entitled to a great deal of respect.
Following the portrait page is a title page with the book title highlighted in
red in the upper part of the page. Here again, the name of MAO TSE-
TUNG enjoys larger font than the words “Selected Works of”.
Publication Notes
In both the LW and the FLP editions of the Selected Works, the
publication notes were drafted by the Committee for the Publication of the
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung under the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China. Both notes voice obvious concern over
unauthorized publications and their potential impact. As an example, the
Publisher’s Note in the LW English edition (1954) of the Selected Works
states:
…Editions of Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung have appeared previously

in various places, but as none of them had been attended to by the author,
their arrangement was haphazard and their text disfigured by errors,
while certain important writings were omitted. …And the author
himself went over all the articles, making certain verbal changes here and
there, and, in a few cases, revising or amplifying certain passages (words
highlighted by this author, the same is true with all the following
quotations).
By airing the disadvantages and defects of other editions and highlighting

the personal participation of the Chairman in the compilation, this
Publisher’s Note was clearly intended to justify the official position of this
edition and dismiss other editions/versions as unofficial and less reliable.
The Publication Note of the FLP edition was presented in a similar manner:
This edition of the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung includes important

articles he wrote in the different periods of the Chinese Revolution. A
number of Chinese editions of his works have appeared in various places,
but none of them had been gone over by the author; their arrangement
was haphazard, there were errors in the text, and certain important
writings were omitted. …The author has read all the articles, made
certain verbal changes and, in isolated cases, revised the text.
The revision of the original text was mentioned in both notes. The
scope and degree of the revision was described as “in a few cases” in the
LW edition, and “in isolated cases” in the FLP edition. The cautionary
warnings together with other expressions in the notes are indisputably
meant to contribute to the authoritative status of the text. But the assertions
about the degree of the revision of the text are not in agreement with the
comments by several leading western scholars. As an example, one such
scholar, Stuart Schram, who had worked extensively on Mao Zedong’s
works, concluded that the articles included in the official edition of the
Selected Works were revised and edited widely and heavily. According to
Schram, the texts were revised in such a way that “One cannot accept even
a single sentence as being identical with what Mao had actually written
without checking it against the original version” (as cited in Wilson
1980:291). Wilson summarized the main reasons for the revision: first, to
“put right the more blatant theoretical mistakes in his earlier
compositions”; second, to substantiate some of “the ideas which he had
expressed before gaining the Party Leadership”; third, to spare no room to
“political rivals to attack him as disobedient to the Party before 1935”:
fourth, “to play down the extent to which the Chinese Party had rejected
Stalin’s ideological authority.”
In the FLP Publication Note, the understatement of the degree of the
text revision in the publication notes shows the ideological manipulation
of the text by the patron through the work of the compilers and translators.
The political flavor and ideological orientation is even more
discernible in the Publication Note of Volume V. It begins by stating:
“The works of our great leader and teacher Chairman Mao Tsetung are
immortal monuments of Marxism and Leninism”. Not only is the
respectful title “chairman” used here, but also with emotional apposition
“our great leader and teacher.” The word “immortal” suggests the extreme
exaltation the late Chairman enjoyed during his life. The note went on to
exalt the Chairman for his leadership in fighting against “the revision
lines” of formerly prominent political figures including Peng Dehuai, the
former head of China’s Defense Department; Liu Shaoqi, the former state
head of China; Lin Biao, the former Vice Premier of the People’s Republic
of China; and the Gang of Four. The note concluded by saying:
Comrade Mao Tsetung was the greatest Marxist-Leninist of our time.

Mao Tsetung Thought is the victorious banner under which our Party, our
army and our people will fight in unity and continue the revolution; it is a
treasure shared in common by the international proletariat and the
revolutionary people of all countries. Comrade Mao Tsetung’s thought
and teachings will live for ever.
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Hou Pingping 41
Also, the Publication Note was signed by the “Committee for Editing
and Publishing the Works of Chairman Mao Tsetung, Central Committee
of the Communist Party of China”. In contrast, the publication notes of
Volume I were signed by the “Committee for the Publication of the
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China”. One can easily see Volume V was heavily stamped with
the Chairman’s brand of the cult of personality that was rampant during
the Cultural Revolution.
Introductory Notes and Annotations

Here introductory notes and annotations in the Selected Works are
discussed alongside each other because they both serve a similar function
in providing background knowledge. In the LW edition, the background
information is provided in an introductory note placed right after the title,
while in the FLP edition, the introductory notes are replaced by
annotations in the form of endnotes. Some of the articles are accompanied
by a long list of dozens of annotations. These annotations can be roughly
divided into the following categories: about historical figures, about
contemporary people, about names of places, about events, about
organizations, explanations of certain terms, explanations of analogies,
and cross-reference. While designed to provide intra-textual and extra-
textual information, these annotations also perform an ideological function.
Take the annotation about Liang Shiqiu for example. In one of the most
seminal articles, entitled “Talk at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art”,
included in Vol. III of the Selected Works, Mao criticized Liang for
regarding “literature and art as transcending classes”. The annotation about
Liang echoed Mao’s view by denouncing him as “a member of the
counter-revolutionary Nationalist Socialist Party” who “for a long time
propagated reactionary American bourgeois ideas on literature and art”
and who “stubbornly opposed the revolution and reviled revolutionary
literature and art”. This annotation in particular bears strong ideological
imprints. This is even more clearly seen when one compares this note to
the information provided by the Britannica Online Encyclopedia, which
defines Liang as “writer, translator, and literary critic known for his
devastating critique of modern romantic Chinese literature and for his
insistence on the aesthetic, rather than the propagandistic, purpose of
literary expression”.
It is not hard to see that the annotations in the Selected Works occupy a
prominent position in the translation. By annotating what has been said in
the articles, they echo and support the author’s ideas and influence the
readers by evoking certain emotions.
Special Complimentary Markers

Many of the writings included in the official version of the Selected
Works were based on speeches Mao Zedong gave on various occasions
and at different times. Some of the Chinese writings included in the
Selected Works have repeated markers to indicate “laughter” and/or “loud
laughter” in brackets. These markers were meant to show how well
received Mao Zedong’s speeches, or parts of speeches, were by the
audiences. In both the LW and the FLP editions, these markers are kept
and translated into English. As an example, in “Rectify the Party’s Style of
Work” in Vol. III, the complimentary markers appeared several times in
the Chinese, “laughter” in the beginning, “laughter” and “uproarious/loud
laughter” in the middle, and “enthusiastic applause” at the end of the
speech. In the LW edition, the first three markers are kept, and in the FLP
edition, “enthusiastic applause” is added at the end.
One of these markers, “loud laughter”, was originally placed where
Mao favorably quoted a remark of Liu Shaoqi. Later, during the Cultural
Revolution when Liu was overthrown and persecuted, Mao decided that
his quote of Liu’s remark should be deleted from that article (Liu and Shi,
1999:105). With the remark deleted, the marker was also removed from
the editions published during the Cultural Revolution.
Comparison of Introductory Notes in LW/ FLP Editions

and a Western Source
While the paratexts in both the LW and the IP editions of the Selected
Works were designed to create and maintain a very positive image of
Chairman Mao and his works, paratexts from western sources may well
take on a contradistinctive look and lead readers in a very different
direction. The following is an example:
The second article in Volume One of the Selected Works is entitled
“Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan”. It is long,
important and well known among Chinese people. The introductory notes
of the LW and FLP editions share the same structure and basically the
same content, though there is a slight difference in the wording. The notes
in both editions begin by positioning the article as a response to the
criticism leveled at the Communist Party and the peasant movements by
people both inside and outside China. In both notes, the Chairman was
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Hou Pingping 43
exalted as being courageous in confronting unreasonable criticism. Both

notes stressed that the Chairman’s report was based on his thirty-two-day
field investigation in the Hunan Provincial countryside. The notes then
criticized the “Right opportunists in the Party” headed by Chen Duxiu.
The criticism was leveled for their persistence in their “erroneous
opinions/wrong ideas” and pointed out their “chief mistake/chief error”
was that they “dared not support the great revolutionary struggles of the
peasants.” The notes went on to blame the “Right opportunists” for
“deserting the peasantry” and putting the working class and the
Communist Party in an isolated and helpless situation in order to “appease
the Kuomintang.” This “emboldened” the Kuomintang to “betray the
revolution” and to “make war against the people.”
Apart from presenting factual material, ideologically significant
judgments are made in the introductory notes. Expressions such as “their
erroneous opinions/wrong ideas”, “their chief mistake/their chief error”
and “the great revolutionary struggle of the peasants” clearly show the
publishers’ ideological position. Before a reader actually embarks on
reading about the peasant movement, the reader may very well have a
biased opinion, which is, of course, the hope of the patron. Moreover, by
emphasizing that Mao Zedong had spent thirty-two days in Hunan
investigating the peasant movement before the report was written, the
notes highlight the trustworthiness of the report. The implication is that
since the report was written on the basis of the author’s personal
investigation, it is bound to be reliable. This is consistent with one of Mao
Zedong’s much quoted sayings: “Without investigation, one has no right
to make assertions”.
However, an introductory note on the same article by a western scholar
shows us a totally different picture. It places the article in a totally
different light. In the book entitled Mao Zedong and China’s Revolution: a
Brief History with Documents, Timothy Cheek introduces Mao Zedong
and China’s Revolution to western readers by providing both his
introductory statements and excerpts from important writings of Mao
Zedong, including the article “Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan”.
But the introductory note drafted by Cheek takes a very different route
compared with the Chinese official sources note. The note first positions
the article as “one of Mao’s most famous essays”, then presents general
information about the birth of the article and its publication. Next, it
introduces the content of the article, and finally makes a general comment
about it. It is worth mentioning that what is defined as “the great
revolutionary struggles of the peasants” in the introductory notes of
Chinese official sources is termed “rural violence” in Cheek’s note. In
fact, the term “violence” is used three times in this one note alongside
“uprising” and “rural resurrection.” Moreover, in the commentary at the
end of the note, Cheek states that the essay in question contains one of
Mao’s most well-known sayings: “Revolution is not a dinner party”. He
then explains “this famous defense of the necessity and appropriateness of
revolutionary violence, particularly summary executions of unpopular
landlords, marked Mao as a serious, and, among the GMD (Kuomintang
or the nationalists), hated revolutionary”. It does not take an academic to
understand that violence is not a good thing since it is behavior that is
intended to hurt or kill other people (Oxford Advanced Leaner’s
Dictionary and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). Because
of the difference in the perspective and the wording of the introductory
note, the picture of what happened in Hunan Province in 1927 is changed
dramatically. So is the image of Mao Zedong. It is only natural that when
a reader is not familiar with a text or a situation, s/he probably will turn to
a paratext for help. Yet paratexts bearing contrasting ideological markers
can guide readers on very different routes.
In the English translation of the Selected Works, the ideological
position the compiler/publisher takes definitely is reflected in the various
paratexts, which in turn may generate a “special” understanding of the
same text. The contrast in the expressions of the different introductory
notes of the article makes the patron’s and the translators’ ideological
engagement most conspicuous in the LW and the FLP editions.
Conclusion
Translation does not occur in a vacuum and, indeed, involves far more
than textual transformation. As Perez (2003:2) pointed out, “translation
itself is always a site of ideological encounters”. Williams and Chesterman
(2002:19) also claimed that translations have always been “powerful
instruments in ideological programmes”. The above statements are
particularly true with political texts where translation is largely subject to
ideological interests. In defining political texts, Schäffner (2002) stated
that political texts “are historically and culturally determined, and their
topics are primarily related to politics, i.e., political activities, political
ideas, political relations, etc.” In this sense, the Selected Works of Mao
Tsetung indisputably belongs to political discourse. It is a collection of
political documents intended to shape or reshape the ideology of not only
Chinese people, but people in other part of the world.
In Barnett’s opinion, Mao Zedong, the author of the Selected Works,
regarded ideology “as not simply abstract philosophy, but “a crucial
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Hou Pingping 45
‘weapon’ in the Communists’ struggle to revolutionize China and the

world” (Schram 1967, Introduction). Traces of this “weapon” are discernible
in every aspect of the translation of the Selected Works, with the paratexts
being no exception. Commentaries printed on the dust jacket, the design of
the title page, the publication note, the portrait of the author, the
introductory notes and the endnotes all have an ideological perspective.
The ideological significance of paratexts is better understood when
differently designed paratexts for the same text are put alongside one
another. As shown in the above examples, paratexts with clashing
ideological perspectives that are attached to the same text may lead readers
on contradistinctive reading excursions. Apparently the organizer/publisher
of the official English version of the Selected Works were well aware of
the great weight carried by paratexts, therefore, great effort was made to
ensure that the text of the Selected Works were accompanied and
supported by diverse forms of paratexts. These paratexts perform an
important ideological function along with the text and play a crucial role
in guiding and even manipulating readers’ reading experience.
Bibliography
CheekˈTimothy (2002) Mao Zedong and China’s Revolution: a Brief
History with Documents, Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s.
Liu, Hao and Shi Feng (1999) A Chronicle of New China’s Publication for
the Past 50 Years (xin zhongguo chuban wushi nian jishi), Beijing:
Xinhua Publishing House.
Liu, Jintian and Wu Xiaomei (1993) The Background Information about
the Publication of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong (Mao Zedong
xuanji chuban de qianqian houhou), Beijing: Central Party Literature
Press.
Mao, Zedong (1954) Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung (Vol.I-IV.1st
edition) (Trans. Anonymous), New York: International Publishers.
—. (1954) Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung (Vol.I-IV.1st edition) (Trans.
Anonymous), London: Lawrence and Wishart.
—. (1964) Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung (Vol.I.1st edition) (Trans.
Anonymous), Peking: Foreign Languages Press.
—. (1965) Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung (Vol.III.1st edition) (Trans.
—. (1977) Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung (Vol.V.1st edition) (Trans.
Pang, Xianzhi and Jin Chongji (2003) The Biography of Mao Zedong1949
– 1976 (Mao Zedong zhuan 1949 -1976 ), Beijing: Central Party
Literature Press.
Pérez, María Calzada (2003) Apropos of Ideology, Manchester: St. Jerome
Publishing.
Schäffner, Christina (2002) “Translation, Politics, Ideology” In Keith
Harvey (ed.) CTIS Occasional Papers, Manchester: Center for
Translation and Intercultural Studies. UMIST, 2, 97-111.
Schram, Stuart R (ed.) (1967) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung,
New York: Bantam Books Inc.
Williams, Jenny and Chesterman, Andrew (2002) The MAP: A Beginner’s
Guide to Doing Research in Translation Studies, Manchester: St.
Jerome Publishing.
Wilson, Dick (1980) The People’s Emperor Mao: A Biography of Mao
Zedong, New York: Doubleday and Company Inc.
Yao, Xiaoping (2003) “The Unknown Red Revolutionary (xian wei ren
zhi de hongse geming jia)” in People(Renwu) (6), Beijing: People’s
Publishing House.
Zhang, Airu (1993) “An Overview of the Publication of Mao Zedong’s
Works Abroad (guowai chuban Mao Zedong zhuzuo he wenji de
gaikuang)” in Liu Jintian and Wu Xiaomei, The Background
Information about the Publication of the Selected Works of Mao
Zedong, Beijing: Central Party Literature Press, 221-235.
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PART II:
PUBLISHERS’ USE OF PARATEXT

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PARATEXT, AN ALTERNATIVE
IN BOUNDARY CROSSING:
A COMPLEMENTARY APPROACH
TO TRANSLATION ANALYSIS
SZU-WEN KUNG
Abstract
While translation studies primarily focuses on the verbal texts or the
translated texts in excavating the mediated traces of the translation players,
recent paratextual researches in translation studies have pinpointed the key
roles of the paratexts, particularly in manifesting the purposeful
intervention of the translation players in appropriating the reception of the
translation in the target culture (Watts 2000: 29-45). This paper aims to
argue that aside from textual analysis of the translated text, the paratexts
are thought to contain vital clues for the researchers to infer or understand
the translational phenomena absent or implicit in the translated text. The
paper will place an emphasis on how paratextual materials or paratexts
were used in the translation series, Modern Chinese Literature from
Taiwan published by Columbia University Press in the USA.
Introduction
Translations or the translated text1 have been central to the research of
Translation Studies. Most researchers in this field regard the study of
textual elements as a straightforward way to unveil the issues around the
production of translation, such as the representation of cultural identity
and the manipulative trace of the translators (Bassnett 2003; Hermans
1997). Over the last decade, translation researches have begun to consider
the importance of the text surrounding the translations, or, to be more
1
For the purpose of this paper, the term “translated text” is used interchangeably
with the term “translation”.
50 Paratext, an Alternative in Boundary Crossing
specific, paratextual materials or paratexts, including the book cover, title

page, back cover and blurb, preface, and/or introduction. Some researchers
believe that paratexts can be regarded as an effective means of exploring
the translation agents’ interference in the process of the translation
production of certain works (Kovala 1996: 119-47). In other words, it can
be said that the way in which translations are packaged is circumscribed
by the agents’ interaction with broader socio-cultural practice (Sanchez
2007: 174).
This paper aims to argue that apart from the analysis of the translated
text, the paratext is thought to contain vital clues for the researchers to
infer or understand the translational phenomena absent or implicit in
translated text. It is argued that the literature translated from the less-
known into the dominant culture, such as Anglo-American culture, is a
considerably rich milieu in embodying the paratextual clues pinpointing a
clear direction for the researchers to explore the role of the paratexts in the
studies of translation product. This paper intends to look into the following
two questions: What are the differences in terms of the presentation
between the translated texts and the paratexts? In contrast to the
translations, how can the paratexts serve as legitimate spaces for the
mediation of translation players? The translation series, Modern Chinese
Literature from Taiwan 2 published by The Columbia University Press
based in the USA and its translated novels provide a research locus for this
study.
With regard to the methodology, the comparative textual approach is
carried out in two stages. Firstly, the selected translation examples are
compared with the source text. The translation analysis will place an
emphasis on the translation of culture-specific items3. Next, the result of
textual analysis is discussed in line with the paratextual analysis. The main
paratextual elements examined include the book front cover, back cover,
blurb, and introduction. I will start this paper by providing an overview of
2
This translation series team, established in 1998, is currently the only team
attempting to work on translating Taiwanese literature in book form and aiming to
sell the translations to more general readers in the public sphere , as Professor Der-
Wei Wang pointed out in a personal interview. The establishment of the translation
series subsidized by the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation has improved the situation
of translated Taiwanese novels in the United States (Kung 2010).
3
Culture-specific items may include any of the following: proper nouns such as
character names and typonyms, historical and religious figures, traditional festivals,
food, organizations, customs, and material artefacts, etc. They are objects, concepts,
behaviour, or systems of classification only known to the original culture and alien
to the receiving culture (Franco Aixelá 1996; Newmark 2001).
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Szu-Wen Kung 51
the conventional methodological approach to the study of translation, that

is, the role of the translated text. This section aims to foreground the study
- the comparative analysis between the translated texts and the paratexts.
The overview of the translated texts in the discipline of Translation
Studies is then followed by a brief literature review of paratextual studies.
It is with a view to exploring the nature of the paratexts as a
complementary approach to translation analysis that this paper will move
on to the heart of the discussion – the comparative textual analysis. The
final section deals with some implications for the paratextual study,
reflecting the title of the paper.
Translated text: the core of Translation Studies

It goes without saying that the study of translations is vital to the
discipline and expansion of Translation Studies, which has included
defining features of the translated text (Neubert 2001: 181) and identifying
the contextual phenomena around translations. That is to say, what lies in
the heart of Translation Studies is the study of translations, which mediate
between the text worlds of source and target culture (ibid). The term
“mediate” or “mediation” here highlights the cross-boundary nature of
translation. It can be argued that the term “translated text” can mean not
only the “text that is translated” or the product, but also the “text that is the
result of having been translated” or the process (Neubert 2001: 181, my
italics; Munday 2001: 5). The latter definition in a way denotes a series of
actions carried out by translators or translation players to handle the
textual challenges caused by the distant chasm between the source culture
and target culture. One may contend that it is the translation process that
characterizes the complexity of the translation in the discipline of
Translation Studies.
Clarifying the nomenclature, then, provides a basis on which to
examine the role of the translated text germane to the study of translation
phenomena. As mentioned earlier, the study of textual elements is able to
explore factors surrounding the translation production, such as
representation of cultural identity and ideological imprint of translation
players, etc. (Bassnett 2003; Hermans 1997). These issues related to a
number of causes including personal or socio-historical motivations can
impact texts or even passages (Neubert 2001: 181). The mediating process
which leaves an imprint on the translated text enables researchers to
explore the socio-historical influence of translations on the target culture
and its discourses as well as to revalue translators’ application of different
strategies in coping with the challenge of transferring textual and cultural

elements embedded in texts (Neubert 2001).
The linguistic approach focuses on the contrastive nature of
translations including the formal language aspects of textual elements
(Nida and Taber 1964). The term “equivalence” has been designated to
explore these textual relationships at the lexical, semantic and syntactical
level; as Neubert has pointed out, a translation “has to stand in some kind
of equivalence relation to the original” (Neubert 1994 cited in Hatim 2001:
26). The concept of equivalence can therefore be taken to be the
foundation on which the textual material of the source language is
replaced by that of the target language. Different types of equivalence or
similar concepts have been proposed by scholars to discuss the translation
effect, for example, Nida’s formal and dynamic/functional equivalence
(Nida and Taber: 1964); Koller’s five equivalence types (formal, referential,
connotative, text-normative and pragmatic equivalence) (Koller 1989:
187-191) , etc.
Theoretical paradigms arising during the late 1970s to the 1980s that
claim to explore translation studies by moving beyond the static linguistic
typologies, such as German Functionalism, Even-Zohar’s Polysystem and
Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies have contributed to giving insight
into a more complicated nature of (literary) translation both practically and
theoretically. German Functionalism examines translations as a series of
translational actions or a communicative process involving multiple
players, such as client, commissioner, and text users (Munday 2001). One
of the key paradigms of Functionalism, Skopostheorie (Vermeer 2000)
highlights the importance of “translation purpose” that dictates the
translation process in terms of the translation strategies applied by
translators (ibid).
According to polysystem theory, translated literary work is not an
isolated phenomenon, but is part of a system interacting in the larger social,
literary and historical systems of the target culture. Within the complex
systems of the target culture, translated literature could occupy either
primary or secondary position mainly depending on the need of the target
culture (Munday 2001: 108-111). Working within the overall conceptual
structure of Polysystem Theory, Toury’s Norm Theory is aimed at
identifying a general trend of translation behavior, and how it can be
influenced by “norms”, which are “the translation of general values or
ideas shared by a community […] into performance instructions
appropriate for and applicable to particular situations” (Toury 1995: 55).
The study or close analysis of the translated text or translated literature is
the key basis on which Even-Zohar and Toury built their influential
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Szu-Wen Kung 53
theories. According to the Polysystem Theory, the position the translated

literature occupies in the target culture can impact on how translators
select the translation strategies (Even-Zohar, 2000); according to the Norm
Theory, the source text and the target text are closely compared for the
trace of shifts so as to explore textual or segmental relationships and
consequently to generalize the translation phenomenon or norm, especially
within the target culture system.
Following the frameworks of the Polysystem and Descriptive
Translation Studies, the idea of studying translation in its cultural
environment has become core to research in various culture-oriented
studies in Translation Studies. André Lefevere’s and Susan Bassnett’s
influential Cultural Turn framework in the 1990s concentrates on how
cultural, historical and contextual issues such as poetics, patronage and
ideology can govern the reception, acceptance or rejection of translated
literature (Bassnett and Lefevere 1990: 11) and hence motivate the
“rewriting” of the source text in the target text (Lefevere 1992a: 2).
Lefevere claims that the process of rewriting could be identified in work
like “translation, historiography, anthologization, criticism, and editing”
(ibid: 9) and the Cultural Turn examines translation in terms of its
potential to identify the “problem of ideology, change and power in
literature and society and … assert the central function of translation as a
shaping force …” (Lefevere 1992b: 4). At the centre of this theory is the
study of “translation as the most obviously recognizable type of rewriting
[…]” (ibid: 9). That is to say, the key impetus of the Cultural Turn
framework is aimed at studying how the original or the source text per se
can be interpreted through a series of processes and re-presented in the
target text (Hatim 2001: 62).
As can be seen from the above discussion, it appears that much key
translation theory in Translation Studies situates itself along an axis of the
nature of “translated texts” and mostly its relationships or interaction with
the socio-cultural contexts in which the translated texts are produced and
received (Tahir-Gurçaglar 2002: 44). Such consistent objectives within the
trajectory of Translation Studies have largely taken translated texts as a
fundamental methodological means in offering researchers a variety of
clues hinting at their position as translations, such as the appearance of
foreign names and exotic cultural elements, the subject matter and an
unusual syntax (Tahir-Gurçaglar 2002, 45). However, as will be pointed
out in the following section, paratextual materials can also function as a
valuable methodological tool in contextualizing translated texts and
exploring implicit traces of ideological and socio-cultural motivation of
translation agents which could be sometimes unseen in translated texts.
Paratext
The study of the impact of paratextual materials in publication has
been illuminated thoroughly in Genette’s Paratexts: Thresholds of
Interpretation. This seminal work offers an insightful view of the
paratextual mediations by text producers such as authors and publishers
who can draw on paratextual materials to render literary texts present in
the world (Alvstad 2012: 78). The term “paratext” is the term coined by
Genette to illustrate the elements around or within the literary texts which
present the latter as a whole text. For Genette, paratext further consists of
two categories: peritext and epitext. The former refers to the elements such
as front cover, titles, authorial names, dedication, forewords, introduction,
etc. (Genette 1997: 24). The latter refers to more distant elements located
outside the book, such as interviews, conversations, letters and diaries, etc.
(ibid: 24). It is the former elements mainly including titles, authorial
names, book jacket, forewords, introductions, etc. that this paper will
focus on.
The varieties of paratextual materials are distinguishable according to
what extent the author or the textual producer exercises control over their
inscription (Waring 1995: 455). Such inscription of the textual producer
through paratextual materials is closely connected to the reception of
readers. As Gennette suggests, the key function of the paratext, as loudly
resonates in his book title, is the “threshold of interpretation”, which
enables the completeness of a book prior to its reception by the readers
and the public (ibid: 1). Designating paratext as a “threshold”, Genette
believes that paratext is
always the conveyor of a commentary that is authorial or more or less

legitimated by the author, constitutes a zone between text and off-text, a
zone not only of transition but also of transaction: a privileged place of a
pragmatics and a strategy, of an influence on the public, an influence that –
whether well or poorly understood and achieved – is at the service of a
better reception for the text and a more pertinent reading of it” (Genette
1997, 2).
In other words, paratextual framing inscribed in the book covers,

forewords, and so forth is what makes a text become a book and thus
provide as such to its readers or to the public (ibid: 1).
In a way, we may also argue that paratexts leave the traces which
render the processes of cultural production intelligible (Waring 1995: 455)
and visible to readers, as the majority of the paratextual clues, including
the book title, the author’s name, the preface or introduction, and
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Szu-Wen Kung 55
identification of a series the book appeared in, are all situated before the
process of reading the actual text commences (Tahir-Gürçaglar 2002: 45).
Such a role of paratexts can be readily identified in Genette’s statement
that paratext is “the most socialized side of the practice of literature (the
way its relations with the public are organized)” (Genette 1997: 14). For
Genette, paratext can effectively frame or project, by extension, a version
of the text through the lens of time and place of its publication. To put it
simply, paratext surrounding the text itself can shape readers’
interpretation; therefore, paratext cannot be detached from the frame of the
text (Watts 2000: 31).
In the case of translated literature, it can be argued that the concept of
paratext may be able to offer more insights into the nature of translation
long known as a milieu where cross-cultural contacts undergo a constant
process of mediation, negotiation, re-presentation, acculturation and so
forth; this is particularly the case when keeping in view one of the
functions of paratext that can project the text in the specific time and place
of the publication. Translations are not only written texts which have
undergone transformation. More precisely speaking, before the final
translation is received by the target reader, translations are texts that have
to be filtered, including by means of selection and modification (Alvstad
2012: 79-84). In this way, acting as the “threshold of interpretation […]
which offers to anyone and everyone the possibility either of entering or of
turning back” from the text (Genette 1997), the production of paratext can
also be regarded as a process of translation, in which translation players
modify or mediate the source text by keeping in view of the expectations
and needs of the target system and reader. In the mediating process, how a
book is presented in paratext in the target context could be considerably
different from how it is presented in the source context (Alvstad 2012: 78).
We may argue that paratext can also offer illuminating insights into the
production of translation itself. Translated texts, together with paratext,
can establish a perspective that assists readers to see the complexities of
the translation process and its dynamics (Watts 2000, 30-1).
Target culture norms/expectations and readability:

Anglo-American contexts as an example
The discussion in this section aims at providing a picture as to how the
norms specific to a society and culture can impact on the presentation of
translated texts. In using Even-Zohar’s model as a basis, Toury’s empirical
and descriptive approach draws on the concept of a translation norm to
investigate the impact of social, cultural, and literary factors of the target
culture on the translation (Toury 1995; Gentzler 1993). Norms govern the
relationship between source and target texts. The concept of norms is
applied in the later textual analysis to underpin the influence of the target
culture as one of the constraints for the translation agents in the translation
production process. Toury defines the concept of “norm” as:
The translation of general values or ideas shared by a community as to

what is right or wrong, adequate or inadequate into performance
instructions appropriate for and applicable to particular situations (Toury
1995, 55).
Toury sees translation behaviour as conducted under socio-cultural

rules in a given culture, particularly the target culture. Apart from the
socio-cultural constraints of the target culture system, the norm in this
paper can also be alternatively regarded as an expectation coming from the
target culture (Hermans 1995: 7). The concept of norms is applied in the
later section of the translation analysis to underpin the influence of the
target culture as one of the constraints for the translation agents in the
translation process. In general, the target culture expectation towards
translation in American culture generally expects a “readable” or “fluent”
translation which can make the meaning of the original text and the
thought of the author clear for readers of the reception language. The
expectation of American culture to ensure that a translation is readable can
be noted in some of the examples shown in some recent translation
reviews or critics as follows:
At least a dozen English translations of War and Peace exist. Just last year,
Viking published a translation by Anthony Briggs that PW called “the
most readable version on the market” (Publishers Weekly 2007).
“Beyond Illusions”, which was written in the mid-1980's, is Huong's first

novel, and it appears here in English for the first time in this very readable
translation […] (New York Times 2002).
Ward has produced a clear, highly readable translation that makes the
thoughts and sayings of the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert (first few
centuries of our era) available to a readership with no background in
classical languages (Amazon 2002).
As is demonstrated by these examples, the expectation of the target

culture in America towards translated literature can be primarily dominated
by readability, which is often an important factor influencing how
translated texts are handled. In the field of translation studies, translation
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Szu-Wen Kung 57
scholar Lawrence Venuti (1995: 1) has attempted to define readability as

follows:
A translated text, […], is judged acceptable by most publishers, reviewers,

and readers […], when the absence of any linguistic or stylistic
peculiarities makes it seem transparent, giving the appearance that it
reflects the foreign writer’s personality or intention or the essential
meaning of the foreign text – […].
The examinations of the presentation of translation that will appear in

the next section will mainly focus on the translation of culture-specific
items. This paper defines readability on the basis of English-native
readers’ general opinion in terms of their preference in reading translations,
in which the culture-specific items or concepts of the original culture are
retained to a certain degree, and where the necessary explanation of the
CSI is merged as a part of the actual text.
The analysis of translated texts

This section undertakes to examine the translated text. The task of
translating itself has been widely recognized as challenging because the
literary translation process is a complex procedure involving two cultures
and literary traditions, that is, two sets of norm-systems (Toury 1980: 51-
62). The analysis and discussion of the selected examples focuses
primarily on the translation of culture-specific items. Cultural-specific
items are objects, concepts, behavior, or systems of classification only
known to the original culture and alien to the receiving culture (Aixelá
1996). Let us see some examples as follows:
(1) 䞕㇒Ⓒ墅(Li 2001: 203)

Literal translation:
Short-style Tang suit (traditional Chinese garment)
Actual translation:
A short coat (Li 2001: 85)
(2) 㗇ṩ䱾 (Li 2001: 135)

Hsingjen candy (sweet peanut candy)
Actual translation:
Candy (Li 2001: 57)
⸝ᡚୀ㼍, in Example 1, was a traditional type of Chinese clothes

worn by Chinese immigrants when they came to Taiwan. The translation
does not seek to explain the meaning of the original reference. Instead, it
deletes and replaces it by a simple and generic term “a short coat”.
Similarly, ᱏӱ㌆, in Example 2, is a local Taiwanese candy made of
peanuts. Unlike the translation of traditional dates and religious figures,
the translator does not preserve the original reference through
transliteration. Rather, the original reference is deleted, simplified and
replaced by another generic term “candy”. Both examples show that
through deletion and substitution, the foreignness or exoticism of the
source culture references are smoothed out or minimized.
In some instances, the translation technique of deletion (Aixela 1996)
is also applied by translators to deal with taxonomy, which is shown in the
following example:
(3) ⣏㷾怬㗗ᶨ䇯㕘⡦⛘炻⃰ỷ㮹䧙䁢ˮ楔↡˯烊⣏㷾⸬炻⮎晃㗗
楔↡䣦旬役炻䴻⣏映㠭䷋ᶨⷞἮ䘬⼴ỷ㮹攳⡦⼴䘬⮷䙮⛘侴
⶚ˤˤ(Li 2001: 6)
Great Lake Village is a newly cultivated land named “Mawa” by
the new settlers. Great Lake is a small basin located near the
aboriginal villages of Mawa and had been opened up by the settlers
from Meixin, on the mainland (Canton province).
Published translation:
The land around Great Lake had only just been opened to
cultivation by the settlers from Meixin, Canton province (Li 2001:
22).
As can be seen in the literal translation of Example 3, the original

contains a detailed explanation regarding the relation between different
geographical locations that the original author uses, to set up the overall
spatial background in which the ancestor migrating from mainland China
to Taiwan dwelled. The translation again does not seek to maintain the
original reference, and does not even use the strategy of ‘transliteration’
(Aixela 1996) – one of the basic ways of translating proper names from
Chinese into English. The published translation seems to indicate that the
entire paragraph is reorganized and rewritten. The geographical
relationship is simplified and deleted. As a result, the translation becomes
more concise and shorter than the original.
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Szu-Wen Kung 59
The examples of translation appear to manifest the translator’s

mediation conditioned by target culture expectations discussed in the
previous section. The viewpoint regarding the discussion so far implies
that in the actual translation production process, the translation actor’s
perception of translation is no longer chiefly concerned with the source
culture, but, as pointed out by Tymoczko, with the need to be a synthesis
of the source text content and cultural elements relevant to the source
context, compounded with the relevance of the source text to the receptors
(Tymoczko 2003: 82). In spite of this, the original essence and literary
integrity of the source text become somehow deformed or lost in
translation; the original references of the source text and the source culture
that may indeed signal a reasonable degree of foreignness for the receiving
reader are mostly deleted, naturalized, simplified or substituted by generic
terms (Fawcett 1997). The translation embodies the universal tendency
towards producing the generally transparent and readable translation. This
indicates the importance of the target culture expectations or intended
readership in shaping the translation players’ understanding and awareness
toward the translation.
Analysis of Paratexts
Let us now turn to examine the paratextual materials of the published
translations. As mentioned earlier, besides the translated texts, the
examination of paratext is pertinent to achieving the study aim because the
way in which translations are packaged is circumscribed by the agents’
interaction with broader socio-cultural practice (Sanchez 2007: 174).
Hence, it is argued that aside from textual analysis of the translated text,
the paratext is thought to contain vital clues for the researcher to infer or
understand the translational phenomena absent or implicit in translated
text. The paratextual materials of original text or source text will be
discussed first, which serves as a comparison to the following paratextual
analysis of the target texts.
The original book covers of Orphan of Asia and Wintry Night are
shown in Figures 1 and 2, and the book covers of the same titles of the
translated version are shown in Figures 3 and 4.
Figure 1
Figure 1 demonstrates the original book cover of Orphan of Asia. The

large font of the book title and a brief introductory paragraph occupy the
upper half of the cover. The illustration shows the back of two Asian
youngsters who look lonely and stand by the side of the railway running
through the countryside. The youngsters are dressed in old-style clothes
that were commonly worn in agricultural areas of Taiwan.
Figure 2
A drawing which looks like an oil painting, seemingly depicting two

people working, occupies two thirds of the book cover of Wintry Night.
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Szu-Wen Kung 61
The book title is placed on the upper part of the cover. Two people shown
in the painting to some extent resemble women doing chores in
agricultural society in earlier times; one of them is doing laundry, while
the other is pouring water into the bucket. The picture to a certain degree
conforms to the time set in the story, which takes place in the early
pioneering period.
Figure 3
Orphan of Asia depicts the colonial impact on Taiwan, and has been
hailed for its allegory of Taiwan’s struggle with different cultural relations
including its native culture, the relation with Chinese culture and that of
Japanese colonization. A single bamboo raft carrying a lone person
accompanied by their reflection in the water is placed against the
boundless ocean, which mirrors both the title and theme of the book. The
lonesome image also, to a certain degree, reminds people of the “Asian”
character of the title and coveys foreignness.
The illustration of Wintry Night presents a rather abstract image of a
forest, painted in calligraphic style against a grey background and
resembling a traditional Chinese painting. The combination of black and
grey to a certain extent expresses a sense of heavy sentiment.
The original book covers seen above seem to present the book in a
fairly straightforward manner by connecting the image, to a certain degree,
with the time and setting of the original story. As for the back cover,
Wintry Night does not have any blurb or words. Orphan of Asia only
mentions the storyline in a few lines on the back cover. In general, the
paratextual features of these books in the original language are used to
demonstrate the ownership of the original authors, who function as a host

and carry out a conversation directly with their readers.
Figure 4
With regard to the book covers of the same titles in the translated
versions, the status of the book as being a translation can be certainly
identified through the translators’ names printed on the front cover. The
translation players also attempt to manifest the authorship of the original
writer on the cover by using bigger font for the original author’s name
than for that of the translator. More importantly, the translation players
utilize the front cover’s preliminary function as a marketing device to
promote the books. My analysis indicates that the book covers are not
merely used to elicit readers’ preliminary interpretation of the book
content. It may be argued that the cover designs examined are expected to
trigger the readers’ initial interest towards the translation through the
stereotypical representation of foreignness or even Orientalism, particularly
as presented on the cover of Orphan of Asia.
In other words, unlike the translated texts as seen in the above analysis,
which reduce the foreignness of the source culture items to a great extent,
the marketing function of the paratext, the book cover, in the translated
version demonstrates a contrasting presentation of the source culture in
comparison with the translated texts. As Kratz (1994: 180) points out, a
broader cultural understanding can be readily evoked through condensed
visual signs. From this viewpoint, the Orient becomes an “imaginary
geography” for the West, which uses it to paint a picture of how the
Western publishers think it ought to be; in Orientalist discourse, the
familiar and the alien coexist. Considering the publishing practices of the
translated books in English-speaking countries, especially the United
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Szu-Wen Kung 63
States, in which they are less willing to publish translations4, the analysis
indicates that the book covers function using the oriental theme, an
aesthetic production and a representation that may easily trigger the
readers to relate to the book’s content (Kratz 1994: 179) as well as the
exoticism relating to the foreign other, and subsequently the readers’
interest in purchasing the book. As Powers (2001: 11) points out, “the
design of book covers helps to make a book something more than mere
‘information’”, the book covers have been used to attract or move “the
spectator into a physical engagement with the book” (Ibid:11).
The paratextual layout and arrangement also embody the educational
intention. The educational characteristic of these translations can initially
be observed by examining the translation players’ educational background.
The translator’s or editor’s introduction printed on the back cover
indicates that these players are engaged in some form of academic work.
On the back cover, these translators or editors are presented with a
professional attribute, such as “assistant professor of Chinese translation in
the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at the Monterey
Institute of International Studies” (Li 2001), or “a professor emeritus at
Stockholm University and is a member of the Swedish Academy”
(Malmqvist 2001), to take but a few examples. The visible exhibition of
translation players’ academic experience and titles can contribute to
building the professionally authoritative image of this translation series.
From this viewpoint, the appearance of players’ professional titles, to
some extent, functions as an endorsement to offer some guarantee to
readers about the professional authority of the translation. The editorial
members and the publisher of this translation series believe that the
participation of some experienced scholars and translators can add
reputation to the translation series (Kung 2010).
Apart from highlighting the academic expertise and background of key
translation players, some paratextual materials have been utilized by the
translation players to introduce and convey the history, language, and
culture of Taiwan, which can be particularly observed in some blurbs and
translator’s forewords; such as that which states: “an introduction
explaining the cultural and historical background of the novel is included
to help orient the reader in this amazingly rich cultural context” (Li 2001).
Another instance is to be found in the introduction of Wintry Night which
carries a strong educational purpose. The introduction includes various
4
The website threepercent.com suggests that books published in the United States
that originated in languages other than English are about 3%; and if one only
considers poetry and translated literature, the figure is even lower and closer to
0.7%. (The University of Rochester 2012)
issues relating to the historical, cultural, ethnic, and religious information

about Taiwan under different subheadings, such as “Taiwan under the
Japanese”, “The Hakka”, “Religion” and “Festival”, etc. (Balcom 2001: 1-
17). The expression of the educational intention to orient or guide readers,
to a certain extent, expresses the translation players’ hope of furthering the
readers’ understanding of Taiwanese literature and its culture. As the
editorial member, David Wang (2007), points out in an interview, “we
wanted to educate people who are not aware of Taiwanese history, how
Taiwan has come along […]”.
However, in the similar paratextual parts of the original books, such as
foreword and introduction, the books are mainly introduced by authors
themselves who express their initial intention and inspiration in terms of
writing the novel. For example, Li Chiao, the author of Wintry Night, says
in the introductory paragraph that he, just like other novelists, likes to put
what is dearest and most familiar to them into words and hence expresses
his historical viewpoints. The author of Orphan of Asia expresses his
sadness at being a colonized subject of the Japanese regime. These authors
also share their experience and the difficulty they faced in writing the
novels. That is to say, the paratextual features of these books in the
original language are used to demonstrate the ownership of the original
authors, who function as a host and carry out a conversation directly with
their readers.
Conclusion
This paper set out to contend that in addition to textual analysis of the
translated text, the paratexts are thought to contain vital clues for the
researchers to infer or understand the translational phenomena absent or
implicit in the translated text. First and foremost, it can be argued that the
discussion of both the translated texts and paratextual materials reinforce
the function of translations as cultural goods circulating outside the
context of production (Bourdieu 1993). The discussion has shown how
both the translated texts and paratexts to be received and published in the
text world of target culture have adapted the source so as to fit with the
needs and expectations of the target system (Alvstad 2012). The
translation strategies such as deletion, simplification and substitution have
reduced the effect of foreignness of the source culture-specific items in the
published translation. It can be argued that the application of these
translation strategies to a great extent results into a more fluent translation.
The translation seen in the discussion seems to align with the target culture
expectation towards translation in the American culture which generally
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Szu-Wen Kung 65
expects a “readable” or “fluent” translation which can make the meaning

of the original text and the thoughts of the author clear for the reader of the
reception language. No source text can be fully represented in a translation
(Tymozko 1999: 21-3). Through the translation process, it is not possible
for the translator to transpose everything in a source text to the translation
due to various reasons, such as linguistic differences, cultural asymmetry
and the excessive amount of information loaded into the source text
(Tymoczko 1998: 41-61, 278-300). It can be argued that while the
translator mediates between two cultural spaces, the assumed readership
plays a certain role in influencing the translator’s textual practice by
influencing the production of a translation which meets the overall
expectations shared by the readers (Snell-Hornby 1988: 47).
However, unlike the less visible trace of the foreignness in the
translated text, the paratext of the translation is permeated with the
mediated trace of the translation players. The paratext has a clear
indication of how the translation can help the reader to increase their
knowledge regarding different aspects of Taiwan. The paratext has also
been employed as a means of building context. This shows the translation
player’s understanding of being a translation professional situated within
an intercultural space making cross-cultural communication possible; in a
way, the analysis of paratextual materials have provided rightful locus for
the translation agents to act outspokenly as ambassadors between cultures
(Jones 2009: 301-25). Through conspicuous presence in the paratext,
Taiwan and its culture have been introduced into the target culture to the
receiving readers via translation. In the wake of the discussions above, it
may be justified to argue that paratextual materials in the translated
version may, to a certain extent, be able to enhance the narrative potential
of the translated texts themselves.
Bibliography
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through Swedish eyes”, Translation Studies no. 5 (1):78-94.
Balcom, John (2001) “Translator's Introduction”, in Wintry Night, New
York: Columbia University Press,.
Bassnett, Susan (2002) Translation Studies, 3rd ed. London: Routledge.
Reprint, First edition 1980.
Bassnett, Susan, and André Lefevere (1990) “Introduction: Proust's
Grandmother and the Thousand and One Nights: The ‘Cultural Turn’
in Translation Studies”, in Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere (eds)
Translation, History and Culture, London and New York: Pinter.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1993) The Field of Cultural Production, Cambridge:

Polity Press.
Even-Zohar, Itama (2000) “The Position of Translated Literature within
the Literary Polysystem”, in Lawrence Venuti (ed.) The Translation
Studies Reader, London: Routledge. 192-197..
Fawcett, Peter (1997) Translation and Language, Manchester: St. Jerome.
Franco Aixelá, Javier (1996) “Culture-Specific Items in Translation”, in
Roman Alvarez and M.Carmen-Africa Vidal (eds) Translation, Power,
Subversion, 52-77, Clevedon/Philadelphia/Adelaide: Multilingual
Matters Ltd.
Genette, Gérard (1997) Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,.
Gentzler, Edwin (1993) Contemporary Translation Theories, London:
Routledge.
Hatim, Basil (2001) Teaching and Researching Translation, C. N. Candlin
and D.R. Hall (eds) Applied linguistics in Action Series, Essex:
Longman.
Hermans, Theo (1995) “Translation as Institution”, In Mary Snell-Hornby,
Zuzana Jettmarova and Klaus Kaindl (eds) Translation as Intercultural
Communication: Selected Papers from the EST Congress-Prague 1995,
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 3-20.
Jones, Francis (2009) “Embassy Networks: Translating Post-War Bosnian
Poetry into English”, In John Milton and Paul Bandia (eds) Agents of
Translation, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 301-
325.
Koller, Werner (1979/89) “Equivalence in Translation Theory”, in Andrew
Chesterman (ed.) Readings in Translation Theory, Helsinki: Finn
Lectura.
Kovala, Urpo (1996) “Translations, Paratextual Mediation, and Ideological
Closure”, Target no. 8 (1):119-147.
Kratz, Corinne A. (1994) “On Telling/Selling a Book by its Cover”,
Cultural Anthropology no. 9 (2):179-200.
Kung, Szu-Wen (2010). “Network and cooperation in translating
Taiwanese literature into English”, in Antoinette Fawcett, Karla
Guadarrama Garcia and Rebecca Parker (eds) Translation: Theory and
Practice in Dialogue.
Lefevere, André (1992a) Translating Literature: Practice and Theory in a
Comparative Literature Context, New York: The Modern Language
Association of America.
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—. (1992b) Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary

Fame, Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere (eds) Translation Studies,
London/New York: Routledge.
Li, Chiao [Li Qiao] (2001) Wintry Night, Taipei: Yuan-ching Publishing
Company.
Malmqvist, Nils Göran David and Yeh, Michelle, (2001) Frontier Taiwan:
An Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry, New York: Columbia
University Press.
Munday, Jeremy (2001). Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and
Applications, London: Routledge.
Neubert, Albrecht (1994) “Competence in Translation: A Complex Skill,
How to Study and How to Teach it”, in Mary Snell-Hornby, Franz
Pochhacker and Klaus Kaindl (eds) Translation Studies: An
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Across Languages and Cultures no. 2 (2):181-193.
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Nida, Eugene, and Charles R. Taber (1969) The Theory and Practice of
Translation, Leiden: Brill.
Powers, Alan (2001) “The Evolution of the Book Jacket”, in Front Cover:
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Snell-Hornby, Mary (1988) Translation Studies: An Integrated Approach,
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Tahɿr-Gürça÷lar, ùehnaz (2003) “The Translation Bureau Revisited:
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Studies, 113-129. Manchester: St. Jerome.
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www.ebook777.com
CZECH PUBLISHER’S STRATEGIES:

PARATEXTS OF LITERARY MYSTIFICATION
LENKA MÜLLEROVÁ
Abstract
The process of translation is an independent, creative act of
communication influenced by many factors. The most important of these
are the topic and the aim of the translation, that is, of the text to be
translated, the choice of translation method, the intended recipient of the
text, the assumed situation of the communication and so on. Literary
mystification brings the special case of the paratext strategy. The contra-
factual game does not apply to the primary text alone, but infringes upon
the paratext sphere as well and has an impact on all aspects of paratext
communication between the individual entities in the paratextualisation
process. This paper discusses publishing strategies of literary mystification
in the Czech Republic and their role for the translators.
Introduction
In addition to the factors of topic, aim, choice of translation method,
the intended recipient, assumed situation of the communication and so on,
the personality and the competence of the translator also play an important
role. In addition to the particular “translatorly” production of an original
text, there are also, for literary communication, the paratexts of meaning
which surround the primary text, here the translation of the original
presentation.
A “translatorly” paratext fulfils not only the typical functions (for
example information, instruction, advertisement and aesthetic) but also the
explicative function, which helps the recipient of the translated text to
overcome the differences of the social-cultural context and linguistic and
terminological distinctions, particularly features of the source language
such as word play and/or coping with distinctions in substance and content,
such as local names and names of institutions. In some cases, this will
70 Czech Publisher’s Strategies: Paratexts of Literary Mystification
result in the removal of shortcomings in the target text (for example, by

means of explanation of specific translation problems).
The Czech publishing strategies are different – from the “full”
“translatorly” paratext to “blank” “translatorly” paratext (for example my
paper “Paratexts of Ukrainian Literature”1). I would like to discuss the
very interesting case of paratexts which are, in my opinion, untranslatable.
This is the paratext of literary mystification.
“Literary mystification” is defined in the Dictionary of Literary Theory
as the deliberate use of a fabrication for misleading the reader, the reason
being efforts to trick censorship, update and/or strengthen the social
impact of the work or attract attention.2. The mystification act is not only
Czech-specific; examples of this production can be found in other
literatures, too, such as Russian, French, German, etc. The Czech production
of mystification works is subject to the influence of other specific aspects
– culture-shaping and nation-shaping significance (the task of Revival
handwriting is an example of this3) or a totalitarian regime that lasted for
decades4, which centralised and censored the Czech production of books
entirely. We can distinguish between at least three types of mystification:
mystification that respects the social or ideological situation (e.g. to
disguise identity of forbidden authors or translators, to hide the psycho-
physical identity of the author for other reasons, double-meaning
statements, etc.), mastication forging national history and culture in an
effort to revive the nation’s self-confidence, and mystification understood
as a literary game with the reader. These types can overlap and supplement
each other. The contra-factual game does not apply to the primary text
alone, but infringes upon the paratext sphere as well and has an impact on
all aspects of paratext communication between the individual entities in
the paratextualisation process.
Mystification is mostly linked with the name of the author (and/or
translator) and author-related aspects (e.g. the existence of the producer).
In Czech literature from the last fifty years, we can find a number of
miscellaneous forms of unacknowledged authorship – pseudonyms,
1
Müllerová, L.: Paratexts of Ukrainian Literature. In: Dialog der Sprachen –
Dialog der Kulturen. Die Ukraine aus globaler Sicht. München – Berlin 2011, p.
218-223.
2
Vlašín, Š. and col.: Slovník literární teorie. Praha: ýeskoslovenský spisovatel
1977, p. 239.
3
Counterfeit handwritings Rukopis královédvorský (1817) and Rukopis
zelenohorský (1818) whose authors were V. Hanka and J.Linda.
4
His fall came in 1989.
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Lenka Müllerová 71
allonyms 5 , gynonyms 6 and/or fictims 7 . The most frequent reasons for

disguise of the real author are ideological (pre-1989) and different social
and personal reasons (post-1989), or the choice of a “linguistically-more-
attractive” name or a mystification game with the literary public. This
“author” strategy in paratext communication oscillates between two poles
– ranging from absolute disguise (mostly for hidden authors in a
totalitarian regime) to different forms of public presentation in the area of
peritext and epitext equipment of a book (e.g. the bookmarks show the real
name of the author, his/her images and/or the reason for unacknowledged
authorship is clarified to the reader) to a full-blown mystification game
with the reader as in the case of Jára (da) Cimrman. Also the name forms
are very varied – from name forms (e.g. Petr Hora) to various forms
(Blumfeld 2001, V. I. P., ½ OC) to numeric lines (e.g. 063423350).
Further book paratexts that may be “affected” by mystification are
published texts of a technical nature (imprints, information on book
awards and funding, etc.). In Josef Škvorecký’s book NevysvČtlitelný
pĜíbČh, we can find a note in the imprint saying that the “text was
translated from English by Daniel S. Miritz with reference to its Latin
original” 8 . The translator is Daniel (Danny) SmiĜický, a well-known
protagonist of a lot of Škvorecký’s previous work. This way, Škvorecký
follows up to previous literary games with recipients, applying mostly to
primary text (e.g. breaching the rules of the genre), but also in the
paratextual area (e.g. name of the work, forewords, epilogues, etc.). A
different type of mystification strategy can be found in the Czech book
environment and in art and non-fiction books to which this building
element does not belong. In Josef Augustin’s book Velká encyklopedie
mČst a obcí ýR9, we will find a large variety of mystification variants. In
the introduction, the author says that the work contains 2,300 characters,
but in fact we will find only 1,951 described ones. Another falsity is that
the publication was widely extended, so that it can capture the current
situation as truthfully as possible and the originally announced publishing
date was postponed due to the incorporation of characters approved by the
parliamentary committee until the end of 2000. Though the set of
documented urban and general heraldry is not comprehensive, the author
5
Examples: Milan Kundera (Evald Schorm, Milan Uhde (ZdenČk Pospíšil).
6
We can mention e.g. Ivan Wernisch (Lucie Tejkalová).
7
The fictim here shows a clearly fictitious author. One example in Czech literature
can be the well-known mystification phenomenon Jára (da) Cimrman and literary
mystification of Jan Cempírek called Lan Pham Thi.
8
Škvorecký, J.: NevysvČtlitelný pĜíbČh. Praha: Ivo Železný 1998, p. 2.
9
Augustin, J.: Velká encyklopedie mČst a obcí ýR. Praha: Knižní klub 2001.
fails to mention this fact. Yet another mystification can be found in the
imprint showing a long list of collaborating authors, including those who
were no longer alive when the book was written. The list includes many
names of reputable authorities – scholars, university professors and other
experts who “fulfil” the function of expert guarantee for the primary text
of the work. Other mystification aspects can be detected in further paratext
book equipment. Mystification fulfils an entirely different function here
than in previous instances – it is linked with the book as a product, i.e. its
commercial function of successful sales, gaining a competitive edge and
making profit.
Diverse variants of author and publishing strategies can be observed in
the books of the already-mentioned Czech mystification phenomenon Jára
(da) Cimrman, in the production of which JiĜí Šebánek, Karel Velebný,
ZdenČk SvČrák and Ladislav Smoljak participated. The intellectual
mystification game with the reader emerged in the 1960s as a cycle of
fictitious reports from an imaginary wine bar and its mission was to
document the life and work of the fictitious figure of the Czech forgotten
genius Jára Cimrman. Stylisation into the idyll of the Austrian-Hungarian
period, parody of literary and theatre genres and exploratory approach,
poetics of theatre performances, multi-layer verbal and situational comics,
nonsense, satire and hyperbole are the typical attributes of Cimrman-like
investigation into the “merits” of this genius for mankind. The big success
of theatre mystification led to a gradual spill-over of the Cimrman cult to
other types of media – mostly to literature and film as well as to wider
national awareness, the peak of which was the nomination of Jára
Cimrman for the international BBC project in 2005. Over fifty batches of
games and other texts were published, but the real boom of Cimrman texts
came only after 1990.
Among the publications, three types of books can be identified: theatre
play scripts, Cimrman-like “monographies” and texts of SvČrák and
Smoljak for which the individual publishers selected different communication
strategies with the reader, i.e. a different form of paratext book equipment
and use of mystification.
The first type features diverse publications of Cimrman games. The
distinctive features of the book paratexts are the graphic form and book
size, name of edition, edition plan and call for the readers to have read the
entire set of works. The functionality of the edition’s paratext is focused
on a specific reader group, preferring and accepting the distinct poetics of
Cimrman-style mystification, but also accepting the reception of the game
in the absence of the typical visual and sound component, so typical of the
theatre. Book paratexts are fully integrated into literary mystification both
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on the work level and on the level of physical connection with the book as
an object: we can mention for instance the imitation of the contemporary
book from the beginning of 20th century, pseudo-historical illustrations
showing, again, fictitious or real significant figures of the Austrian-
Hungarian period who were linked10 with the figure of Jára Cimrman and
also important technical inventions of that period; from the physical book
point of view, the publisher offers the publication of the entire book set,
the so-called Cimrman’s double-purpose pockets which is a “hardback box
in which inserting books (the individual publications of games, my note)
and taking them out is easy”11.
Mystification is an integral component of other paratexts in the book.
Promotional texts found in the post-text section of the book also eliminate
the promotional procedures of the first half of the 20th century and
continue in the mystification game with the author. This way, for example,
a two-page promotion of the Pražská plynárenská (“Prague Gasworks,
JSC”) company can be found behind the text of the game. The real
information is only the company name and logo, but other entries and texts
already represent the typical mystification game, mixing contemporary
language and factual features with real facts of the presence. Similar
communication procedures can be identified in the texts of the bookmark.
Their focus is mostly on providing further “evidence” of the life and work
of the Czech genius and bringing the figures of the primary text to the
forefront as the speakers of a certain group.
The mutual contamination of the author – hero – scholar – paratext
producer roles in the case of SvČrák and Smoljak gives more force to the
form of the book and does away with the borders visible to the reader’s
eye between primary text and paratext, making them blend and
interconnect. The functionality12 of paratexts is however not disrupted, but
on the contrary, paratexts become sort of an extended component of
primary texts and co-shape the comprehensive Cimrman-style
mystification game involving not only the actual primary text, but also the
space of secondary texts and the physical book as such. Placing the
Cimrman-figure into the position of the first author of the book is only
another aspect of this literary game with the reader/buyer where the
creative process of contra-factuality as the fundamental creative principle
exceeds the author text and spills over into its closest environment. This
10
This is mystification.
11
Smoljak, L.: VyšetĜování ztráty tĜídní knihy : (play) / Cimrman, Smoljak,
SvČrák. Praha Paseka 1992, rear side of envelope.
12
Basic paratext functions include informative, guiding, promoting, metatext and
aesthethic functions.
fact is evidence not only for a wider scope in the literary game of the
author with the reader, but also for the subordination of the paratexts of
primary text aspects selected by the publisher and a more accurate
definition of the potential target audience. If Genette differentiates
between three paratext types for the author’s name (onym for the real
name, anonym and pseudonym13), then Czech literary mystification adds
to this concept another type, a so called fictim, i.e. a fictitious, invented
author.
Cimrman “monographies” employ a different communication strategy.
The Paseka edition of 2009 has a graphic layout similar to separately
published plays (this applies mostly to the edition name position against
the work title and author names, selected typography and small graphic
features, and the similar occupancy of the frontispiece), the bookmark text
however tends to show information only on the real authors, i.e. Ladislav
Smoljak and ZdenČk SvČrák and the true, not fictitious information of their
lives. The publication of other media activities of both authors, existing
beyond the framework of Cimrmanology, reflects the anticipations among
a larger group of potential buyers who do not have to be sufficiently
familiar with the poetics of this literary mystification and/or other
circumstances of the Jára Cimrman theatre. This anticipation is supported
by the explicit naming of the creative process and its result, the
communication distance of the author of paratexts from readers, and also
the information on the success of the entire work of these two authors,
including a brief outline of the history of the theatre.
A similar concept applies to the extensive foreword, the author of
which is PĜemysl Rut and the shortened version which was published
in Literární Noviny (Literary Journal) in 1992. The demystification of Jára
Cimrman, verbalisation of the fundamental creative process and more
detailed information regarding the true history of Jára Cimrman theatre are
under the influence of the author’s paratext and hence the publisher and
their aim is to make less competent or fully unaware potential readers
familiar with the Czech phenomenon of 1960s and later periods. The
foreword hence becomes a guide to understanding all the different aspects
and complexity of the work, enabling readers to grasp specific procedures
in the work and giving them the key to the mystification game in the book.
It is here that publisher’s strategy diverges from typical “comprehensive”
book mystification.
13
Genette, G.: Paratexte. Das Buch vom Beiwerk des Buches. Suhrkamp
Taschenbuch Wissenschaft, Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 45-57.
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An utterly different communication strategy was chosen for publishing

the texts of these two authors of the Cimrman idea, namely in books with
names containing clichés, superlatives and even PR practices (To nejlepší
ze Smoljaka, SvČráka a Járy Cimrmana I., To nejlepší ze Smoljaka,
SvČráka a Járy Cimrmana II., published by Exact, and subsequently by
Knihcentrum and Ottovo nakladatelství). The mystification game exists
here only in the primary text, where a clearly defined line is drawn
between it and the paratext sphere. This line determines the coexistence of
both literary worlds within the space of the book. The paratexts
surrounding the primary text provide potential readers firstly with
information about the authors, fictitious procedures, context of Cimrman
action, and about the creative approach to the mystification game. The
mystification method is already shown here as a partial creative act of two
distinct figures of the cultural world of the second half of the 20th century,
shaped also by a number of other activities of these two authors in the
media. The paratext book equipment is already standardised and its focus
is mostly on inter-media communication.
The communication paratext strategy of mystification depends not only
on the character of primary author text, but also on the message and vision
of the founder (and/or author), the social context and other aspects of the
book and non-book environment (e.g. current context of the work, reader’s
ability and readiness to accept the mystification game, marketing
communication options, economic status of publisher, establishment of
text/author and/or the hero of the book in culture, etc.). These aspects co-
shape the rich selection of possible approaches to paratext production,
ranging from the concept of books as objects within the mystification
game (mystification paratexts) to a “mere” use of the fundamental
functions of secondary texts in a paratextual communication strategy.
Above all, however, they help determine an approach to the information
and guiding roles of paratexts for selective identification and reception of
mystification aspects in the text (paratexts about mystification), as well as
approaches that penetrate both approaches to different extents and with
different intensity.
These paratexts are all very connected with the national culture, history,
humour, language, actual situation and especially the thinking of the
Czech. The translation of the primary (auctorial) text is possible; it needs a
lot of paratexts around. The translation of the mystification paratext games
is untranslatable, especially the first type of the Cimrman’s publishing
strategy. Mystification paratexts lose their paratext role and come to be the
new “primary” text for the translator in this case.
Bibliography
Primary sources
Augustin, Josef, Velká encyklopedie mČst a obcí ýR. Praha 2001.
Cimrman, Járy, Hry a semináĜe: úplné vydání. Paseka, Praha a Litomyšl
2009.
Kasík, Stanislav, ěada V., MČlnicko I. - znaky mČst. In: Genealogické a
heraldické listy, 1/2007, Praha 2007, p. 83 - 89.
Smoljak, Ladislav, To nejlepší ze Smoljaka, SvČráka a Járy Cimrmana I.
Exact, Praha 1992.
—. To nejlepší ze Smoljaka, SvČráka a Járy Cimrmana II. Knihcentrum,
Praha 1998.
—. Afrika : (ýeši mezi lidožravci) / Cimrman, Smoljak, SvČrák. Praha,
Litomyšl Paseka 2003, s. 2.
—. VyšetĜování ztráty tĜídní knihy : (ýinohra) / Cimrman, Smoljak, SvČrák.
Praha Paseka 1992.
SvČrák, ZdenČk, Filmové komedie: osm scénáĜĤ. Kruh, Hradec Králové
1991.
Šebánek, JiĜí, Byli jsme a buben: odvrácená tváĜ Járy Cimrmana. Mladá
fronta, Praha 1998.
—. Jára /da/ Cimrman /Sborník o životČ a díle þeského polyhistora. Mladá
fronta, Praha 1998.
—. Já, Jára Cimrman / Dosud nejvýpravnČjší sborník o životČ, díle a
životním prostĜedí þeského génia svČtového významu. Západoþeského
nakladatelství, PlzeĖ 1991.
—. Za Járou Cimrmanem až do hrobu. Paseka, Praha 2001.
Secondary sources
Genette, Gérard, Paratexte. Das Buch vom Beiwerk des Buches, Frankfurt
am Main 1989.
Lane, Philippe, La périphérie du texte. Paris 1992.
Levý, JiĜí, UmČní pĜekladu. Praha 1956.
Machala, Lubomír, Mystifikace a pseudonymy v þeské literatuĜe po roce
1989 (s pĜihlédnutím k historickému kontextu). In: Bohemica
Olomucensia . Symposiana. Olomouc: 2011, s. 189-190.
Müllerová, Lenka, Paratexty a þeská nakladatelství (knižní strategie v 90.
letech 20. století). LITTERAE 2010.
www.ebook777.com
—. Paratexts of Ukrainian Literature. In: Dialog der Sprachen – Dialog

der Kulturen. Die Ukraine aus globaler Sicht. München – Berlin 2011,
p. 218-223.
Müllerová, Lenka, Paratexty v þeské literární mystifikaci (nad
sekundárními texty Járy /da/ Cimrmana). In: Bohemica Olomucensia -
Symposiana 1. Olomouc 2011, s. 184-188.
Vlašín, ŠtČpán, Slovník literární teorie. Praha: ýeskoslovenský spisovatel
1977.
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THE ROLE OF METADATA

IN TRANSLATION MEMORIES
JOSS MOORKENS
Abstract
This paper discusses metadata in computer-aided translation (CAT)
and translation memories (TMs), their role in the translation and
localisation process, and their value as a retrospective tool in studies of
TM data within the field of Translation Technology. When TMs are saved,
the TM software used will usually save accompanying information as
metadata within prescribed tags. TM software divides texts into segments
and using the metadata each of these segments can be traced back to a
translator, date, and time. This allows a translator to choose more recent
material to leverage or to delete segments that may contain outdated
terminology. It also allows language service providers to manage their TM
resources effectively. The potential loss of important metadata when
transferring between formats may restrict users to a particular software
tool due to problems of software interoperability. Lack of support for
metadata in a tool may result in inappropriate material being suggested
and thus used in a translation. As a result, standard formats have been
specified for bilingual files. These standards have not been universally
supported and changes in the localization process have required regular
updates and revisions to standard format specifications.
Introduction to Metadata
Metadata is data that describes data, providing additional information
about digital content and processes. In the context of the world-wide web,
Berners-Lee called it “data about data”, or more specifically “machine
understandable information about web resources or other things” (1997).
80 The Role of Metadata in Translation Memories
The DESIRE group1 said that metadata is “data associated with objects
which relieves their potential users of having full advance knowledge of
their existence or characteristics” (2000). There are three main types of
metadata: descriptive metadata describes content, structural metadata
describes organization of objects or components, and administrative
metadata describes technical information such as file type. In this paper we
concentrate on descriptive metadata.
Metadata existed prior to the coining of the term – library catalogue
cards, for example, may be considered metadata. For books, metadata may
contain a title, author, date of publication, and possibly a unique identifier
such as the ISBN number. Metadata for audio files may contain album
names, song titles, and year of publication. In web pages, HTML
(Hypertext Mark-up Language) may contain keywords, hypertext links, or
geo-tags. The introduction of standardized metadata for web-based
resources became a requirement due to the growth of the world-wide web
in the 1990s, and in 1995 a workshop of the National Centre for
Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the Online Computer Library
Centre (OCLC) in Dublin, Ohio, created a metadata scheme of 13 elements
that could be used to describe Internet data. This was later expanded to 15
elements and is still largely used. However, standardization of formats and
metadata in other domains has progressed at a slower rate.
Metadata in Computer-Assisted Translation

Computer aids for the translation profession have been increasingly
adopted since the late 1980s leading to the release of the first commercial
translator workstations, incorporating translation memory (TM) tools in
the early 1990s (Hutchins 1997: 15). A TM is a repository of previously
translated text that has been divided into segments. Each segment is
usually a sentence, a heading, or a list element. Segments in the source
language are aligned with those in the target language so that they can be
recycled within a TM tool. A TM tool manages the translation process,
providing a user interface (UI) for the translator to see both source and
target texts and automatically creating a TM during translation by saving a
segment of source and target text together as a translation unit (TU). In the
case of reappearance of a previously translated segment the TM software
will propose the previous translation to the translator. Depending on the
parameters set by the translator, the TM system will also suggest partial or
1
A project called Development of a European Service for Information on Research
and Education, part of the UK Office for Library and Information Networking.
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Joss Moorkens 81
“fuzzy” matches, based on a percentage of similarity between a new ST

segment and a source language (SL) segment (or source-language
segments) already in memory. This leveraging of legacy material can
result in translations that are inconsistent in style or content (Bédard (2000)
called this a “sentence salad”), and requires “blind faith” (Bowker 2005:
19) in the previous translations held in the TM. Metadata may help to filter
previous translations so that more recent or more trustworthy material is
reused. TM tools are now widely used for specialized translation and
localization 2 as they are seen to save cost, save time, and increase
consistency of translations.
The first TM tools were proprietary and information contained in the
metadata was locked in. Shortly after the tools were released in 1992,
concerns were expressed about the lack of interoperability between tools
(Le-Hong, Höge and Hohmann 1992: 25). By the 2000s, content for
translation was increasingly created and processed in digital form,
translators were expected to translate not only asynchronous (previously
written) source texts, but also synchronous, evolving, and changing source
texts. Translation was now considered during the design of original
content, and a range of tools on a local computer or networked servers
could assist with the work of translation. Information and resources were
shared via professional translator networks on mailing lists and online
forums. By the late 2000s, translators were found to use an average of ten
online and offline resources (Désilets et al. 2009: 4). Now that the
translation process contained several stages and involved various
proprietary tools, the problem of tool interoperability became acute and
the first translation interchange formats appeared.
Translation Interchange Formats

The TMX Standard
As tools began to diversify and interoperability between TM tools

became an issue for translators and language service providers (LSPs),
LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association), a group containing
members from various companies involved in localization and translation
that was active from 1990 to 2011, formed a special interest group called
2
Localisation, as defined by Schäler, is the “linguistic and cultural adaptation of
digital content to the requirements and locale of a foreign market, and the
provision of services and technologies for the management of multilingualism
across the digital global information flow” (Schäler 2007: 157).
OSCAR (Open Standards for Container/Content Allowing Re-use) in 1997

to define standards and improve interoperability. TMX (Translation
Memory eXchange), an XML-based standard mark-up language for TM,
was suggested as a tool-independent format by OSCAR in 1998 (LISA
2004). It would, however, be 2003 before a TM tool – SDLX – was
certified by OSCAR for fully supporting the TMX format (Waßmer 2003),
by which time a further exchange format that may be used for TM, XLIFF
(XML Localization Interchange File Format), had been standardized by
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards, a consortium that develops web standards). OSCAR also
maintained the TBX (Term Base eXchange) format for terminological
resources and SRX (Segmentation Rules eXchange) until March 2011.
There are still concerns about TMX format support at the time of writing,
with reports of “very poor implementations from certain tool providers”
(Guillemin and Trillaud 2012: 41).
TMX has not been widely used by translation clients or freelance
translators due to issues including poor support from tools developers. The
TMX standard may be deployed differently in different tools, leading to
instances of data loss between tools or even different iterations of the same
tool. This uneven support means the standards “cease to have a proper and
rigid structure” (Anastasiou 2010: 50). In addition, there are several
versions of each standard as changes in the localization process have
required revised specification.
Retrospective Search Using Elements in TMX

TMX may be a useful format for manually searching for metadata
elements that have been created within TM environments as the files are
saved in plain text. For example, the following TUs containing
inconsistent translations (reproduced from Moorkens 2012: 111, 142) were
produced using a proprietary TM tool.
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Joss Moorkens 83
1s All lines that have been 1.1t Alle Linien, die mit der Funktion
converted using the {1} Create {1} Flächenränder anlegen
surface borders {2} function can {2} konvertiert wurden, können Sie
be recognized easily since they are leicht erkennen, da sie mit dem Stift
drawn with the {3} Border{4} pen. mit der Bezeichnung {3} Border
{4} gezeichnet werden.
1s All lines that have been 1.2t Alle Linien, die mit der Funktion
converted using the {1} Create {1} Flächenränder anlegen {2}
surface borders{2} function can konvertiert wurden, können Sie leicht
be recognized easily since they are erkennen, da sie mit dem Stift mit der
drawn with the {3} Border {4} Bezeichnung {3} Rand {4} gezeichnet
pen. werden.
“Border” is used three times in the whole TM to translate “border”. In

all other instances “Rand” is chosen as the translation for the English word
“border” and appears to be the standard term. Looking at the metadata, all
six inconsistent segments (three each containing “Border” and “Rand” as
translations of the same ST segment) were saved on February 20th 2009.
The three containing “Border” were saved initially at 16.01 and changed at
19.54, one minute after the segments with “Rand” were saved. It may be
that the translator chose to edit the suggested match from the TM to use
the term “Rand” and settings in the TM tool were such that revised
segments were added to the TM rather than over-writing TUs already in
the TM. The metadata can show when any changes were made and the
identity of the translator who made the changes. The TMX entry
containing segment 1.1t may be seen below.
<tu srclang="en-US" creationid="Translator_XXXX"

creationdate="20090220T160137Z" changeid="Translator_XXXX"
changedate="20090220T195407Z" tuid="30040545-313">
<prop type="x-idiom-tm-uda-Component">Doc</prop>
<tuv xml:lang="en-US">
<seg>All lines that have been converted using the <ph
x="1">{1}</ph>Create surface borders<ph
x="2">{2}</ph> function can be recognized easily since they are
drawn with the <ph
x="3">{3}</ph>Border<ph x="4">{4}</ph> pen. </seg>
</tuv>
<tuv xml:lang="de-DE">
<seg>Alle Linien, die mit der Funktion <ph
x="1">{1}</ph>Flächenränder anlegen<ph
x="2">{2}</ph> konvertiert wurden, können Sie leicht erkennen,
da sie mit dem Stift mit der Bezeichnung <ph
x="3">{3}</ph>Border<ph x="4">{4}</ph> gezeichnet
werden.</seg>
</tuv>
</tu>
2s Attaches the palette to an 2.1t Hängt die Palette an eine

anchor tab base at the left or Verankerungsleiste auf der linken oder
right side of the drawing area. rechten Seite des Zeichenbereichs an.
2s Attaches the palette to an 2.2t Weist die Palette einem
anchor tab base at the left or Fixierungsanker auf der linken oder
right side of the drawing area. rechten Seite des Zeichenbereichs zu.
This second example contains an inconsistent noun and verb in the

target texts. Both of these TT segments are attributed to the same
translator in the metadata. 2.1t was created in October of 2007 and last
changed in January of 2008. 2.2t was created in December of 2006 and
last changed in December of 2009. Both are commented “from previous
releases” but further comments suggest that they originated from different
XML files. When these sources were combined inconsistency in the TM
was caused.
A search for the origin of inconsistencies in proprietary file formats is
more difficult than using TMX as it must usually be carried out within the
proprietary tool environment. This also presents a difficulty for stand-
alone automatic quality assurance (QA) tools that are increasingly part of
the translation workflow.
The XLIFF Standard

The state of the art in computer-assisted translation may include the
following stages: content to be translated may be pre-processed, recycling
previous material using a content management program, or may be written
using a style guide or controlled language rules, so that the content is
optimized to maximize machine-understandability. Translation may be
assisted by a TM or the TM repository may be used to assemble target text
automatically (machine translation). Finally, the translated material is
usually post-processed. This involves QA checks and edits of TM
translations, or post-editing of MT output. Some tools may be open source,
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Joss Moorkens 85
which requires the use of shared, open standard file formats and data
storage.
Retention of metadata throughout these stages necessitates a large
number of metadata elements. At the project management level, a
distinction is required between translatable and non-translatable items.
Start and due dates are also necessary, along with details of the people to
whom work has been assigned. For technical writing, author details, style
guides, and the content domain should be held in the metadata. During
translation the TM tool may save details to the metadata such as the name
of the translator, the date of translation, the status of the TU (such as
‘needs translation’, ‘confirmed’, or ‘under review’), some contextual
information, match percentage, and linguistic assets used. TMs may be
tagged for specific jobs or reused based on the creation date. For software
localization, some layout formatting, version control, and details of menus
and dialogs may be required. If metadata is “well structured and managed”,
then neither data nor metadata may be lost throughout these processes
(Anastasiou and Morado Vázquez 2010: 259).
The XLIFF standard was developed so as to retain metadata
throughout many stages of localization and was “intended to give any
software provider a single interchange file format that can be understood
by any localization provider”3. So as to facilitate interoperability between
tools at each stage of the localization process, the XLIFF standard is
necessarily complex. The most recent version (1.2 as defined in 2007)
contains 386 defined items: “37 elements, 80 attributes and 269 pre-
defined values” (Anastasiou and Morado Vázquez 2010: 267). This
complexity is one of several limitations of XLIFF. Despite the intended
interoperability improvement inherent with adoption of XLIFF, many
tools are not fully compliant with the standard, to the extent that files from
one program may not open in another. In addition, some developers use
customized versions of XLIFF, such as the SDLXLIFF format used in the
translator’s workbench tools SDL Trados Studio 2009 and 2011. While
many TM tools claim to support XLIFF, research by Anastasiou and
Morado Vázquez found little interoperability in practice (2000: 274), and
they suggest a further focus on rigidity and structure for the next revision
of the XLIFF standard (version 2.0 is currently in development).
3
From XLIFF 1.2 specification at http://docs.oasis-open.org/xliff/xliff-core/xliff-
core.html.
Conclusion
TM metadata contains important information that may be used to filter
what data to maintain or reuse in the computer-aided translation process,
or to retrospectively search for changes that were made to TUs as in
section 3.2. As the multi-stage process of localization has become more
complex, the need for standard interoperable formats that retain vital
metadata has increased. The TMX standard, after some time, came to be
supported by many TM tools (although the specifications were not always
strictly adhered to), but the closure of LISA (Localization Industry
Standards Association) and the narrow remit of the TMX format led to
more focus on XLIFF as a standard for localization files. If the XLIFF
standard is to become successful, the XLIFF technical committee must
clearly communicate and promote the new specifications, tool developers
need to understand and adopt the specifications, and the specifications
need to be flexible enough to adapt to different tools.
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the Science Foundation Ireland (Grant
07/CE/I1142) as part of the Centre for Next Generation Localisation
(www.cngl.ie) at Dublin City University.
Bibliography
Anastasiou, D. (2010) “Open and Flexible Localisation Metadata”,
Multilingual Computing, 112 or 21(4), 50-52.
Anastasiou, D. and Morado Vázquez, L. (2010) “Localisation Standards
and Metadata”, in Metadata and Semantic Research, 4th International
Conference, MTSR 2010 Proceedings, Communications in Computer
and Information Science, 108, 255-276, Springer.
Bédard, C. 2000. Mémoire de traduction cherche traducteur de phrases.
Traduire, 186, p41-49. Available from
http://www.terminotix.com/t_fr/index.htm (accessed on 15 December
2008).
Berners-Lee, T. (1997) Axioms of Web Architecture: Metadata. Available
from http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Metadata.html (accessed 15
May 2012).
Bowker, Lynne. (2005) “Productivity vs. quality? A pilot study on the
impact of translation memory systems”, Localisation Focus, 4(1), 13-
20.
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Joss Moorkens 87
Désilets, A., Patenaude, G., Melançon, C., Brunette, L., (2009), « How
translators use tools and resources to resolve translation difficulties: an
ethnographic study”, in Proceedings of MT Summit XII. Ottawa,
Canada.
Desire project (2000) “A Review of Metadata: a Survey of Current
Resource Description Formats” Available from:
http://www.desire.org/results/discovery/cat/meta_des.htm
Guillemin, P. and Trillaud, S. (2012) “What Has Become of LISA’s
OSCAR Standards?” Multilingual Computing, 127 or 23(3), 38-41.
Le-Hong, K., Höge, M. and Hohmann, A. (1992) “User's Point of View of
the Translator's Workbench”, in Proceedings of ASLIB Translating and
the Computer 14. London, 10-10 November 1992, 25-32.
LISA. 2005. TMX 1.4b Specification. Available from http://www.gala-
global.org/oscarStandards/tmx/ (accessed 19 April 2012).
Moorkens, J. (2012) Measuring Consistency in Translation Memories: A
Mixed-Methods Case Study. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Dublin City
University, Ireland.
Schäler, R. (2007) “Localization”, in Baker, M., Saldanha, G. (eds.)
Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, second edition,
London: Routledge, 157-161.
Waßmer, T. (2003) SDLX™ Translation Suite 2003. Translation Journal,
7(3). Available from http://www.accurapid.com/Journal/25sdlx.htm on
11/11/09 (accessed 11 November 09).
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PART III:
THE PARATEXT OF STORIES AND POEMS

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TEXTS

IN CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOKS
YVONNE TSAI
Abstract
Picture books are books combined with story-telling, and continuous,
meaningful pictures. As opposed to illustrated books, picture books feature
pictures with a linear coherence. Picture books are intended for children
and young readers; adult readers of picture books are often parents or
people yearning for the pure happiness of childhood. With children as the
main reader group, texts in picture books cater for the limitations of young
readers and use easy day-to-day vocabulary. Since it is the characteristic of
children to get carried away easily, it is often necessary to simplify the
complexity of meaning containing enriched significance (7DQDND 2011:
97). In addition to the use of words that facilitate understanding, texts in
picture books should also synchronize with the pictures, including actions,
facial expressions, or tension as delivered to the readers. Despite all these
features and requirements, Hao (2006) considers pictures to be the main
thread of picture books while texts serve only a supplementary role. The
purpose of this study is to examine the significance of texts as paratexts
and investigate the function of these texts.
Introduction
There are many different modes of communication: literary vs.
everyday communication, public vs. private, verbal vs. written, visual vs.
textual. Whatever the means, all modes of communication satisfy the basic
requirement for facts and information. When the subject of communication
is a child, communication requires more wisdom and tactics. Some adults
are straightforward in telling their children do’s and don’ts; some use toys
to attract and retain children’s attention and make them identify
themselves with the toy; some favor the use of books to instill ideas or
manners in order to instruct the behavior of their children. Books as a
92 The Significance of Texts in Children’s Picture Books
medium of communication with children have made interaction more

efficient from nursery to childhood.
Books for children come in different forms, and the picture book is by
far the most popular start-up reading material. The picture book is an
integration of storytelling and art, and such a combination “has the power
to shape a child’s lifelong tastes and attitudes toward reading” (Russell
2001:95). The main difference of the picture book from other kinds of
children’s fiction is the visual narrative that flows in conjunction with the
written text. The story-telling, continuous and meaningful pictures in the
picture books are a means of communication that express feelings, establish
background, portray character, replenish missing information from the text,
with the purpose of transforming the narrative into something slightly
different (Clark 2003:107).
Picture books from early childhood

Picture books from early childhood can be presented in various forms.
Among many types of picture books described in Russell’s (2001)
introduction to the kinds of children’s literature, I will summarize picture
books into three main categories: wordless picture books, toy books, and
concept books.
A wordless picture book, as the name suggests, contains only pictures
and little or no text. In this type of picture book, pictures are the language
that narrates the story. The exclusion of written language has led some to
argue the status of the wordless picture book in literature. Despite the fact
that wordless books contain no words, many comprise literary elements
such as plot, theme, character, setting, and tone. Such a structure requires
oral interaction, which in turn, builds the linguistic competence of children.
The fostering of storytelling skills helps children develop positive reading
habits and attitudes through wordless picture books. An example of a
wordless picture book is Gabrielle Vincent’s A Day, a Dog.
The second category is toy books, which refers to picture books with
“some gimmick in addition to (or in place of) a story” (Russell 2001:107).
This includes cardboard books, cloth books, bath books, scratch-and-sniff
books, and pop-up books. Unlike typical picture books, the focus of toy
books is usually not on the story itself, but on how the “gimmick” works in
the book. These books are designed for very young children. From nursery
to toddlers, different types of toy books serve different functions. For
instance, the more durable cardboard books, cloth books, and bath books
offer babies something to bite, tear, throw, and drop. These entertaining
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Yvonne Tsai 93
functions outweigh the basic function of books and teach young children
how to handle books properly.
The final category is concept books, which includes alphabet books
and counting books. Alphabet books are didactic books that teach children
letters and alphabets while counting books familiarize children with
numbers and the concepts of counting. Concept books are educational
books that develop children’s cognitive perception of the world, such as
scientific and social concepts. In addition to cognitive development,
concept books are very often used by adults to teach young children
manners, attitudes, or how to cope with emotions.
Apart from the aforementioned categories, there are also picture
storybooks. Picture storybooks constitute the majority of picture books, if
not most of them, and they range from early childhood to adulthood,
covering subjects from traditional folktales to realistic stories. This type of
picture book contains narrative elements of storytelling, including plot,
conflict, theme, character, setting, style, and tone. Despite the seemingly
simple nature, a good picture storybook that combines storytelling and
illustration can be very sophisticated, for both child and adult readers.
Literary or aesthetic interpretation of picture books

Many have preferred to appreciate picture books from an aesthetic
perspective, more so than from a literary angle. Hurlimann believes that
the picture book “prepares [young readers] a future feeling for art” while
“wordplays, the nursery rhymes, and the earliest stories […] help to found
a future taste for literature” (1968: 201). Russell also considers picture
books as “narrative art” that tells a story from the perspectives of the artist,
and “this can take in many artistic styles, from purely photographic
realism to abstractionism” (2001: 124). Readers are guided throughout the
storyline with the art of pictures. The artistic elements of an illustration
include line, space, shape, color, texture, composition, and perspective
(2001: 126).
Lewis, on the other hand, firmly regards picture books as a kind of text,
particularly “a quasi-literary artifact more closely allied to other kinds of
texts than to works of visual art” (2001: 1). Despite that, Lewis agrees that
picture books can be viewed aesthetically, but this would deviate from the
contextual use of the picture book. To Lewis, picture books should be
viewed from children’s perspective, or even art appreciation alone would
be partially achieved. Similarly, Bader defines the picture book as “text,
illustrations, total design; an item of manufacture and a commercial
product; a social, cultural, historical document; and, foremost, an experience
for a child” (1976: 1). When picture books are classified into an art form,
the interaction between pictures and words is vital. However, when the
picture book is “on its own terms, its possibilities are limitless” (ibid.).
Russell points out that it is only when one understands how pictures
and texts complement each other to produce the whole can we consider
picture books as “literature”, which Genette defines as consisting of texts
“[…] defined (very minimally) as a more or less long sequence of verbal
statements that are more or less endowed with significance” (1997: 1).
Different views of picture books can be distinctive in relation to the
significance of texts in the picture book. If one positions picture books as
art, then the text itself serves secondary importance. Likewise, if picture
books are preconceived as literature, then it would be the text that plays
the role. We could also look at the relationship between text and the
picture. To Golden, there are five types of text-picture relationships: text
and picture are symmetrical; text depends on picture for clarification;
illustration enhances, elaborates text; text carries primary narrative,
illustration is selective; and illustration carries primary narrative, text is
selective (1990: 104). Golden notes that it is possible for a given book to
contain more than one type of relationship, just as it is possible for one
type of relationship to dominate a certain picture book.
Nikolajeva and Scott (2000) look at the interaction between words and
images, and identify a “broad spectrum of word-image interaction” (2000:
225) that includes symmetrical interaction, enhancing interaction,
complementary interaction, counterpointing interaction, and contradictory
interaction. The symmetry as identified in both Golden (1990) and
Nikolajeva and Scott’s (2000) classification relates in both cases to the
way illustrators try to “match in pictures what they read in a prior written
text” (Lewis 2001: 39). However, as Lewis pointed out, symmetry would
not be an appropriate classification for Nikolajeva and Scott’s word-image
interaction because if both the word and the picture are symmetrical, the
picture and the word would be on parallel tracks instead of having any
interactions with each other. The same would apply to contradictory
interaction.
Pictures tell readers facts, state of affairs, and events, which Lewis
referred to as “ideational function” (2001: 40). On the other hand, words,
regardless of core message or incidental signals, will affect the readers in
their interpretation of the facts. Thus, readers will have their own views on
what a picture says in relation to the narrative outside of the animation by
the words, as Nodelman indicated, “…pictures … can imply narrative
information only in relationship to a verbal context” (1988: 195). Having
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Yvonne Tsai 95
said this, contradictory interaction then refers to how pictures and words
act upon one another instead of offering two opposing meanings.
Despite the fact that Lewis identified some awkwardness, Nikolajeva
and Scott did clearly state that the terms used to relate words and pictures
are not absolute because extreme symmetry or contradiction is not likely
to take place. Such taxonomy, however, is useful in analyzing the features
that picture books display. Below are some examples used to exemplify
the significance of pictures and texts in picture books, and like the
taxonomy, these examples may sometimes fit in more than one category.
The significance of pictures in picture books

With the ‘language’ of pictures transcending linguistic and cultural
boundaries, the significance of pictures in picture books can be best
explained from the perspectives of the translator. The translator as a reader
perceives the source text from its entirety that is visually presented to the
reader. In the case of picture books, one’s understanding of the text is
bound to be affected by the pictures. Oittinen describes such influence as
the participation of a reader “in a dialogue between her/himself and the
story told by the author and the illustrator with words and pictures”
(Nikolajeva and Scott 2000: 100). The interaction between words and
images enables the reader to visualize the scene, the setting, and the
characters of the story.
On the positive side of it, “the pictures stimulate the creative linguistic
powers of the translator, who may in turn make elements explicit in the
narrative where originally these were seen only in the pictures”
(O'Sullivan 2006: 114). By expanding upon the original text, the translator
fills the gap in the target text. Likewise, the disregard of the integration of
word and image “limits the active and intelligent participation of the child
reader”, affecting not only the visual interpretation of the story, but also
the verbal reading of it. Nonetheless, it is the opinion of Lathey that inter-
textually and inter-visually rich and highly culture-specific texts are often
deemed untranslatable (Lathey 2006: 111).
One good example showing the significance of pictures is Munro
Leaf’s The Story of Ferdinand. The scene illustrating the bull’s hair on top
of the bee’s body on the clover tells the reader that the bull is about to sit
on the bee. Without the picture, the reader might not understand what is
about to happen to the unsuspecting bee. However, judging from the
comically expressive eye of the bee, the reader comes to realize that the
bee has sensed what is about to come.
Another example where pictures clarify and enhance the written text is
Ezra Jack Keat’s The Snowy Day. The words describing the walk as “with
his toes point[ing] in, like that” clearly presents a vivid picture of how the
person walks. However, the line “he made angels” would be unclear.
Without the picture, readers might not know that the words refer to “snow
angels” made by moving the arms up and down and the legs from side to
side while lying in the snow. In this example, “the essential narrative is
conveyed in the text but the illustrations extend and elaborate the text by
delineating further details” (Golden 1990: 110).
The wordless beginning and the end in Gutman and Hallensleben’s
Gaspard and Lisa’s Rainy Day enables the reader to free his or her
imagination. Gaspard and Lisa have made a mess in grandma’s kitchen,
and mischievously turn the room into a haunted house. At the end of the
book, the parents and grandma watch Gaspard and Lisa playing ball
outside, without mentioning the aftermath of their mischievous conduct.
The open-ended structure leaves room for self imagination, especially with
the exclusion of texts in the first and the last pages of the book. Some
adults consider the story as inappropriate, as the children’s mischievous
conduct was not punished or noticed, or are less inclined to read the story
without some explanatory texts. Some people think that picture books with
multiple interpretations can be hard for children. However, this book
presents the real attitude of children, as mischievous creatures going about
their everyday business.
Sometimes, the pictures tell an entirely different story from the text, as
in Pat Hutchins’s Rosie’s Walk. There is a one sentence describing the
afternoon walk of Rosie the Hen in the farmyard. It is only from the
pictures that we learn that Rosie is being stalked by a hungry fox, which is
frustrated in his cunning attempts by one disaster after another until he is
finally chased away by angry bees. Rosie remains blissfully ignorant of
the drama that accompanies her stroll, and she arrives home “in time for
dinner” (Russell 2001: 123).
Similarly, John Burningham’s Come Away from the Water, Shirley
shows us two concurrent stories with pictures. The simple storyline is
presented in a two page spread layout, which continues for ten pages. The
reality story at the sea is presented on the left while the fantasy adventure
of the children is on the right. The two stories flow simultaneously, which
Kamiya Yuu (2011) suggests as presenting the distant relationship of
modern parents and children. The layout of picture and text in the story
can also be considered as contrast and reconciliation of the reality and the
fantasy worlds.
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Yvonne Tsai 97
The real life scene on the left illustrates the mother knitting on the deck
chair and the father smoking cigarettes, reading a newspaper, taking a nap.
Despite Shirley’s absence from the scene on the left, her mother’s
grumbling at Shirley tells the reader what Shirley is doing. The motionless
scene of Shirley’s parents displays a dull, empty, even unnatural reality,
which Kamiya Yuu (2011) interprets as the boring adult’s world from
Shirley’s perspective. The scene on the right uses the picture alone to tell
the story of Shirley’s fantasizing her adventure. Compared with the
emptiness of the left, the right is more colorful, delivering vividness and
vigor. The right-hand page represents children in the dream world, and the
left-hand page signifies adults in the world of texts. The story is ironical,
contradictory, and humorous.
These examples show how pictures play a dominant role in picture
books and how texts serve only a supplementary position, as Hao ( 2006)
mentioned, a characteristic of picture books.
The significance of texts in picture books

In Hutchins’ Titch, if we just look at the text, we can only sense the
solitude and isolation of Titch. It is only through pictures that readers learn
the relationship of these children, as well as how they get along. However,
judging from the pictures alone, Lewis considers it more like a book about
“doing things” because these pictures do not “literally convey” anything in
particular without texts. It is the words that tell the readers what to notice
and what to think of what they see (2001: 42).
Pictures can communicate much to us, and particularly much of visual
significance. Nevertheless, it is only words that can help the reader focus
on the visual significance and tell the reader what it is about these pictures
that might be worth paying attention to. In a sense, trying to understand
what the picture says can be referred to as an act of imposing language
upon the pictures, or interpreting visual information in verbal terms. As
Nodelman indicated, “reading pictures for narrative meaning is a matter of
applying our understanding of words” (1988: 211).
In her book, The Need for Words (1986), Patsy Rodenburg explores the
idea that words bring books alive. To her, stories are meant to be told, and
when they are, she says, “words are transformed into animated figures”
(1986: 8). Rodenburg explains that this is because words, rhythm and
language are evocative and meaningful (Clark 2003: 107). But Rodenburg
recognizes that the human need for words, voice and speech is not purely
for content and meaning. The “need for words”, she asserts, goes “beyond
the intellectual”, it is “physical, emotional and sensual engagement” (1986:

44).
In Sasamoto’s (2011c) commentary on picture books, she indicates that
texts in the picture book are mostly descriptions of the “who did what and
then what” condition, with pictures presenting one scene at a time. Even
though the picture book is considered a narrative type of medium with the
combination of text and picture, pictures should be appreciated from an
aesthetic perspective as art. Instead of mere transmission of a story,
Sasamoto indicates that the pictures in the picture book leave storytelling
to texts and try to reach the readers from an aesthetic view.
Sasamoto (2011b) uses the European Fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood
to discuss the function of picture in picture books. She indicates that texts
specify description, so the description of Little Red Riding Hood can be
pictured from concrete features of appearance, clothing, hairstyle, and so
on. The same description, however, can generate thousands of different
looks of Little Red Riding Hood, presenting impressions that are otherwise
described in the text. The purpose of pictures, therefore, is to display the
hidden connotations of the text and produce aesthetic affect.
Sasamoto (2011a) adds that because pictures do not direct readers how
to receive information, there is a need to use texts to supplement the
insufficiencies of pictures alone. The use of texts along with pictures is to
complement the uncertainty of pictures and communicate information.
Texts deliver the content and present the instant message of the story with
pictures. As pictures present uncertainty and possibly multiple
interpretations, a message transfer is less efficient in wordless picture
books. Readers need to guess the storyline and complete the individual
story with their own background knowledge and from their own personal
experiences. However, no matter how hard a reader tries, one scene would
contain multiple interpretations.
Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are presented the fear, anger,
and hatred deep inside children, which greatly changed the social
cognition of children’s thoughts. Sendak believes that children have the
power to conquer these negative emotions. The inner travel of the little
child reaches its climax when the wild things and Max go on an imaginary
voyage and dance. The climax of the story, however, is presented with a
three page picture spread. The exclusion of texts and picture frames adds
vigor to the climax, where young readers are invited to release negative
emotions with Max.
Despite the significance of the pictures, the texts also play a critical
role. First of all, Sendak named the characters of the book with a general
and obscure term - wild things. On the surface of the word, the meaning of
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Yvonne Tsai 99
“wild” can mean “wildlife”, “wild animals”, and/or “beasts”. The word
“wild” can also mean “violent” or “not controlled”, which metaphorically
refers to children in their out of control state. When Max first appears in
the scene, he is wearing a wolf suit, presenting an uncontrollable state of
anxiety and fear. Therefore, without texts, the word play of the picture
adds more insight to the story than what may not be explicitly presented.
The combined efforts of John Scieszka and Lane Smith in the satire
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, or The Wolf’s Side of the Story, is
an example of how pictures supplement and free up texts. This story
falsifies the classical story of the “Three Little Pigs” and is narrated from
the perspective of the antagonist, the Wolf. The Wolf indicates that his
primary intention was just to borrow sugar for his cake, but he was
regarded as a villain wherever he went. It was also coincidental that his
nose itched and thus he sneezed and blew away the first straw house. The
Wolf rationalizes his eating the first pig as a pure natural instinct, as well
as his not wasting the delicious second pig. The Wolf was irritated by the
third pig, and that’s why he climbed up the brick wall and got caught by
the police and news reporters.
The Wolf claims that the news reporters distorted the story into the
classic “Three Little Pigs”, and considers himself the innocent victim of a
media distortion and a false arrest. The last scene shows the Wolf asking
“can you give me a cup of sugar?” with naivety in the picture. This picture
is evidence of the cunning characteristic of the Wolf, who hypocritically
self-defended himself all along. Without the last picture, it would be hard
to understand the meaning of the text, and without texts, the connotation
of picture would not be evident. The intricacy of text and picture is
considered the foundation of picture books.
Texts in toy books, as Russell has indicated, are often downgraded to
second place as the visual medium takes over. Pop-up books remain,
however, essentially visual art rather than literature (2001: 108). The
famous example of a toy book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle,
however, presents educational value through texts. The book features
distinctive collage illustrations, “eaten” holes in the pages and simple text
with educational themes including counting, the days of the week, foods,
and a butterfly’s life stages. Eric Carle considers picture books a bridge
between home and school, and the “eaten” holes are a representation of
communication.
Conclusion
Uchida Rintaro (1999) believes that texts in picture books would not
be significant without pictures, and vice versa. To him, the picture book is
a representation of a combined creativity. Pictures can be used to tone
down the story, and texts that are rendered mildly can be used to stimulate
the hidden message of pictures. Imai Yoshiro echoes the equal importance
of text and pictures in the picture book with its own distinct characteristic.
For Yoshiro, texts describe linear time sequence. With intermittent words
and phrases, however, it is hard for readers to determine the meaning. The
visual representation of the picture book does not have limitations from
chronological sequences, but from spatial sequences (2011: 244).
Therefore, the combination of text and picture is necessary in picture
books.
In the translation of picture books, neither element (words or pictures)
can be isolated, nor can they be isolated when the translator translates. In a
genre combining words and pictures, “an ideal translation reflects
awareness not only of the significance of the original text but also of the
interaction between the visual and the verbal”, what the pictures do in
relation to the words does not verbalize the interaction, but leaves gaps
that make the interplay possible and thus exciting. The reader of the ideal
translation is left to do the same work as the reader of the original
(O'Sullivan 2006: 113).
Since picture books average only about 2,000 words, these words must
be carefully chosen indeed. Although picture books are not just pictures
and texts, other elements such as book cover, back cover, font, word size,
layout, choice of paper, printing style, and so on, are also important in a
picture book. Pictures and texts in picture books share equal significance
and should work side by side with each other to broaden the horizon of
both the children and their parents in reading through good picture books.
Bibliography
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Beast Within. New York: Macmillan.
Clark, Leilani (2003) "Speaking Pictures: Children's Picture Books in
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Childhood in Performance (pp. 107-110). Lichfield: Pied Piper.
Genette, Gérard (1997) Paratexts : Thresholds of Interpretation. New
York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
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Yvonne Tsai 101
Golden, Joanne Marie (1990) The Narrative Symbol in Childhood

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Picture Books (pp. 179-184). Taipei: OWL Publishing House. (ㅩᵜ㍄.

(2011b). ӛਇሿ㌵ᑭ㒚ᵜⲴ⮛䶒 (ↀࠡሗ, Trans.). In 䉧ᵜ䃐ࢋ & ⚠
ጦ֣䟼 (Eds.), ྲօᒛᆙᆀ䚨㒚ᵜ : 28 䜘ц⭼㏃ި㒚ᵜ␡‫ޕ‬ሾ䆰
(pp. 179-184). 㠪ेᐲ: 䋃九吩ࠪ⡸.)
—. (2011c) "Picture Books and Comic Books: Gaps between Picture
Books and Comic " (Ou Kaining, Trans.) in Tanimoto Seigo &
Haijima Kari (Eds.), How to Choose Picture Books for Children:
Introduction to 28 World Classic Picture Books (pp. 111-112). Taipei:
OWL Publishing House. ㅩᵜ㍄. (2011c). 㒚ᵜ㠷╛⮛˖㒚ᵜ㠷╛⮛
Ⲵ䳄䯑 (ↀࠡሗ, Trans.). In 䉧ᵜ䃐ࢋ & ⚠ጦ֣䟼 (Eds.), ྲօᒛᆙ
ᆀ䚨㒚ᵜ : 28 䜘ц⭼㏃ި㒚ᵜ␡‫ޕ‬ሾ䆰 (pp. 111-112). 㠪ेᐲ: 䋃
九吩ࠪ⡸.
Tanaka, Mihoko (2011) "Translating Picture Books: A Piece of Cake?"
(Ou Kaining, Trans.) in Tanimoto Seigo & Haijima Kari (Eds.), How
to Choose Picture Books for Children: Introduction to 28 World
Classic Picture Books (pp. 55-57). Taipei: OWL Publishing House. ⭠
ѝ㖾‫؍‬ᆀ. (2011). 㒚ᵜ㘫䆟˖㘫䆟㒚ᵜᖸ䕅儶˛ (ↀࠡሗ, Trans.).
In 䉧ᵜ䃐ࢋ & ⚠ጦ֣䟼 (Eds.), ྲօᒛᆙᆀ䚨㒚ᵜ (pp. 55-57). ਠ
े: 䋃九吩ᴨᡯ.
Uchida, Rintaro (1999) "Mastering Picture Books" Parole (October Issue).
(‫⭠ޗ‬哏ཚ䛾. (1999). ᡁ⍱㒚ᵜ‫ޗ‬᮷‫⌅ڊ‬. Parole(ॱᴸ㲏).)
Yoshiro, Imai (2011) "Books and Book Design: An Integrated Media that
Mobilizes Every Sense" (Ou Kaining, Trans.) in Tanimoto Seigo &
Haijima Kari (Eds.), How to Choose Picture Books for Children:
Introduction to 28 World Classic Picture Books (pp. 243-245). Taipei:
OWL Publishing House. ӺӅ㢟ᵇ. (2011). 㒚ᵜ㠷ᴨ㉽䁝䀸˖अ଑
ᡰᴹᝏᇈⲴ㏌ਸჂ億 (ↀࠡሗ, Trans.). In 䉧ᵜ䃐ࢋ & ⚠ጦ֣䟼
(Eds.), ྲօᒛᆙᆀ䚨㒚ᵜ : 28 䜘ц⭼㏃ި㒚ᵜ␡‫ޕ‬ሾ䆰 (pp. 243-
245). 㠪ेᐲ: 䋃九吩ࠪ⡸.
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(IR)RECIPROCAL RELATION BETWEEN TEXT

AND PARATEXT IN THE TRANSLATION
OF TAIWAN’S CONCRETE POETRY:
A CASE STUDY OF CHEN LI
YI-PING WU AND CI-SHU SHEN
Abstract
In Taiwan, concrete poetry began its development in the 1960s and has
thrived for four decades. Though not having a direct impact on the
international development of this poetic genre, Taiwan’s concrete poetry made
a resounding breakthrough in demonstrating the poetics of the Chinese
ideogram. When it comes to translating the concrete poems into foreign
languages, the translators are likely to encounter the problem of
untranslatability. To mend this problem, the use of paratexts such as foreword,
endnote and review are inevitable. The concrete poems written by Chen Li can
be taken as good examples. Chang Fen-ling, the translator of Chen Li’s
“Zhanzheng Jiaoxiangqu” (“A War Symphony”), chooses to present the
Chinese original as the translation with her own annotation. She believes that
the Chinese charactersĀ‫ޥ‬āĀ҂āĀ҃āand Āшā and the
unique verse form with special visual effects can speak for themselves.
This paper is concerned with the limitation of the peritexts employed by
Chang Fen-ling in her translation and presentation of some of Chen Li’s
original concrete poems and also with the public epitexts such as interview
and critical review that reinforce a similar interpretative stance. The
analysis of paratextuality devices paves the way for further questions
about the composition and presentation of the paratexts in the rendering of
concrete poetry.
Introduction
In 1955, the Taiwan poet Lin Heng-tai (᷇Ә⌠) initiated the first
concrete poetry movement in Taiwan, which was joined by poets such as
104 (Ir)reciprocal Relation between Text and Paratext
Zhan Bing (䂩ߠ) and Bai Di (ⲭ㦫). The three pioneers played a crucial
role in the embryonic stage of the development of Taiwan’s concrete
poetry. The movement gradually evolved into a literary frenzy that lasted
from the 1960s to the 1970s. There are numerous distinct concrete poems
in Taiwan, but only a few have been introduced to foreign readers through
translation. Based on the information available,1 concrete poems by Lin
Heng-tai, Bai Di, Su Sao-lian and Chen Li have been translated into
Japanese. Only Chen Li’s concrete poems appear in translation in
European languages. His poems have been translated into Croatian, Dutch,
Japanese, French and English by multiple translators.
Among all the Taiwan concrete poets, Chen Li may enjoy the highest
worldwide visibility in the western world. Hailed as one of the best
representatives of contemporary poetry in Taiwan, he has been a widely-
recognized and prolific writer and translator in the past three decades.2
Since 1975, Chen has published several poetry collections, essay
selections and musical criticisms. Chen’s first series of concrete poems is
collected in Daoyu Bianyuan ጦᏬ䚺㐓 (The Edge of the Island)
published in 1995. Since then, the poet has experimented on various types
of concrete poems for nearly a decade. It is often found that Chen Li
exploits the hieroglyphic features of Chinese characters. “A War
Symphony” (“Zhanzheng Jiaoxiangqu”) has received rave reviews from
literary critics. Michelle Yeh ྊᇶ regards Chen’s “A War Symphony”
as a work that “transcends existing modern literary modes” (quoted in
Wang 1999: 167-68; our translation). Aside from the positive feedback in
Chinese communities, the poem has also enjoyed a relatively wide
1 Given the limited data at hand, this observation of the translation of Taiwan’s
concrete poems is only tentative. When we conducted this research, we contacted
the organizations and governmental agencies that have contributed to the export of
Taiwan’s concrete poetry via translation. We called or wrote to the National
Museum of Taiwan Literature, The Chinese PEN, and Council of Cultural Affairs
for further information. However, only the Council of Cultural Affairs replied to
our inquiry and provided us with the valuable data of Japanese translation of
Taiwan’s concrete poems. The information of the translation of Chen Li’s concrete
poems can be found on his official website:
http://www.hgjh.hlc.edu.tw/~chenli/index.htm.
2 In addition to his dedication to the writing of Taiwan’s modern poetry, Chen has
actively engaged in the import of overseas poetry to Taiwan. Collaborating with
Chang Fen-ling, a Taiwan translator, Chen has generated Chinese translations of
works by numerous poets in England, North America and South America,
including Philip Larkin, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, Pablo
Neruda and other poets.
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Yi-Ping Wu and Ci-Shu Shen 105
readership. As one of Chen’s most renowned concrete poems, “A War

Symphony” has been selected for inclusion in several English publications,
including Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the
Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (2008), Frontier Taiwan: An Anthology of
Modern Chinese Poetry (2001), Literature: Craft and Voice (2009), and
an American on-line literary journal titled Fascicle.
Nevertheless, most of his original concrete poems are presented as
translation and mediated by peritexts such as translator’s foreword and
notes as well as peritexts such as interview and book review. Apparently,
these devices provide readers with useful points of entry into
comprehending and interpreting the concrete poem written in the Chinese
language. Since the communicative clues the peritexts offer have furnished
us with useful information about the translator’s particular creative
intention, this relationship between the text and the paratextual devices
used for giving a concrete poem certain meaning seems practical and
reciprocal in terms of mediating between reader and text-in-hand.
However, these devices that foreground pathways for a certain
interpretative stance may limit the way the concrete poems are received
and perceived by foreigner readers.
Paratextual Devices
In his seminal work on paratexts, Gérard Genette uses the concept of
“paratext” to discuss how paratextual devices present a text, engage reader
interest in the search for meaning, and frame reader’s interpretation of the
text-in-hand. The use of paratext, according to Genette, is “to ensure the
text’s presence in the world, its ‘reception’ and consumption in the form
(nowadays, at least) of a book” (1997: 1). Paratext is categorized into two
types: epitext and peritext. The former is usually located outside the text,
or as Genette terms it, “the external presentation of a book,” while the
latter refers to the appendages attached to the main text (1997: 3).
Paratextual elements are listed as follows:
Categories Items
Epitext: outside Public Epitext Authorial epitext: autoreviews,
the book public responses, mediations,
delayed autocommentaries
Publisher’s epitext -- marketing
materials, interviews and
reviews written by others
Private Epitext 1. Authorial correspondence

2. Oral confidences
3. Diaries
4. Pretexts
Peritext: within 1. Cover
the book 2. Title and subtitles
3. Name of the author
4. Forewords, afterwords, epilogues
5. Dedications and inscription
6. Epigraphs
7. Preface
8. Intertitles
9. Notes
Paratextual elements and materials, as ùehnaz Tahir-Gürça÷lar claims,

are “useful clues . . . about the conditions under which translations were
produced and consumed” (2002: 58-59). These clues may furnish us with
interesting information to further explore “the general socio-cultural forces
giving shape to translation” (ibid: 58).
In terms of defining the status of a paratextual element, Genette
identifies five features that can be used to characterize the function of a
particular paratextual message: spatial, temporal, substantial, pragmatic,
and functional (1997: 4). The spatial aspect simply refers “to the location
of the text itself” while the temporal aspect indicates “the date of the text’s
appearance” (ibid: 4-5). The substantial status of a particular paratextual
message, as Genette points out, is “iconic (illustration), material (for
example, everything that originates in the sometimes very significant
typographical choices that go into the making of a book), or purely
factual . . . [that] provides some commentary on the text and influences
how the text is received” (ibid: 7). As for the pragmatic status of a paratext,
what should be looked into is “the nature of the sender and addressee, the
sender’s degree of authority and responsibility, [and] the illocutionary
force of the sender’s message” (ibid: 8). Genette in particular emphasizes
the “gradation” or the degree of the illocutionary force of a paratextual
message. As he explains, “A paratextual element can communicate a piece
of sheer information – the name of the author, for example, or the date of
publication. It can [also] make known an intention, or an interpretation by
the author and/or the publisher” (ibid: 30-31). According to the
illocutionary force generated within a paratextual message, its
functionality can be determined. However, Genette reminds us that the
paratext may have a strictly defined status, but it may “have several
purposes at once” due to “the essence of its appeal and its existence” (ibid:
12). What must be established and pinpointed are the “relations of
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subordination between function and status” of the paratexts and the

“various sorts of functional types” that are dedicated to serve a specific
purpose (ibid: 13).
In what follows, the translation practice of Chen Li’s work is identified
through analysis of the paratextual devices and functions. It stands to
reason that the paratexts such as preface or notes employed by the
translator provides mediating access and interpretation to the concrete
poem being translated. By closely examining the paratextual material that
accompanies the translation, the following analysis seeks to scrutinize how
such mediation may constrain the way we interpret and translate concrete
poetry.
The Use of Peritexts

A note, as Genette defines, “is a statement of variable length (one word
is enough) connected to a more or less definite segment of text and either
placed opposite or keyed to this segment” (ibid: 319). It can be written by
the author, editors or translators who incorporate a note into the text for
supplementing extra information or digressing from the original subject
for a moment. Basically, the note “belongs more to the text, which the
note extends, ramifies, and modulates rather than comments on” (Genette
1997: 328). The advantage of incorporating a note into the text is that this
“second level of discourse . . . sometimes contributes to textual depth”
(ibid: 328). Nevertheless, as Genette indicates, “incorporating a digression
into the text might well mean creating a lumpish or confusion-generating
hernia” (ibid: 328).
Functioning differently from the note, the preface, as Genette suggests,
is aimed “to get the book read and to get the book read properly” (ibid:
197). It is, in essence, authorial and original, but sometimes its position “is
introductory and therefore monitory” (ibid: 197). In the case of the preface
annexed to the translation, the functioning of a preface, if written by the
translator, is often introductory in nature to introduce the characteristics of
original work and its author. If the preface is written by an authoritative
figure, the readers will be instructed how to appreciate the original work
and why they should read the translation (if the translator is someone else).
Therefore, each preface may function differently, as Genette points out,
depending on “place, time, and the nature of the sender” (ibid: 196).
Among the five concrete poems collected in Intimate Letters, three
poems, “A Weightlifting Lesson” (Ju Chong Ke, see Appendix 1), “Starry
Night” (Xing Ye) and “Footprints in the Snow” (Xue Shang Ju Yin), are
translated into English, and the original of the other two poems, “A War
Symphony” (Zhan Zheng Jiao Xiang Qu, see Appendix 2) and “Wind
Blowing over the Plain” (Chui Guo Ping Yuan De Feng), are taken as
translation. Nonetheless, translator’s notes of each poem are attached as an
annex to the back. Such a paratextual device provides an example of how a
paratext mediates access and interpretation to the translation. In her notes
for “A Weightlifting Lesson,” the translator provides some clues for
reading this poem. She first explains the poem’s arrangement and then its
connotation:
Originally, the Chinese version of this poem was arranged vertically, not
horizontally. Listed on the upper side were thirty nouns or symbols -- thirty
elements or phenomena of the human world -- suggesting the loads on the
human heart. On the lower part, twenty-five Chinese words were unevenly
in a row like a curved silk thread, lying soft under yet trying to lift the
heavy burden. (in Chen 1997: 330)
These explanations lead to an interpretation offered by the translator:

“The tenderness of poetry or love (‘silklike phrases and words’) seems
powerful enough to help us bear the unbearable weight of life” (ibid: 330).
Since a likely interpretation is provided, the text is intruded upon by the
translator’s note that may well hinder reader’s active participation in
making meaning with the text and varied interpretations to arise.
Also in “A War Symphony,” the translator’s introduction to the author

and his works as well as translator’s notes work together to anchor a
preferred interpretation for this poem. In the translator’s introduction,
apology is made to the readers for including “only five of Chen Li’s
concrete poems” in this anthology due to “the wide gaps between cultural
backgrounds and language symbols [that] have made translation difficult”
(in Chen 1997: 20). The translator also gives reasons for her decision not
to make any attempt to translate this poem into English: “much of its
charm will definitely be lost in the process of translation, and those
Chinese characters þ‫ޥ‬ÿþ҂ÿþ҃ÿþшÿand the verse
form with special visual effects speak for themselves” (ibid: 20). Since the
original is presented as its translation, the translator intends to mediate
“the wide gaps between cultural backgrounds and language symbols” by
providing a lengthy explanation of how to read each stanza:
In the first stanza, we see an imposing military force marching to the

battlefield; in the second stanza, we see a pathetic battle scene: some
soldiers are wounded with one of their legs missing, and others may be
killed, as is suggested by the blanks interspersed between. And in the last
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stanza all the soldiers seem to be assembled, yet they may have been
handicapped or buried in the graveyard (‘Ы’visually suggests soldiers
without legs, and literally means ‘small hill’, where the Chinese dead are
usually buried). The hills, though speechless, lay the strongest accusation
against the cruel war. (p. 20)
With the help of a translator’s note that spells out the literal meaning of
each Chinese character, the readers who shuttle between the introductory
note and translator’s note can easily grasp the poem as “a picture with
sound and sense” and appreciate the theme and meaning of this poem.
Nevertheless, translator’s notes that foreground a particular interpretation
inevitably disrupt alternative pathways for reading and interpreting this
great poem.
Another salient example is Michelle Yeh’s translation of Chen Li’s “A
Lesson in Ventriloquy” (Fu Yu Ke, see Appendix C). Instead of presenting
the original as its translation, the translator renders the poem in Chinese
with her own explanatory notes which are two pages long. In her note, she
comments on the poem’s sharp contrast in typographical arrangement, the
use of different typefaces, dramatic contrast in sound, and minimalist
syntactic structure in great details and arrives at an interesting interpretation
of this poem:
As the art of speaking without opening the mouth, ventriloquy connotes a

discrepancy between appearance and reality, between outer form and inner
substance, between “what you see” and “what you hear.” Discrepancy
clearly exists between the “u” and “o” sounds and the parenthesized
sentence in the poem. Although the former presents an unpleasing
appearance, the latter reveals the heart, which is gentle and kind. (Yeh
1994: 6)
As the translator’s note functions to resolve the ambiguity of “a long

list of homonymous characters in varying tones,” a reading of the
translation is anchored by the translator who decodes the text by
identifying relationships among the particular devices employed by the
poet. The translator’s code-breaking and meaning-breaking practices in
presenting this poem allow the reader easy access to appreciating the
essence of this poem, and yet they may possibly constrain the reader from
pondering on its layer of meaning.
In translating concrete poetry, the translator’s note as a paratextual
device seems indispensable due to the huge gap between language and
cultural differences. In the case of translating Chen Li’s concrete poems,
the translator’s note is employed to compensate the untranslatability; the
strength of this device is that clear guidance is provided for the reader on
how to read a particular poem and its translation. However, it has the
drawback of enticing the reader to approach a text in a specific way. Such
mediation fails to engage the reader in reflection on their uptake and
interpretation of the text. In other words, when the paratexts are used in
translating a text, the translator should consider not only mediating the
access to and meaning of a text but also the reader’s positioning in
engaging with the paratexts to anchor their own interpretations.
The Public Epitext

In contrast to the peritext that belongs to the text, the epitext, as
Genette indicates, is “not materially appended to the text within the same
volume but circulating, as it were, freely, in a virtually limitless physical
and social space” (1997: 344). Within the category of epitext, the
interview is a kind of “media epitext” mediated by “the situation of
interlocution, in which to a certain extent the questions determine the
responses” (ibid: 356). The author may take advantage of the interview for
free publicity. It is more effective than writing an authorial preface. In the
case of Chen Li, two interviews can be found on his official website. In
each interview, the poet talks about his composition of concrete poetry and
his well-known poem, “A War Symphony.”
In Shin Yu Pai’s interview with Chen Li, the author was asked, “How
did your interest in visual poetry develop?” In his response to this question,
Chen Li mentions his interest in the special quality of Chinese words:
“Chinese characters can be said to be ‘picture words.’ Every Chinese
character is a picture, or a combination of several smaller pictures. By
taking apart or putting together these smaller elements, we can create
many new characters which have different meanings. Such is the game of
poetry” (Pai 2007: para. 10). The poet then uses “A War Symphony” as an
example to pinpoint his informative intention in writing this poem. As the
poet explains,
In the first ‘movement’ of the poem, 16 perfect ranks of the Chinese

character for ‘soldier’ (‫ ޥ‬pronounced ‘bing’) are presented as if in battle
array. In the second movement, the soldiers are progressively decimated,
first by eliminating their right or left ‘foot’ to produce the two
onomatopoeic characters that make up the Chinese word for ‘Ping-Pong’
҂ ҃ pronounced the same as in English) then by eliminating the
soldiers themselves. In the third and final movement, the soldiers are
presented with both their ‘feet’ removed to form 16 perfect ranks of the
Chinese character for ‘mound’ or ‘hill’ ш pronounced ‘chiu’), which is
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where the Chinese bury their dead. This poem is a silent protest against
war, a compassionate elegy for the sufferers, and a tribute to the Chinese
language. (Pai 2007: para. 11)
Chen Li’s explanation corresponds to a translator’s note of this poem.

The same interpretative stance of this poem is implemented and validated
by the poet himself.
A similar interpretive stance can also be found in Janet Charman’s
review of Intimate Letters. Charman wrote:
[T]he ideograph for ‘soldier’ marches across several pages of text,

progressively losing, left and right, its glyph ‘limbs’: Ā‫ޥ‬āĀ҂ā
Ā҃āĀшāWith the effect that in their ‘amputated’ forms, the
second and third ideograph above can be read as explosive “combat”
sounds, and finally, as seen in the fourth ideograph, the original soldier:
Ā‫ޥ‬ā is cut down to size as ĀшāThis is also the ideograph for
‘small hill’, which in the blackest of ironies, may be read as ‘burial place’.
This text, intriguing on the page, is a revelation in performance. (Charman
61)
Besides the elaboration on the four Chinese characters, Charman

mentions the auditory effect created by “҂” and “҃”. Nevertheless,
Charman’s reading is in accordance with the original authorial intention.
In 2010, Chen Li wrote an article entitled “Traveling between
Languages” to talk about his special experience in reading, writing, and
translation across different languages and cultures. The poet stresses in
particular the difficulty of translating “A War Symphony,” and this is why
“most translators simply translate its title and attach an annotation, leaving
the original intact” (Chen 2010: para. 4). Nevertheless, Chen Li mentions
a quite different translation done by Bohdan Piasecki who intends to
render this poem in English. As he comments, “In the first stanza,
[Piasecki] substitutes ‘A Man’ for þ‫ޥ‬ÿ. In the second stanza, ‘Ah,
Man’ and ‘Ah, Men’ are used to replace the scattered ‘҂’ and ‘҃’. In the
third stanza, þшÿ is replaced by ‘Amen,’ which may be interpreted as a
funeral prayer. It is an interesting translation: the translator recreates the
poem” (Chen 2010: para. 4). In this comment, although Chen Li did not
evaluate the strength and weakness of Piasecki’s English translation, the
readers, including the poet himself, are provided with an alternative
interpretation of the original in terms of translation.
Suggestions for Presentation

As the previous sections show, the relation between text and paratext
can be irreciprocal, which can be attributed to profuse explication made by
the author and the translator and implemented by the book reviewer. To
mend the problem of this irreciprocal relation in the translation of concrete
poems, how to compose the notes and preface becomes an essential issue.
When the original concrete poem is presented as its translation, annotation
is inevitable. However, the translator who decides to provide notes seldom
considers the role of the reader in engaging with the notes to anchor their
own interpretations. Since the Chinese characters are said to be picture
words that actually can be seen as great communicative clues, the note
provided should only give the literal meaning of each Chinese character
and leave the rest to the reader’s imagination. Authorial commentary on
how to read the entire poem or its theme should be avoided in that such a
reading may conventionalize the reading and translation approach to a
particular concrete poem.
When translating a concrete poem into another language, some features
of the original poem may be lost in translation. Take Piasecki’s translation
of “A War Symphony” as an example. His rendering serves as a good
example of translation without annotation. Yet a closer examination shows
that the juxtaposition of “A man,” “Ah men,” and “Ah man” is hardly
indicative of the sight of wounded soldiers in the original. Also, spatial
arrangement in his translation only loosely resembles that of the original,
which may undermine the translation’s kinetic effects. It is apparent that
this translation places more emphasis on the auditory effects than on the
visual and kinetic effects. Nevertheless, Piasecki’s choice of words can
still provide signposts for guiding the readers to anchor their interpretation.
As Chen Li notes in his article, “Amen” used in the last stanza “may be
interpreted as a prayer at the funeral” (Chen 2010: para. 4).
Whether the translation of a concrete poem is presented with or
without the paratexts, it should provide effective signposts or
communicative clues for the reader to decode this “‘concrete,’
‘verbivocovisual’ entity - i.e. an entity composed of meanings, sounds and
shape……connected with both conceptual and natural reality” (Jackson,
Vos and Drucker 1996: 23). More than that, the readers can take what is
being deciphered to interpret and detect the hidden meaning and
informative intention of a concrete poem. As such, the paratexts function
not merely as mediation between reader and text, but can also turn the
readers into active and reflective thinkers who rely on the paratexts to
frame their reading focus or to challenge the perspectives foregrounded.
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Conclusion
In this paper, the translation of Chen Li’s concrete poems is taken as an
example to illuminate the irreciprocal relation between text and paratext.
A study of paratextuality in the translation of concrete poetry reveals how
the paratextual devices such as translator’s note, preface, interview, and
critical review can be helpful for the reader to approach and appreciate the
uniqueness of concrete poetry. However, they inevitably conventionalize
the reader’s reading and interpretation. In doing so, the reader is deprived
of the pleasure and insight of discovery as the concrete poem unfolds.
Considering the reader’s engagement with the paratexts and his/her own
transactions with the text will enable the translators to develop a more
dialogic approach to composing and presenting the paratexts.
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Solt, Mary Ellen, and Willis Barnstone (eds) (1953) Concrete Poetry: A
World View, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Tahir-Gürça÷lar, ùehnaz (2002) “What Texts Don’t Tell: The Use of
Paratexts in Translation Research”, in Hermans, Theo (ed.)
Crosscultural Transgressions, 44-60, Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Yeh, M. “Translator’s Note”, http://dcc.ndhu.edu.tw/chenli/book6.htm# A
Lesson in Ventriloquy (accessed 8 August 2011).
Wang, Wei Zhi, (ed.) (1999) Zai Xiangxiang Yu Xiangshi Jian Zousuo:
Chen Li Zuopin Pinglunji (Trope-walking between Imagination and
Reality: Criticism of Chen Li’s Works), Taipei: Bookman Books Co.
Webster, Michael, (2001) “Magic Iconism: Defamiliarization, Sympathetic
Magic, and Visual Poetry”, European Journal of English Studies 5, 97-
113.
Williams, Emmett (ed.) (1967) An Anthology of Concrete Poetry, New
York: Something Else Press.
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Appendix A: “A Weightlifting Lesson”
冲䞛☐㗪ẋġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ䓐ġ
Ṣ朊䋭幓ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġ ġ⤪ġ
ΐ䎮⬠ġġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġ 䴚ġ
㬣ṉġ
䘬ġ
✫⛦⚆㓞↮栆䲣䴙ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ 婆ġ
⼴䎦ẋᷣ佑ġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġ ġ⫿ġ
⣊ġ
㚰䴻夷⇯埻ġ
⛐ġ
Ⰸ⭘⟜ġġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġἈġ
嚪䩑ġġ
䘬ġ
炴ġ
俛ġ
⼙⫸ℏ敋ġ
怲ġ
㊾⛇㨇ġ
ḛ愒ġġ
␝ġ
㛔橼婾ġġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
嬟ġ
ɦġġ
崟ġ
℔↮ġ
ᶱỵᶨ橼ġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ㹓ġ
㍐ʷ㉱ġġġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ㝼ġ
シ⽿冯堐尉䘬ᶾ䓴ġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ
䘬ġ
暣㑲㡺ġġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ㐑ġ
嬻ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ
ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ㒎ġ
⮳Ṣ┇ḳġ
䰛攳嗕➢伭ġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ忁ġ
ッ䉔伶⭡ġġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ湤ġ
彗嫱㱽ġġġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ⣂ġ
⬌䌐ġġ ġ ġ ġ ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ慵ġ
Ṣ忈昘匾ġġ ġ ġ ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ慹ġ
䤆俾伭楔ⷅ⚳ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġ
ˮġ˯ġġ ġ ġ ġ ġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġġⰔġ
Old Stone Age with

Sphinx silk-
Ethics like
Death phrases
Trash-recycling classifying system and
Postmodernism words
Dream
Menses regularizing operation by
Slaughterhouse the
Beehive side
ˁ of
Shadow cabinet your
Bulldozer ear
Cheese
Ontology fos-
ĺ ter-
Centimeter ing
Trinity
Push / Pull tender
The World as Will and Idea and
Electric shock club soft
Yield rub-
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Missing Person Column bing

Michelangelo
Pet dog make-up so
Dialectic many
Loneliness heavy
Artificial penis me-
Holy Roman Empire
“” tals
Appendix B: “A War Symphony”
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Appendix C: “A Lesson in Ventriloquy”

儡婆婚
ら⊧䈑⊁婌ぇ捊⠊榾咑◩ⰱ喩滨䖎忄➉剜ġ
幷㛴⨢浑➲㰽彽怣扰䞡䰭旊朘䂸⌤䄇㈌Ⱔġ
炷‫ޑࢋྕࢂך‬ɃɃ炸ġ
Ⱔ㈌䄇⌤䂸朘旊䰭䞡扰怣彽㰽➲浑⨢㛴幷ġ
剜➉忄䖎滨喩ⰱ◩咑榾⠊捊ぇ婌⊁䈑⊧らġ
炷‫ޑࢋྕࢂך‬ɃɃ炸ġ
ġ
ら梻Ὤ悪⌬忷拼㈤氟喩棑ⵕ囩㏡⚼庞將將ġ
柶⏫ソ☑広旐浂➲媌嘭䟐䞸㪖搑ⰳ⟖㝁漞ġ
古⑊┆⳧㏌娣敤柆⟐⟐柆敤娣㏌⳧┆⑊古ġ
漞㝁⟖ⰳ搑㪖䞸䟐嘭媌➲浂旐広☑ソ⏫柶ġ
將庞⚼㏡囩ⵕ棑喩氟㈤拼忷⌬悪Ὤ梻炷Զġ
Ъ๓‫ؼ‬ɃɃ炸ġ
A Lesson in Ventriloquy
Ŷġu U u uġu u u u u u u u u u u u uġ
u u U u u u u uġu Ŷ u u u u u u u uġ
ĩ I am gentle…Īġġ
u u u u u u u u u u u u u u u U uġŶġ
u u u u u u u u u u u u u U uġuġŶ uġ
ĩ I am gentle…Īġ
Űġo O o o o o o o o o o o oġo o oġoġ
o o o o o oġŰġo O o o o o o o o o oġ
o oġo o oġo o o o o o oġŰġo O o o o oġ
o o o o o o oġo o o o o o o o o oġĩġ
and kind…Īġ
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DUBBING DU FU:
PARATEXT AND HYPERTEXT
BRIAN HOLTON
It’s soon’, no’ sense that faddoms the herts o’ men

—Hugh MacDiarmid1
Few readers in Imperial China would have read the great poets without
a commentary, and the art of commentary, as exemplified by the work of
the Suzhou critic Jin Shengtan 䠁൓਩(c1608-1661), reached very high
levels of sophistication indeed. Yet to my knowledge no translator has
published English versions of classical poetry together with a commentary,
though many translators must clearly have relied on a commentator to
guide them through the Chinese texts. It is my intention to publish a
version of the magisterial sequence Qiu Xing ⿻‫ ޤ‬by Du Fu (ᶌ⭛) with a
translated version of the interlinear commentary by Jin Shengtan, from his
Changjingtang Du Shi Jie ୡ㓿าᶌ䈇䀓 (1985: 643).
Secondly, it is my contention that too many existing English-language
translations of classical Chinese poetry do not pay enough attention to the
loss of aural texture which the transfer of poetry from one language to
another can involve – in other words, if Du Fu’s verse was written to a
tight formal scheme, with rhyme and tonal metrics, shouldn’t a translation
attempt, at the very least, to present a poem which uses target language
features which echo or mimic the aural texture of the original? In an
attempt to demonstrate one approach to how this might be done, I have
published bilingual Scots/English versions of Qiu Xing ⿻‫ ޤ‬which I will
present here, together with a specimen of Jin Shengtan’s commentaries
(Holton 2010).
My aim is threefold: one, to show the near-hypertextual experience of
reading poetry with a commentator – an experience which is akin to
watching a film on DVD while listening to the director’s commentary -
1
See Gairmscoile in Grieve, M. and Aitken, W.R. (1978) Complete Poems,
London: Martin Brian and O’Keefe, vol 1, p74.
122 Dubbing Du Fu: Paratext and Hypertext
and to observe how this enriches the reader’s experience of the text; two,
to demonstrate that trilingual readings of a poem further enrich the
reader’s experience through the cumulative effect of aural features such as
rhythm and echoic devices; three, to encourage other translators both to
pay greater attention to the making of those sound-structures which turn a
jumble of lines into an effective poem, and also to bring – as Pound
attempted – all of their linguistic resources to bear on the making of a
target language text which has the power to move the reader.
Here is a text in Chinese:
ᶒ⭡⦞㄁グཌж吏匛⋩䯉䴏ⲳ名仺仱ᩅᬀ‫׵‬ᇯ᱉ᖶּ⑮㥿䵨Ӝཐ☋㴑
㎨ԃᵠ᭬ཟₕ䘇ӰӁ⦞㄁㩢ㄥី2
If we add punctuation and lineate it in the modern style (in China, both
were early 20th-century innovations), it becomes almost recognisable to
the non-Chinese speaker:
ᶒ⭡Ʌ⦞㄁Ɇ
グཌж吏匛θ ⋩䯉䴏ⲳ名Ⱦ
仺仱ᩅᬀ‫׵‬θ ᇯ᱉ᖶּ⑮Ⱦ
㥿䵨Ӝཐ☋θ 㴑㎨ԃᵠ᭬Ⱦ
ཟₕ䘇ӰӁθ ⦞㄁㩢ㄥីȾ
Regular line lengths, with alternating commas and full stops: is it a

poem?
Transcribed into the Latin alphabet using the Hanyu pinyin
transcription, the sounds become visible3:
Du Fu “Du Li”
Kong-wai yi zhi niao, he-jian shuang bai ou.
Piaoyao boji bian, rongyi wanglai you.
Caolu yi duo shi, zhusi reng wei shou.
Tianji jin ren shi, du li wan duan you.
Now it is possible to see that there are rhymes on alternate lines:

ou/you/shou/you.
2
In the traditional style, it would be set out vertically, of course.
3
That is not how the 8th-century author or his readers would have spoken it.
Speech sounds have changed since then, and this is the modern Beijing
pronunciation, which is the conventional way of doing things.
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Brian Holton 123
My Scots version doesn’t replicate the Chinese rhyme scheme, though

I have tried to build up a sound structure, which I will describe below.
Du Fu “Staunin Ma Lane”
Hyne awa i the lift an eagle’s hingin;
inben the haughs, a pair o pickie-maas,
scovin an tovin, handie for onie onding,
dandie an cantie, playin back an forrit.
The gress wi dew is fair droukit yit,
the ettercap’s wab ‘s still no soupit awa;
providence is nearhaun ilka work o man:
A staun ma lane, hertsair wi monie sorras.
If I now add that in the Chinese poem there is a weak caesura after the
second syllable in each line, it will be clear that the rhythm of the line is
12/345. Source language stress patterns are fairly easy to mimic in the
target text: I have borrowed the idea of a kind of sprung rhythm from
Arthur Waley: I count only stressed syllables, and group them around the
caesura, two stresses before and three after, just as the Chinese does:
Hyne awa / i the lift an eagle’s hingin

inben the haughs, /a pair o pickie-maas
What isn’t clearly visible, however, is the most important metrical

structure: unlike English, classical Chinese poetry isn’t structured around
patterns of accented and unaccented syllables; nor is it, as Latin or
Sanskrit poetry were, built on patterns of long and short vowels. It is
constructed instead out of tonal patterns. What does this mean? Chinese is
a tonal language, which is to say that, every syllable has, as well as an
initial consonant and a final vowel or nasal, a fixed pitch contour, or ‘tone’,
and in Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin), there are four of them:
Ɨ =high level; á =rising; ă =dipping; à =falling.
So, for example, the poet’s name is read as Dù Fԃ, the title of our poem
is Dú Lì4, and the first couplet reads
kǀng-wài yƯ zhƯ niăo, hé-jiƗn shuƗng bái ǀu.
4
Dù and Dú are as distinct as English doom and dome.
In classical Chinese metrics, these tones are grouped into Level and
Oblique, and a 5-syllable line must show a pattern such as Level
Level/Oblique Oblique Level. The rule is that the lines in the couplets of
an 8-line New Style Regulated verse poem such as this should be metrical
mirror-images of each other, so OO/LLO must be paralleled by LL/OOL,
and so on.
How do we mimic this, in a language such as Scots, which is not tonal?
I have tried grouping vowels, as Scottish Gaelic does, into broad and
slender but, while I could write short simple poems in this metre, I found
myself unable to translate with it – the demands of the form are so great
that it is near-impossible to preserve the meaning of the original text.
Forcing this structure onto the language stresses the poem so much that it
breaks apart under the strain. Reluctantly, I have to say that there is no
way I know of to represent source-language tonal patterns in translation.
In this rather taxing verse form, the central second and third couplets
must be strictly parallel in their syntax and their semantic fields, more so
than the first and last couplets, where the rule is somewhat relaxed: this
means that scovin an tovin matches dandie an cantie in that both are
adjectives (syntax) and both describe behavior (semantic field) while
handie for onie onding is paralleled by playin back an forrit, both being
adverb + verb in Chinese. Obviously, the gress wi dew and the ettercap’s
wab work together in the same way, as noun pairs from the natural world,
while fair droukit yit and still no soupit awa are both made up of adverbs
qualifying verbs of motion or action to show completed and continuing
aspect.
Classical poems in Regulated Verse often follow a conventional four-
part order in their narrative or argument, one which is also common in
Chinese prose: this could be described in musical terms as: Statement –
Development – Modulation – Resolution.
The first couplet is the initial Statement, setting the scene – the eagle
and the gulls in the river valley; the second couplet, describing the
innocence of the little gulls under the eye of their huge predator, is the
Development of the first; the third couplet, in which the narrator’s eyes
drop from the distant scene before him to focus on the grass and the spider
web at his feet, is the Modulation, where the season is quietly introduced
(we now know the action takes place on a morning, likely in the summer),
and the downward/inward direction of the narrative becomes apparent
after the static quality of the first two couplets; in the final couplet, the
Resolution, the human element is introduced for the first time, in the form
of the narrator’s emotions, and the picture is complete: eagle to gulls to
dewy grass and spider web, then via the workings of Providence to the
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Brian Holton 125
human heart, with the narrator/poet as vulnerable and as innocent of his

fate as the playful little gulls he observes. The conclusion draws the reader
further into the action, for which of us is not oblivious to the great beasts
that prey on us, all unseen?
So, we have a poem that is intricately patterned on the various levels of
its parallel structures, its syntax, its narrative or argument, its rhymes, its
rhythms, and its sound structures, including its tonal metrics.
Now, what binding sound structures are available to turn my Scots
poem into something more than just a random collection of lines?
If you read Robert Louis Stevenson's essay On Some Technical
Elements of Style In Literature you will see a craftsman of genius set out
the way that sound and music work in writing. I read this in my twenties,
and it has shaped my work ever since. He identifies, for instance, the
P/F/V sequence that is fundamental to the sound structure of English, and
which appears throughout my Scots poem. I was consciously using H
sounds: hyneawa, hingin and haughs in the Statement, with handie in the
Development, no H in the Modulation, and then the return of nearhuan
and hertsair in the Resolution, so that the H sound mimics and reinforces
the narrative structure, as does the distribution of the S/C/Z sounds. You
will see D/T alliteration throughout, though it does concentrate in couplets
2, 3, and 4. While I chose to stress the harmonies of the A and O sounds
over E or I or U, the U rhyme on droukit and soukit helpfully provides an
extra pointer to the third couplet Modulation.
Sound and the structures of sounds that bind and shape and give life to
a poem or a line of poetry are the most difficult things to get right: the late
and great translator David Hawkes wrote to me once, “…as a translator, all
my failures have been failures of rhythm”. 5 However, ordering sounds
appropriately and dynamically while maintaining some resemblance to the
sense of the source text encompasses the highest levels of the translator’s
art, and there, it seems to me, after thirty-some years of learning this game,
lies the heart and soul of what a translator does when he or she goes about
the task of poetry-translation.
Now look at the Scots poem again, and see the hidden springs that
wind up this tiny and intricate contraption of words:
Du Fu “Staunin Ma Lane”
Hyne awa i the lift an eagle’s hingin;

inben the haughs, a pair o pickie-maas,
scovin an tovin, handie for onie onding,
5
Personal communication, 1994.
dandie an cantie, playin back an forrit.

The gress wi dew is fair droukit yit,
the ettercap’s wab ‘s still no soupit awa;
providence is nearhaun ilka work o man:
A staun ma lane, hertsair wi monie sorras.
Bibliography
Barnes, A.C. (2007) Chinese Through Poetry: An Introduction to the
Language and Imagery of Traditional Verse, Vancouver: Alcuin
Academics.
Corn, Alfred (1998) The Poem’s Heartbeat: A Manual of Prosody,
Ashland: Story Line Press.
Holton, B. (2010) “Du Fu in Autumn: A Poem and a Provocation”
Renditions 74 Autumn, Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong,
8-31.
Jin Shengtan, (1985) Complete Works Vol IV (䠁൓਩‫ޘ‬䳶) Yangzhou:
Jiangsu Classics Press.
Stevenson, Robert Louis (1885) ‘On Some Technical Elements Of Style In
Literature’, http://robert-louis-stevenson.classic-
literature.co.uk/essays-in-the-art-of-writing/ (accessed January 27th
2012)
Turco, Lewis (2000) The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, 3rd
edition, New England: UPNE.
Weinberger, Eliot (1987) Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei,
Wakefield: Moyer Bell.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Holton, independent scholar, formerly of Newcastle University and

Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Pingping Hou, Associate Professor, Director of MTI Education Center,

School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Shandong University, PR
China.
Szu-Wen Kung, Lecturer in the Centre of Translation Studies and

Interpreting at the University of Auckland, NZ.
Joss Moorkens, Lecturer and post-doctoral researcher, School of Applied

Language and Intercultural Studies Dublin City University.
Lenka Müllerová, Katedra bohemistiky, Filozofická fakulta Univerzity

Palackého, Olomouc. Department of Czech Studies, Philosophical
Faculty, Palacký University Olomouc.
Valerie Pellatt, Senior Lecturer, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle

University.
Ci-shu Shen, Freelance translator.
Caroline Summers, Lecturer in German at the University of Leeds.
Yvonne Tsai, Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign

Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University.
Yi-ping Wu, Associate Professor, English Department, National

Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, Taiwan.

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Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext

Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext

Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in Translation,

This book first published 2013

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Copyright © 2013 by Valerie Pellatt and contributors

ISBN (10): 1-4438-5305-4, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-5305-7

Part I: Ideological and Political Motivation and Control

What Remains: The Institutional Reframing of Authorship

Paratexts in the English Translation of the Selected Works

Part II: Publishers’ Use of Paratext

Paratext, an Alternative in Boundary Crossing: A Complementary

Czech Publisher’s Strategies: Paratexts of Literary Mystification ............ 69

The Role of Metadata in Translation Memories ........................................ 79

Part III: The Paratext of Stories and Poems

The Significance of Texts in Children’s Picture Books............................. 91

(Ir)reciprocal Relation between Text and Paratext in the Translation

Dubbing Du Fu: Paratext and Hypertext ................................................. 121

Contributors ............................................................................................. 127

this volume use Genette’s analysis of paratext as a basis to enable the

explanation and justification. In addition, and perhaps more importantly,

IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL MOTIVATION

Introduction: Christa Wolf and Was bleibt

identity is subject to negotiation by the institutions of the receiving

Sites of the Institutional Framing of Authorship: Paratexts

its target-culture readers. Paratexts are identified by Genette as “the most

the writer’s authorship, an approach for which he has been criticised by

in the development of Wolf’s Anglophone author-function, a narrative and

What Remains and Other Stories

Fig. 1: FSG edition (1993b)

Fig. 2: FSG/University of Chicago (1995)

tense supper at the end of “Self-experiment” when Anders tacitly

The please-insert3 is preceded by a quote from “Exchanging Glances”

This peritextual threshold frames the text in recognizable categories

“‘What Remains’, the title story, powerfully describes what it is like to

self-consciousness of the author as the secret police eventually disrupt the

Opening with a summary of “What Remains”, this affirms the

Tracing Wolf’s author-function right back to the (German) publication

At the bottom of the back cover, the book is contextualized in Wolf’s

the public narrative of the publishing institution might intervene in the

Table 1: Contents of What Remains and Other Stories

Title (EN) Title (DE) Written First

The organization of the contents encourages emphasis on particular

collection of stories causally and temporally emplots “What Remains”, the

Wolf’s comment in an interview from 1983 expresses her constant

narratives to familiar public or metanarratives rather than “other” public

—. (1981) “The Order of Discourse”, trans. by Ian McLeod, in Robert

Tahir-Gürçaglar, ùehnaz (2002) “What Texts Don’t Tell: The Use of

PARATEXTS IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

An Overview of the Selected Works and Its English

early 1960s, another round of officially organized translation of the

Paratexts in the LW and FLP English Versions

ideological purpose by initiating readers into a biased pre-designed

Cover, Dust Jacket, Title Page and Portrait Page:

name of “MAO TSE-TUNG” in the title is highlighted by being larger

The FLP Edition