Mark Bender (The Ohio State University)
An enchanting yet challenging aspect of translating oral literature as a cultural outsider is gaining access to the storyworld of any particular narrative, then recreating it another language. This paper builds on ideas such as “opening oral territory” (Sarris 1993) and Suzhou storytellers ideas of “walking the story road” that conceptualize what goes on in acts of narration and seem to have parallels in translation. The paper is based in part on folkloristics, narrative, and reception theory, drawing heavily on Chinese concepts of the narrative experience and ideas about translation in play today.
Part of 04-01 Translation in/of Folklore Studies: Perspectives from China [hybrid], Friday, October 14, 8:00 am–10:00 am