The process of translation, adaptation, and question of feminism in Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms
(1) 
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
As one of the Four Great Classic Novels of Chinese literature, Romance of the Three Kingdoms found its way to the constellation of World Literature via translation and being adapted into the movie Red Cliff (2008) and famous video games series Dynasty Warriors (1997-now). This process further made the story of the Three Kingdom is widely known as many cinemagoers and gamers can associate themselves with the story in the form that they adore. Both processes, however, have disadvantages as they erase the Chinese cultural elements that are demonstrated in the novel. This novel is also heavily riddled with patriarchal paradigm that makes scholars consider Romance of the Three Kingdoms “masculine novel” by portraying women in a very weak position in Chinese society. This paper would try to dissect the issues of translation and women portrayal in detail by analyzing the translated work of Romance of the Three Kingdoms to see what cultural aspect that is disappear as a result of translation and dissecting the dismissive and derogative portrayal of several women characters in the novel.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Barry, P. (2002). Beginning Theory: an introduction to literary and cultural theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Brewitt-Taylor, C. H. (1925). San Kuo, or Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh.
Chen, S. (1959). Sanguo zhi (Record of the Three Kingdom). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
Classe, O. (Ed.). (2000). Encyclopedia of literary translation into English (Vol. 1). Illinois and London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publisher.
Fu, C. (2009). Origins of Chinese Names. Jakarta: Gramedia.
Hawkesworth, M. E. (2018). Globalization and Feminist Activism. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
Luo, G. (2006). Three Kingdoms. (M. Roberts, Trans.) Beijing: Foreign Language Press.
McLaren, A. E. (2008). Three Kingdoms and Chinese Culture by Kimberly Besio and Constantine Tung. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 71(2), 383-385.
Moody Jr., P. R. (1975). The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Popular Chinese Thought. The Review of Politics, 37(2), 178-179.
Peng, W. (2011). Ethnic Memory and Space: Legends of Zhuge Liang in Southwest China. Inner Asia, 13(1), 141-159. Retrieved from
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24572139
Roberts, M. (1991). Afterword. In L. Guanzhong, Three Kingdoms (p. 940). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rosenlee, L.-H. L. (2006). Confucianism and Women. New York: State University of New York Press.
Tian, X. (2015). Slashing Three Kingdoms: A Case Study in Fan Production on the Chinese Web. Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, 27(1), 224-277. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/24886590
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/ijels.v4i2.2303
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
IJELS Journal Sinta 4 Certificate (S4 = Level 4)
We would like to inform you that Indonesian Journal of English Language Studies (IJELS) has been nationally accredited Sinta 4 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia based on the decree No. Surat Keputusan 152/E/KPT/2023. Validity for 5 years: Vol 7 No 2, 2021 till Vol 12 No 1, 2026
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA.
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
IJELS e-ISSN 2715-0895; IJELS p-ISSN 2442-790X
Indonesian Journal of English Language Studies (IJELS) is published twice a year, namely in March and September, by the English Language Studies (ELS) of the Graduate Program of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.