| Abstract: | 本計劃總稱為「中文巴別塔II」，為96-97年度國科會計劃「中文巴別塔」之後續研究。經過三年來通盤的檢討、思考與認知需求，醞釀此兩年期的連續性計劃，總目標為從中文千年翻譯史中，尋求使中文—作為一種當代語言—之所以續存至今的細部想像與建構，其變革與相關媒介，最終與西方（後）巴別塔語言神話式的建構想像做結合。兩年工作目標及工作內容如下： 第一年（2010-2011）: 翻譯的媒介（agents of translation） 建構一部翻譯史堪稱中文現代翻譯理論的首要工作。從先前「中文巴別塔」研究中得知，中國幾個動盪不安的時代（魏晉南北朝、明末清初、五四運動、一九四九年迄今），卻是翻譯活動凝聚「歸化」(domestication)與「異化」（alienation）交流能量的時期，更是中文與中國文學獲致深遠影響的時期。其中許多翻譯 “媒介” 居功厥偉，包含傳教士、譯者、校定者、編輯、出版者，甚至文藝贊助者、政治官員、報章雜誌與各類組織等，他們不僅具有「功能性」（functional）的角色，有些更勇於挑戰當時主流意志與權威，在歷史、文學、文化、尤其語言層面的變遷、改變、創新與政策制訂，有其決定性影響。本階段研究擬詳繪上述媒介畫像，從細部瞭解他們與中文翻譯以及語言發展史之間的關係。 第二年（2011-2012）: 異域的考驗（trial of the foreign） 本階段研究以貝爾曼（A. Berman）在《異域的考驗》一書中的論點為基礎，針對德國浪漫主義者（Herder, Hölderlin, Novalis, Goethe, Humboldt, Schlegel等）以Bildung（文化）概念為主的文化脈絡中，翻譯（外國文學）在檯面下所占的關鍵地位，一如路德（Luther）所翻譯的聖經，如何為整個德國國族語言與文學奠定基礎。從此脈絡治下，歷經近代幾位哲學家（尤其Benjamin, Steiner 以及Derrida）對巴別塔所做的訓詁詮釋，從而反思及關照何謂（後）「巴別塔」語言？更何謂「中文巴別塔」？其中牽涉翻譯主體—譯者—如何自我型塑的經驗。
Chinese Tour of Babel II This study will be called “Chinese Tour of Babel II”. It is the following research of 2007-2008 NSC granted project “Chinese Tour of Babel”. After a thorough reconsideration during three years, we recognize the need to enlarge the original to a two-year proposal. The main goal of the study is to seek the reasons why Chinese – as a modern language of our time – could survive until now. How could we construct its image in details and in imagination with the help of its millennium history of the translation? Its evolution and some related agents could eventually be associated with the Western Babelian language, in its mythic imagination. Below is the list of research goals and research content for the following years. Year One (2010-2011): Agents of translation The construction of a translation history can be the first task of the Chinese modern theory of translation. From the previous study of “The Chinese Tower of Babel”, we know that Chinese translation activities have reached their highest climax and their most energetic exchanges through the strategies of “domestication” and “alienation” during some unstable periods of its history: Wei-Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties, the turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the May 4th Movement, 1949 until now. And Chinese language and literature were profoundly influenced by those activities. Many translation “agents” made great contribution, including the missionary, translators, revisors, editors, publishers, even some patronage, government officials, magazines, newspapers and institutions. They do not only have a “functional” role, some of them even challenged the mainstream authority and power, but they were also quite influential in the policy-making, changes and innovation in all fields including the history, literature, culture and language. This stage of our study will give the portrait of these agents, especially that of the translator’s. From the detailed analyses, we try to better understand their relations with the history of Chinese translation and language evolution. Second Year: (2011-2012): The trial of the foreign The stage of this study bases on some arguments of Antoine Berman in his book titled “The trial of the foreign”. In this book, Berman assumes that translation (of foreign literature) played an important but implicit role in the cultural context of German Romanticism, in that period of time writers like Herder, Hölderlin, Novalis, Goethe, Humboldt, Schlegel were quite engaged to the concept of Bildung. This historically refers to an event which was crucial to German culture, language and identity: Luther’s translation of the Bible in the XVI century. Following this context, the interpretations about the Tower of Babel given by some philosophers of our time, mainly Benjamin, Steiner and Derrida become important for us to perceive what is this so-called (after) Babelian language, or what this Chinese Tower of Babel represents. Inevitably is involved the subject of the translation, especially the self-fitting experience of all translators. |
