Features and Functions of Paratexts in Western Translation Studies Book Series in China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/nvts.2019.20Keywords:
Chinese series of translation studies, marketing strategies, paratext, Western translation theoriesAbstract
This paper explores the function of paratexts in two series published in China: 1) Western Translation Theories Studies: Foreign Translation Studies Series, and 2) FLTRP Translation Studies Series. I apply Gérard Genette's definition of paratexts to the Chinese publishing market in order to analyse three main categories of internal paratexts, including titles, blurbs and reading guides. I will argue that the Chinese language paratexts of the two series not only serve to promote books and provide profits for publishing houses, but also to provide textbooks and references for teachers, students and scholars at Chinese universities, with the aim of fostering the discipline of Translation Studies in China. In this paper, I explain how the authors of such paratexts offer some critical analysis of the books, by firstly exploring ways of transforming the ‘borrowing’ of Western theories and secondly assessing the advantages and disadvantages of ‘applying’ them in Chinese practice. This article aims to assess how the authors of some paratexts deal with the different and sometimes conflicting expectations between these two perspectives, and in doing so allow us to gain insights into and so better understand the ways in which the Chinese reception of Western Translation Theory is being shaped by ‘paratexts’, at times, functioning as ‘texts’.