Translating the Implied Author: An Ethno-Narrative Analysis of the English Translation of Li Juan's Dong Mu Chang

Qian Zhang

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Journal of Translation Studies ›› 2025, Vol. 9 ›› Issue (2) : 59-82.

Translating the Implied Author: An Ethno-Narrative Analysis of the English Translation of Li Juan's Dong Mu Chang

Qian Zhang

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Abstract

This paper presents a case study of the English translation of Li Juan's 李娟 narrative nonfiction Dong Mu Chang 冬牧場. Through highlighting the translational and ethnographic characteristics of the original Chinese text, it posits that Li assumes the dual role of a translator and an ethnographer in her writing of Dong Mu Chang and that translating the book is essentially a meta-translational endeavor. Drawing upon the widely recognized narrative concept of the implied author, the paper makes a comparison between the English translation of Dong Mu Chang and its original Chinese version and has discovered that the English translation features an implied author with a more pronounced image of an ethnographer, a manifestation attributed to a succession of paratextual interventions that can be regarded as a strategic approach adopted by the translators to augment the ethnographic essence of the book. This study underscores the richness and complexity of Dong Mu Chang as a dynamic object of translation and reveals the potential challenges involved in translating narrative nonfiction with ethnographic characteristics, giving prominence to the narrative concept of the implied author. It establishes an epistemologically important case for narrative nonfiction translation research and hopefully offers implications for the practice of narrative nonfiction translation as well.

Key words

Li Juan / Dong Mu Chang / narrative nonfiction translation / ethnographer / cultural translator / the implied author

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Qian Zhang. Translating the Implied Author: An Ethno-Narrative Analysis of the English Translation of Li Juan's Dong Mu Chang.Journal of Translation Studies 2025 , 9(2): 59-82

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