| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 翻譯研究所 === 104 === When dealing with translation, most people would consider language transfer as translation. However, most of them neglected that translation sometimes is hidden as non-translation. It is indeed when an author writes, he/she may rely on translation to complete the “original”. It is “original” on the surface, but under the surface, there lies translation. Though the process cannot be seen, it does not mean translation never exists. Thus, it is time to redefine the predestined definition of translation and original.
The thesis will take literary works of a well-known Asian American writer, Amy Tan, as examples to shed light on the translation interface. Though she was labelled as author, the translations in her works could prove that she was a translator who exerted creativity in translations. Under this underlying translation process, Amy Tan made herself “visible”, and enabled the target readers to feel something different from their culture. Amy Tan, as an author as well as a translator, is constrained by the time and space, which results in rewriting and adaptation of her texts.
Tan’s translations were not what traditional translation studies used to define: an equivalence to original source, a negotiation between languages and as two separate products. The thesis argues that her creative writing are not what traditionally used to categorize as “original”, but as translation. In this sense, the definition of translation needs to be broadened. The distinction between original and translation is hard to make clear, and what one considers as a first hand source may not be original at all. As a result, if the concept of original is deconstructed, why should translation be seen as a secondary product? The relationship between original and translation, between author and translator, and the idea of translation will be no longer stable.
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