The fuzzy interface between censorship and self-censorship in translation

Abstract

The present research explores how the self-censoring mechanism is established in the translator’s mind and how this internal mechanism interfaces with external, institutional censorial policies to affect both the process and the outcome of a translation. The paper begins with a discussion of the ubiquitous nature of censorship and how the translator internalizes various coercive censorial forces. Based on detailed case studies of three well-known censorship/ self-censorship-affected Chinese translations – those of Lolita, Animal Farm, and Deng Xiaoping – this research finds that when certain values, ideologies, cultural practices and moral presuppositions become internalized by translators, their censorial behavior is no longer a coerced option but an active choice of their own, and also that there is often no clear dividing line between what is coerced (censoring) and what is one’s own (self-censoring) action in contexts where ‘politically/ culturally sensitive’ source texts are bound to be scrutinized by the censor’s/ self-censor’s eye before they enter the translations market.