The imagination and literary practice of a "third world" Hong Kong: The introduction and appropriation of the Latin American literature in the 1970s Hong Kong = 香港文學的「第三世界」想像與實踐：1970年代香港文學對拉丁美洲文學的譯介與挪用
Project title
The imagination and literary practice of a "third world" Hong Kong: The introduction and appropriation of the Latin American literature in the 1970s Hong Kong = 香港文學的「第三世界」想像與實踐：1970年代香港文學對拉丁美洲文學的譯介與挪用
Principal Investigator
Grant Awarding Body
Research Grants Council
Grant Type
Faculty Development Scheme
Project Code
UGC/FDS15/H12/21
Amount awarded
HK$624,320
Funding Year
2021-2022
Duration of the Project
24 months
Status
Completed
Abstract
This research project aims at studying the introduction and appropriation of Latin American literature in Hong Kong in the 1970s through an analysis of such articles in local newspapers and literary journals. The adaptation of Latin American literature has created numerous important literary works and marks a milestone in the development of both Hong Kong literature and the formation of local identity. It is also an important case study which could illuminate the unique advantage of Hong Kong literature regarding the instantaneousness, sensitivity, and vision of the import of foreign literature. Current studies on the relationship of Latin American and Hong Kong literature mostly focuses on the individual adoption of magical realism of certain modernist and postmodernist writers. However, such reception as a phenomenon and how it begins has not been sufficiently investigated, and could not be done so unless the primary materials on local periodicals are combed through.
Before postcolonialism swept through Hong Kong academia, many local writers had already reflected upon relevant issues such as colonial governance, Chinese nationalism, and localness, sometimes by questioning the dominance of “Western” culture, and instead show great interest in “Third World” culture. Latin American countries attract these local writers’ particular interest because of their anti-colonial nationalist movements and literature experiments at that time. Some Hong Kong writers take the initiative of introducing them to local readers, and in doing so, they also redefined Hong Kong in the world order by imagining themselves among the anti-colonial “Third World”.
This proposed study integrates some methods of the translation studies and translingual practice into periodical studies to approach the research objectives. It will contextualize the introduction of Latin American literature in the local periodicals during the 1970s. It will compare how writers from various political and aesthetic stances understand and appropriate them, including the long-ignored translating forces from leftist writers. It will also examine the translingual practice of how these foreign literatures are transformed and integrated with local literature development. It contributes to various key issues in the study of Hong Kong literature, including the specific features of 1970s Hong Kong literature, cultural identity, postcoloniality, the interaction between local and foreign literature, and the relationship between local and global context. It will serve as an important case in the study of periodicals, Hong Kong literature, and literary translation in Hong Kong.
Before postcolonialism swept through Hong Kong academia, many local writers had already reflected upon relevant issues such as colonial governance, Chinese nationalism, and localness, sometimes by questioning the dominance of “Western” culture, and instead show great interest in “Third World” culture. Latin American countries attract these local writers’ particular interest because of their anti-colonial nationalist movements and literature experiments at that time. Some Hong Kong writers take the initiative of introducing them to local readers, and in doing so, they also redefined Hong Kong in the world order by imagining themselves among the anti-colonial “Third World”.
This proposed study integrates some methods of the translation studies and translingual practice into periodical studies to approach the research objectives. It will contextualize the introduction of Latin American literature in the local periodicals during the 1970s. It will compare how writers from various political and aesthetic stances understand and appropriate them, including the long-ignored translating forces from leftist writers. It will also examine the translingual practice of how these foreign literatures are transformed and integrated with local literature development. It contributes to various key issues in the study of Hong Kong literature, including the specific features of 1970s Hong Kong literature, cultural identity, postcoloniality, the interaction between local and foreign literature, and the relationship between local and global context. It will serve as an important case in the study of periodicals, Hong Kong literature, and literary translation in Hong Kong.