The Paratexts of Erotic Translation: Lady Chatterley’s Lover and
Lolita in China

Abstract

There is an increasing awareness that a translation product is
composed of both the textual part and the promotional materials so that it is commercialised and socialised based on the market demand and the profile of the publisher. As a mediation between the readers and the translated text, the promotional materials, known as paratexts, can be very influential in familiarising consumers with the product, indicating the genre of the text and determining the target readership. While they play an essential role in managing how readers perceive the translation before they begin the book, they also reflect the publisher’s and the other producers’ voices in depicting the product based on its position in
the social context as well as their assumptions about the preferences of the market. Thus, a study of translational paratexts allows us to observe the participation of different social agents and institutions in the process of production as well as their joint efforts to make the product more readily accepted by the target culture. In addition, the heterogeneous nature of paratexts generates additional reflections on research methodologies, such as the integration of the visual material analysis in the field of translation studies. In terms of research objects, Chinese translations of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Lolita are selected as appropriate materials for case studies due to the fact that these two controversial works have received a great deal of attention from both the general public and the translation field in China since their publication. The long history of translation and retranslation of these two works makes them ideal for a diachronic study observing how the translation field and publishing industry have changed in the past several decades in China. At the same
time, their controversial nature highlights the struggles and
compromises of the publishers due to the socio-political context.