Translation selection and the consecration of Dylan Thomas’s poetry in China

Abstract

Dylan Thomas’s poetry can be seen both as minor Welsh literature and world literature. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of field and capital, this article explores the mechanism of translation selection and consecration of Thomas’s poetry in China by using his poetry published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press as an illustrative case study. In so doing, it is argued that the integrated forms of linguistic, economic, and symbolic capital associated with Thomas’s poetry, along with the expiration of its copyright, prompted the publisher to select his poetry for translation to maintain its own dominant position in the Chinese publishing field. The publisher, translator, and other agents have consecrated Thomas’s poetry as world literature in China. This article expands research on inter-peripheral translation flows and ‘sociologies of poetry translation’ and advances interdisciplinary studies of translation and world literature.