Manipulation in biography translation : a case study of the peritextual elements of "Tall Order : The Goh Chok Tong Story"

• Main Author: Kuek, Jinhua
• Other Authors: Cui Feng
• Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Humanities::History::Asia::Singapore::Politics and government; Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Pragmatics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/149540
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Biography is a popular genre of writing with more than 2,000 years of history. Written by professionals, biographical works bear both historical and literary characteristics. Peritextual elements such as covers and footnotes form an integral part of biography, but such features are not often studied in translation. Through a comparative study of the English and the simplified and traditional Chinese editions of the biography Tall Order: The Goh Chok Tong Story (2018) published in Singapore and Taiwan respectively, we examined how manipulation can affect the peritextual translations of biography and how patronage and ideology can affect the peritextual elements. The study revealed significant differences in the title, cover design and the front sections of the two Chinese editions, indicating that manipulation had occurred at the non-verbal paratextual level. It was also found that both Chinese editions also feature a significantly greater number of footnotes than the source edition, which can be categorised as citation footnotes, profiles and backgrounders. For footnotes with existing translations, additions and alterations are used to provide additional context. The study also found that patronage on two levels, namely from the biography subject and publisher and from the publisher of the translated edition can affect the translation of peritextual elements, and the ideology of the publishers and the translator itself also play a part in doing so.