What is it about?
Sunset Song portrays the harsh impact of the First World War, and the transition from a rural to an urban way of life. Gibbon observes characters torn between tradition and modernity, afflicted by the struggles in the period leading up to WWI. His characters ultimately turn to the land and nature in their struggle for agency and independence.
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Why is it important?
Sunset Song sets numerous cultural and linguistic challenges to Chinese translators who wish to mediate this highly localised story for wider readerships. Our chapter considers how both the source text and its translation address the themes of trauma and nature and compares the ways in which these themes are presented to Western and Chinese readers.
Perspectives
I had the pleasure of working on this article with my co-author with whom I have collaborated on other projects combining both of our strengths. Writing this article also offered me an opportunity to research on the unique features of the Scots language, as well as how language and nature work together in the battle against trauma.
Dr Ying Zhu
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mediating Language, Trauma and Nature: the Translation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song into Chinese, February 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004723832_015.
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