Negotiating hybridity in Gu Hongming’s English translation of Confucian texts

It examines the role of the translator by analyzing how Gu’s diasporic experience structured his ambiguous and ambivalent cultural consciousness, which influenced the way in which he translated Confucian classics. Through a postcolonial reading of Gu’s motivation, thought, as well as religious and political rendition of Confucian texts, this thesis investigates the complexity of hybrid translation as a negotiating process involving tension, resistance, ambiguity, interplay and creation.

This study further analyzes how Gu’s distinctive hybrid strategy reveals the dynamics of translation, and indicates the ethical appeal of Self and Other. Moreover, this thesis explores how Gu’s hybrid translation reflects on various themes such as linguo-cultural (in)commensurability, (un)translatability, and the relationship between foreignization and domestication. As a case study, this thesis probes into hybridity as a constructive yet ruptured term in translation studies.<br>