Volume 20 Issue 1, 2026
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Cover page | Editorial | Contents | Contributors
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1.
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Bishnu Dey’s Bengali
Translations of Yeats: Resistant Domestication and the Translator’s Visibility
Author(s): Abhishek Sarkar Pages: Published:
Abstract
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Bishnu Dey’s Bengali Translations of Yeats: Resistant Domestication and the Translator’s
Visibility
Abhishek Sarkar
Received 00.00.00, Accepted 00.00.00
Abstract
The Bengali translations of Yeats attempted by the pioneering Bengali modernist
poet Bishnu Dey (1909-1982) may be regarded as “domesticating” (to borrow from Venuti’s
famous binary), but far from rendering himself invisible as a translator, Dey projects
his own distinctive poetic style onto Yeats’ texts. Dey’s primary emphasis is apparently
on the verbal music and formal structure of the poem and its readability in translation.
Although the poems in translation adhere to the subject, cultural references, number
of lines and often also the rhyme scheme of the source texts, they showcase Dey’s
hallmark poetic style with its abstruse Sanskrit diction and obscure, elliptical
syntax. In his essays on Yeats, Dey marvels at the unadorned epigrammatic compactness
that Yeats achieved in his poetry around 1910, but Dey does not follow such a style
in his translations of Yeats. Dey’s translations may be seen as presenting to an
elite constituency of Bengali readers (trained in the appreciation of poetry) his
own reading of Yeats as mediated through Dey’s own recognisable poetic idiom.
Keywords: Yeats, Translation, Modernism, Bengali Modernist Poetry, Reception
of Yeats in Bengali.
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2.
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From Audiovisual
Rewriting to Literary Fandom: Muyu Shuixin’s Hongloumeng Series across Bilibili
and YouTube
Author(s): Zhong Zhenhao & Zhao Chaoyong Pages: Published:
Abstract
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From Audiovisual Rewriting to Literary Fandom: Muyu Shuixin’s Hongloumeng
Series across Bilibili and YouTube
Zhong Zhenhao & Zhao Chaoyong
Received 00.00.00, Accepted 00.00.00
Abstract
This paper examines how platform-based secondary creation reshapes the dissemination
of Chinese classical literature in the digital age through a case study of Muyu
Shuixin’s commentary video series on Hongloumeng. By comparing the circulation and
reception of the same series on Bilibili and YouTube, the study explores how language,
platform mechanisms, cultural familiarity, and audience participation shape the
formation of literary fandom. It argues that secondary creation is not merely a
derivative cultural practice but an important form of literary mediation that recontextualises
canonical texts for contemporary viewers. The findings show that the series successfully
fostered a recognisable literary fandom on Bilibili, but failed to generate a comparable
fan community on YouTube. This contrast reveals both the possibilities and the limitations
of platform-based secondary creation in the cross-cultural circulation of Chinese
classical literature.
Keywords: Secondary Creation, Literary Fandom, Hongloumeng, Muyu Shuixin,
Cross-platform Adaptation.
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3.
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Second Writing or
Authorial Control? Self-Translation and Bilingual Creativity in Rabindranath Tagore’s
Gitanjali
Author(s): Partha Debnath Pages: Published:
Abstract
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Second Writing or Authorial Control? Self-Translation and Bilingual Creativity in
Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali
Partha Debnath
Received 00.00.00, Accepted 00.00.00
Abstract
The fundamental questions underlying what is actually meant by author and translation
are raised by Rabindranath Tagore’s self-translation from Bengali (1910) to English
(1912). This paper does not seek to reproduce Tagore’s original work, but rather
to describe the process of what it calls second writing, a creative process of restructuring,
using imagery and drawing on cultural references, for a new global audience. The
paper looks at five selected Tagorean poems in both versions through the prism of
Itamar Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory and research on bilingual cognition to reflect
the way Tagore manoeuvred between devotional lyricism in Bengali and spiritual sensibility
in the West. This analysis shows that there were two-fold reasons for his self-translation.
It assisted in his international reception, and it redefined his poetic voice in
a new literary system. The discoveries here proposed make a bold claim to the original
and the translation, suggesting that Tagore’s bicultural or bilingual practice is
a form of creative authorial practice rather than a mere derivative of the original.
The implications for translation studies in the Postcolonial context, and for multilingualism
and authorship, are explored.
Keywords: Self-translation, Bilingual Creativity, Polysystem Theory, Postcolonial Translation, Authorial Agency, Gitanjali.
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