Across languages, across media. A comparative analysis of linguistic variation in literary translation and transmedial adaptation of a Chinese-American fictional character

Abstract

This study explores translation and transmediality by examining the adaptation of Charlie Chan’s literary and cinematic portrayal in English and Italian. As a Chinese American fictional detective created by E.D. Biggers in the 1920s (often accused of stereotyping the minority he represents), Charlie Chan navigates various cultural contexts, providing a rich ground for intermedial comparisons. By employing an intercultural and intermedial approach to Translation Studies, this research sets out to understand how linguistic variation is represented across languages and media. The analysis intertwines multiple levels of translation, as it investigates the passages from English source to Italian target version of both novel and film (interlingual translation), as well as the novel-film adaptation as a form of rewriting (and therefore of medium translation). In particular, the focus will be on how Chan’s language variation, with specific attention to those traits that are supposed to delineate his fictional ‘Chineseness’, may have changed across these multiple translational passages. The findings of this research reveal that the different versions preserve and adapt to various extents Chan’s portrayal, and that both different languages and media contribute to a nuanced understanding of the complexities in the (stereotyped) representation of the image of minority characters.