Background
Eoyang, Eugene Chen was born on February 8, 1939 in Hong Kong. Came to the United States, 1946. Son of Thomas Ts'ao and Ellen Ying-ru (Ts'ao) Eoyang.
(In Two-Way Mirrors, Chen Eugene Eoyang engages in cross-c...)
In Two-Way Mirrors, Chen Eugene Eoyang engages in cross-cultural study, shedding light not only on the object of study but also on the subject conducting the study. The book's leading metaphor is that of the shop window, which is at once transparent (allowing a view of the merchandise on display) and reflective (offering an image of the prospective shopper). Eoyang shows the different and oppositional premises in Eastern and Western poetics juxtaposed not as contradictory but as complementary, allowing for a mutual illumination of values. He confronts the question of globalization and postmodernism bidirectionally, from an Asian as well as a Western perspective. Eoyang concludes by speculating on the continuing development of comparative literature, a discipline particularly well suited to new modes of discourse both reflective and reflexive, as illuminating as a two-way mirror.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739105000/?tag=2022091-20
(This eclectic collection of essays focuses on a number of...)
This eclectic collection of essays focuses on a number of intriguing issues in translation: some of these "polemic" essays challenge certain widespread beliefs and practices: for example, the belief that humor is untranslatable; the assumption that translations are always inferior to the originals; the spread of translations that are more impenetrable to the target audience than the originals ever were to the source language audience; above all, the notion that translation is a marginal rather than a major area of study: indeed, as one essay suggests, translation may represent a model of thought, and translating a mode of thinking. These essays also consider the international trade in translations, the ratio of translations out of the language and of translations into the language, as a possible index to historical development; analyze the humor that can be translated as well as the humor that cannot be translated; uncover the implicit indicators of time and place in traditional Chinese poetry (offering thereby a study in comparative deictics); examine the hermeneutics of Old Testament exegeses, which - unlike the modern world - privileged the oral over the written word; discuss the subtle but definable differences between translations that appropriate previous versions by way of allusion and quotation, and translations that merely plagiarize. In the final section, entitled "Divertissements", Eugene Eoyang provides an exposition of his translation of a poem, first published in the People's Daily (and since banned), that contained a hidden - and decidedly hostile - acrostic, in which the challenge was not only to convey the original meaning but also to preserve the disguise of the original meaning in the Chinese text. (The translation appeared in The New York Times.) He also offers a wry typology of translators, comparing them - metaphorically and paronomastically - to different species of birds; in a concluding coda, he excavates the place-names in bicultural and multilingual Hong Kong, uncovering not only translations and transliterations, but also "heteronyms" (different names for the same place) as well as, remarkably, "phononyms" (names where the pronunciation of a word in one language happens to coincide with a word in another language with the same meaning). The result is a provocative potpourri of fascinating insights into the cultural and semiotic complexities of translation that will surely interest students of translation, literature, linguistics, and history, as well as the informed general reader.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9042008547/?tag=2022091-20
literature educator translator writer
Eoyang, Eugene Chen was born on February 8, 1939 in Hong Kong. Came to the United States, 1946. Son of Thomas Ts'ao and Ellen Ying-ru (Ts'ao) Eoyang.
Bachelor, Harvard College, 1959. Master of Arts, Columbia University, 1960. Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature, Indiana University, 1971.
Editorial trainee, Doubleday and Company. New York City, 1960-1962;
editor, Doubleday Anchor Books, New York City, 1962-1966;
assistant professor, Indiana U., Bloomington, 1971-1974;
associate professor, Indiana U., Bloomington, 1974-1980;
professor comparative literature, Indiana U., Bloomington, since 1980;
associate dean research and graduate development, Indiana U., Bloomington, 1977-1980;
chairman East Asian languages and cultures, Indiana U., Bloomington, 1982-1984;
founder, director East Asian Summer Language Institute, Indiana U., Bloomington, 1984-1989. Trustee, secretary-treasurer Kinsey Institute, Bloomington, 1982-1993, Chairman of the Board, 1993-1995.
Member commission on scholarly committee People's Republic China, 1984-1989. Chair Professor of English Lingnan College, Hong Kong.
(This eclectic collection of essays focuses on a number of...)
(In Two-Way Mirrors, Chen Eugene Eoyang engages in cross-c...)
(Rhymes for children, on life, on behavior, on holidays, o...)
(A patriotic argument for multiculturalism in America.)
(Book by Eoyang, Eugene Chen)
Fellow Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, since 2000. Member Modern Language Association (advisory committee on foreign languages and literature 1989-1992), American Comparative Literature Association (vice president 1993-1995, president 1995-1997), Society for Comparative Study Civilization, American Council Learned Societies (committee on studies Chinese civilization 1972-1976), Hong Kong Research Grants Council, since 2004. Hong Kong Arts Development Council, since 2004.
Married Patricia Chiu-yi Lee, March 10, 1962. Children: Christopher, Gregory.