Exploring ultra-hybridity in the translations of postcolonial literature in Thailand
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Abstract
The present paper aims to explain the development of studies on translation of postcolonial literature in the Thai context in the last two decades and to explore the concept of ultra-hybridity in the Thai translations of postcolonial literature. Applying the frameworks of abrogation and appropriation by Ashcroft et al. (2003), the findings reveal that there are two groups of research on translation of postcolonial literature: (1) studies on translation techniques and (2) comparative studies of the source text and the target text. Both groups have commenced to directly apply postcolonialism to explaining the translation since 2015. Moreover, the Thai translators of the selected postcolonial literature managed to retain a number of indigenous terms characteristic of the source texts by: (1) transliterating and transcribing them according to their English Romanisation, (2) transliterating them according to the way to write Sanskrit terms in Thai written discourse, and (3) using footnotes, which reflects a certain degree of ultra-hybridity. However, in some cases, the translator opted not to translate those terms and failed to solve the problem of syntactic fusion between English and local languages, resulting in the loss of intention to demonstrate the localism.
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