Approaching translations of Tolkien's works as stories in their own right, this book reads multiple Chinese translations of Tolkien's writing to uncover the new and unique perspectives that enrich the meaning of the original texts.
Exploring translations of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin and The Unfinished Tales, Eric Reinders reveals the mechanics of meaning by literally back-translating the Chinese into English to dig into the conceptual common grounds shared by religion, fantasy and translation, namely the suspension of disbelief, and questions of truth - literal, allegorical and existential. With coverage of themes such as gods and heathens, elves and 'Men', race, mortality and immortality, fate and doom, and language, Reinder's journey to Chinese Middle-earth and back again drastically alters views on Tolkien's work where even basic genre classification surrounding fantasy literature look different through the lens of Chinese literary expectations.
Invoking scholarship in Tolkien studies, fantasy theory and religious and translations studies, this is an ambitious exercises in comparative imagination across cultures that suspends the prejudiced hierarchy of originals over translations.
| ISBN: | 9781350374683 |
| Publication date: | 30th October 2025 |
| Author: | Eric Robert Reinders |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Academic an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 200 pages |
| Series: | Perspectives on Fantasy |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers Epic fantasy / heroic fantasy Fiction in translation Translation and interpretation |
Approaching translations of Tolkien's works as stories in their own right, this book reads multiple Chinese translations of Tolkien's writing to uncover the new and unique perspectives that enrich the meaning of the original texts.
Exploring translations of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, The Children of Hurin and The Unfinished Tales, Eric Reinders reveals the mechanics of meaning by literally back-translating the Chinese into English to dig into the conceptual common grounds shared by religion, fantasy and translation, namely the suspension of disbelief, and questions of truth - literal, allegorical and existential. With coverage of themes such as gods and heathens, elves and 'Men', race, mortality and immortality, fate and doom, and language, Reinder's journey to Chinese Middle-earth and back again drastically alters views on Tolkien's work where even basic genre classification surrounding fantasy literature look different through the lens of Chinese literary expectations.
Invoking scholarship in Tolkien studies, fantasy theory and religious and translations studies, this is an ambitious exercises in comparative imagination across cultures that suspends the prejudiced hierarchy of originals over translations.
Reading Tolkien in Chinese features in the following genres: Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Epic fantasy / heroic fantasy, Fiction in translation, Translation and interpretation
Reading Tolkien in Chinese is available in Paperback, Hardback
Reading Tolkien in Chinese was written by Eric Robert Reinders and published by Bloomsbury Academic an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
Reading Tolkien in Chinese has 200 pages
Yes it is part of Perspectives on Fantasy series
£26.09