(Pseudo-)collaborative translation as a legitimization of authority: a case study of the National Theatre Movement

Collaborative translation has the potential to complicate our understanding of the translation process with the epistemology of the multi-agent and the multimodal. However, translation theories have been dominated by 'myths of singularity,' and its collaborative dimension has received limited scholarly attention. The present research is an attempt to explore the issue of authority in collaborative translation, with the (pseudo-)collaborative translation conducted in the National Theatre Movement in China in the mid-1920s as a case in point. Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of orthodoxy/heterodoxy, symbolic power, and disinterestedness are used as a theoretical lens to examine the discourse by which the movement's proponents attempted to legitimate the heterodox 'aesthetic paradigm' through resorting to collaborative translation. Countering the concern that collaborative translation multiples the translator's authority or constitutes a source of division, this paper argues that collaborative translation can enhance collective status by projecting 'disinterestedness,' but it may well enact a hierarchical power structure that diminishes individual contribution and even exploits the vulnerable. The case of the National Theatre Movement also brings to our attention the phenomenon of (pseudo-)collaboration, which sheds light on the understanding of the notion of collaborative translation in general.