Hypertextual Approach and Digital Creativity in Translation Studies

Abstract

Computer technology, furthermore, offers new possibilities, not only for the Internet reading and writing of literary texts, but also for both the practice and theory of translation. In other words, it returns the ST to its original status, as an intertextual artefact which bears the marks of other texts, the traces of other texts. With the application of multimedia, we shatter the coherence of the original text to reveal not an ultimate meaning, but a multiplicity of signification which opens up the text as a site for different reading positions. In this paper I attempt to tackle the problems of translation through the form of multimedia. Three important concepts are discussed: 1. From Literalism to Creative Writing, 2. From Singularism to Pluralism, and 3. Intercultural Relationships. I explored the potential of multimedia to exercise the capacity for creative thought, as translation itself is a creative activity by its very nature. Not simply with visual elements in a design system but with conceptual elements in an information system, are worth of taking into account. The process increases one's visual and formal awareness of works of translation, and allows one to gain a deeper insight into the social, political and ideological factors which influence the production and interpretation of translation. My main concern is to find ways of representing the source poems to achieve acceptability and thus to activate reader response in the target cultural context. Ultimately, I wish to find a means of converting the reader of translations into a translator. Through hypertextual approach and digital creativity in cyber-space, I explored between presence and absence as it situates textual scenes and stories in new realms of habitation which can be described as ‘third space' of existence, the place of coalescence between lived/ actual experience and its representation, the collapse of the conventional relationship between signifier and signified, between ST and TT. Beyond writing, the application of multimedia involves the additional strata of digital imagery, code, acoustic arrangement, colour design, and meta-scripting. These new complexities expand the field for literary translation as well as deconstructionist experimentation.