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From Tool to Subject: A Study of Translator Behavior in Babel Based on the “Text-Behavior-Society” Trinity Model



Author(s)

HAN Nuoyi, TANG Lei

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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.08.003

Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China

R. F. Kuang’s 2023 postcolonial fantasy novel Babel reconfigures translation as the very mechanism of magical power, thereby transforming the translator from a passive instrument into a pivotal agent within imperial structures. Drawing on Zhou Lingshun’s “Text-Behavior-Society” trinity framework, this paper traces the protagonist Robin Swift’s evolving identity—from a “language-oriented” scholar to a complicit “society-oriented” participant, and ultimately to an active resister. The analysis demonstrates how Robin’s translational practices are both conditioned by colonial discipline and reciprocally destabilize the prevailing social order. His eventual destruction of Babel not only dismantles the myth of disinterested, apolitical knowledge production but also foregrounds the ethical agency of the translator in confronting systemic colonial violence.

Babel, translator behavior criticism, “Text-Behavior-Society” trinity system, translation ethics

Journal of Literature and Art Studies, August 2026, Vol. 16, No. 8, 652-659