Prof. HUI Ting Yan, Isaac

Biographical Note

Isaac Hui holds a BA with First Class Honours and a PhD from the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Volpone’s Bastards: Theorising Jonson’s City Comedy (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) and has published numerous articles on literary and translation studies in journals such as Ben Jonson Journal, Translation Review, and Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice. His second monograph, Cultural Misencounter: Reading Chinese Literature in English Translation, is forthcoming from Manchester University Press in 2027.

Research Interests

• Early Modern English Literature
• Chinese Literature as world literature
• Literary and Cultural Theory
• Translation Theory 

Monograph

• Cultural Misencounter: Reading Chinese Literature in English Translation. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2027.
• Volpone’s Bastards: Theorising Jonson’s City Comedy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

1. ‘When local goes global: English subtitles of two comedy films by Stephen Chow.’ Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice.  33:5 (2025). 881–896.
2. ‘“Clothe you his body, apparel your mind”: Imitation and Narcissism in Cynthia’s Revels.’ The Comparatist. Vol. 48. October 2024. 222-238.
3. ‘Reading and Translating Se, Jie and Lust, Caution as World Literature.’ Forum: International Journal of Interpretation and Translation. 20:1 (2022). 44-64.
4. ‘Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976).’ In: Tambling J. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 2021.
5. ‘Metaphors for Translation in Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Comedies.’ Translation Review. 107:1 (2020). 40-59.
6. “‘To what base uses we may return, Horatio!’: Hamlet, Comedy and Class Struggle.” In The Routledge Comedy Studies Reader. Ed. Ian Wilkie. Routledge, 2019. 77-85.
7. ‘Woody Allen’s Manhattan’. In: Tambling J. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 2019.
8. ‘The Dis-orienting Orients – A Lacanian Reading of Philip Massinger’s Tragicomedy The Renegado.’ Comedy Studies. 2017. 8:1. 22-35.
9. ‘Translating Hong Kong Female Writing into English – Wong Bik-wan’s Language of the “Repressed.”‘ Frontiers of Literary Studies in China. 11:1, April 2017, pp. 206-231.
10. ‘The Comedy of the “Para-site”: Duck Soup, Volpone, and Hamlet.’ The Comparatist. Vol. 40, October 2016, pp. 170-189.
11. ‘Re-negotiating Domesticating and Foreignizing: Bridging The Symposium and Niezi through the Imagery of Emptiness.’ Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies. 3:1, April 2016, pp. 33-46.
12. ‘On Comedy and Death: The Anamorphic Ape in Volpone.’ Comedy Studies. 5:2, November 2014, pp. 137-147.
13. ‘Translation in Ben Jonson: Towards a Definition of Imitation.’ Ben Jonson Journal. 20:2, November 2013, pp. 223-240.
14. ‘”To what base uses we may return, Horatio!” – Hamlet, Comedy and Class Struggle.’ Comedy Studies 4:2, September 2013, pp. 155-165.

Book Review

• Performing Childhood in the Early Modern Theatre: the Children’s Playing Companies (1599-1613) by Edel Lamb. Modern Language Review. Vol. 105, Part 2, April 2010, pp. 525-526.