A Corpus-Based Comparative Study Of Julia Lovell’s Creative Translation Of Lu Xun’s Novels

Lu Xun’s novels as a whole is regarded as a milestone of Chinese modern and contemporary literature for their unique value in literariness and thoughts.Its publication by the Penguin Classics in 2009 marks the consolidation of its position in the field of world literature,which is a result of the reconstruction of literariness in Lovell’s translation,especially her creativity in translation.The major features of her creative translation,whether the features are systematic or not,and the differences between Lovell’s translation and previous ones,especially those of the Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s,these are all questions worthy of research and inspire this research.To answer these questions,a parallel corpus is built,and a corpus-based study is carried out on creative translation of Lu Xun’s novels between Julia Lovell’s translation and the comparative translated texts of Yang Xianyi and Glays Yang.Systematic creative features of Lovell’s translation are captured,described,compared and analyzed,and as a result,research methods of translation creativity are developed and understanding of translation creativity is deepened.Loss is unavoidable in translation due to languistic and cultural differences.However,creativity can lead to compensation and gain in translation.The gain in translation will not only endow new life to the original work in the new context of language and culture,but also bring new forms and meaning to the target world.At present,breakthrough should be made in researches concerning creative translation,to extend from micro level investigation to the systematic and macro level study,and to deepen our understanding of nature and regularities of creative translation.In this study,comparison is carried out between 2 English translations of Lu Xun’s novels with different types of translators,benefactors and translation directions.At the same time,corpus tools are used to facilitate the detection of regular patterns of creative translation.Quantitative and qualitative methods are combined in the analysis,and then effects and reasons are discussed.After close reading and corpus-driven search,four investigation items are set,including nonce word,modifier-head transferred epithet,personified metaphorical verb and psychological verb.Lovell’s translation has a higher level of creation in the 4 items.And the 4 parameters have representativeness to a certain extent,because they are the basic lexical or collocational forms,possessing foregrounding features either of the form or of the combination of form and meaning,or characterized by the changing of dimension in expression.Besides,the setting of parameters makes completeness of statistics possible within a certain range,which can guarantee the objectivity of the comparison.In the application of nonce word(NW),Lovell’s has a greater number both in the total sum,and in the 3 sub-types than those of the Yangs.Significant differences exist in the total number,as well as 2 sub-types,including derivative NW and homophonic NW between the translations.All these show a higher level of creation in Lovell’s translation.NW can bring flexibility and conciseness to the translated text,and make the word itself,images or characters foregrounded.Research on modifier-head transferred epithet(M-HTE)is conducted in a Two-way Investigation Mode.On one aspect,in the translation of M-HTE,the C-N normalization rates of the two translations are all higher than those of C-C creative translation,with the normalization rate of Lovell’s text even higher.In the C-C type,the numbers of C1-C1 creative transplantation are higher than those of C1-C2 creative reconstruction in both translated versions.On the other aspect,in the application of M-HTE,the number in Lovell’s text is far more than those both in the original work and of Yang’s translation,showing a higher level of creativity.Translation and application constitute different research direction in creative translation;while different translation modes,including C-N or N-N normalization,as well as C-C and N-C creative translation,forming a judgement gradient of creativity.The above translation types constitute anetwork of multidimensional parameters for research of creative translation.Normalization can only serve as a referential index for the judgement of creativity level of translation,and can not be regarded as the key index of the level of creativity;Two-way Investigation Mode can guarantee the completeness and objectivity of investigation.Investigation on personified metaphorical verb(PMV)shows that significant differences exist between that of the total numbers,as well as the 3 sub-types of the 2 translations,with Lovell’s higher than those of the Yangs.Both translations have the same trend in the number distribution of3 sub-types,with life-as-tenor the least,nonlife-as-tenor the middle,and abstraction-as-tenor the most.However,Lovell’s has the highest number of abstraction-as-tenor,which is of the highest level of estrangement.These statistics show a higher level of creativity in Lovell’s translation.From the source of the PMV,the transferring rate of Lovell’s is lower than that of the Yangs,showing that Lovell’s subjective initiative in translation.In the effects of expression,Lovell’s version has three distinctive features,one is personification of human body and organs,and materialization of persons;the second is the shaping of an animistic world in which natural images are foregrounded;the third is the creation of theatrical atmosphere.Use of PMV can transfer animacy between man and objects,and also among objects.The dimension of expression can be greatly broadened,bringing novelty to translated texts.Investigation of perceptive and cognitive psychological verb(PCPV)shows that Lovell’s translation has a greater number and more types than those of the Yang’s,showing a higher level of creativity in quantity and variety in the use of PCPV.What’s more,in the application of special PCPVs,which appear only in one translation but not in the compared one,the numbers and types of Lovell’s also surpass those of the Yangs.Lovell’s creative use of PCPV in translation expands dimension of expression and brings the following special effects to translated text,including 1)increasing the adjustment of expressions to the context;2)expanding ways of representation of characters;3)changing narrative perspectives andcreating psychological narrative atmosphere;4)increasing the flexibility of translated text.Many reasons contribute to Lovell’s high level and systematic creative translation.The first one is the patron’s plan of renovation of Lu Xun’s novels in field of world literature and its reposition of it as a mass classics.Penguin chose Julia Lovell,a young Sinologist as the translator out of its expectation of a different translation from the previous ones.Secondly,Lovell has a deep understanding of both the literary value of Lu Xun’s novels and of Lu Xun’s position as a forerunner of Chinese modern literature.To achieve “faithful recreation of the original reading experience” is the motivation of her systematic creativity in translation.Thirdly,creativity can facilitate the translation in its adaption to the social and cultural poly system in which the translation exists,and promote its evolution in the sub-system of translated versions of Lu Xun’s novels.However,creativity is also constrained by limitations of language and cognitive mechanisms since the two translated versions show some resemblance in regular patterns of creativity.On theoretical significance,“Tensional Deviation Hypothesis of Creative Translation” is proposed: 1)Creative translation is a kind of tensional deviation from normalization,with different forms of creative translation on a continuum,2)Levels of creativity of different translation modes are in sequence distribution,at one end is C1-C1 Creative Transfer,which is of the lowest level of creation,at the middle is C1-C2 Creative Reconstruction,and at at the other end is highest level of creation,N-C Trans-writing;3)There are various layers of deviation,such as form,content,perspectives,dimension,etc,the more distance of the deviation,and the more layers of the deviation,the higher level of creation.On methodological significance,firstly,this is a corpus-based study combining quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis in one,which can help to find out systematic creative patterns in translation,so as to deepen understanding of creative translation.Secondly,probe is made in concordance of creative lexical items which will enlarge the scope of theapplication of corpus tools in translation studies.Thirdly,modes of creative translation have been classified into a hierarchical sequence,which can be seen as a methodological tool in the quantitative study of creative translation.Fourthly,“one-way research approach” and “two-way research approach” have been proposed,which can make the research appoach of creative translation more clear and flexible.On practical significance,investigation of creative translation can give enlightment to translation practice.Creative translation is necessary in the reconstruction of literariness in the translation of Chinese literature and in promoting its status in the field of world literature.