| The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in the past century.Faced with growingly complex domestic and international situations,China has continuously developed and innovated in the diplomatic field,and formed an Omni-directional,multi-leveled and three-dimensional diplomatic pattern.At the same time,some Western countries are doubtful and worried about China’s unstoppable rise.Such preachings like the so-called “China threat theory”,“China responsibility theory” and even “China collapse theory” are relentlessly hyped.These China-related arguments also serve as a reminder that the deep-rooted stereotypes and arrogance of Western society towards China have not changed substantially with China’s strength.Besides,China’s journey towards the great national revitalization needs to overcome an array of formidable challenges.Homi Bhabha’s “the Third Space” provides a new perspective for cultural exchanges between China and the West.It abandons the binary opposition,attaches importance to differences,emphasizes dialogue,highlights inclusiveness,and advocates a traditional cultural value of “harmony” featuring mutual integration and heterogeneous fusion.Through the lens of “the Third Space” theory,this dissertation investigates the substantive characteristics of Chinese diplomatic discourse,analyzes the translation of Chinese diplomatic discourse,and tries to explore the construction of national images through C-E translation of diplomatic discourse under the perspective of “the Third Space”.Surely this dissertation regards “the third Space” as critical engagement.This dissertation selects remarks by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson at the regular press conferences since the 18 th CPC National Congress as the research object,and follows the theories from postmodern narratology,translation ethics,translation aesthetics and the poetics of translation,and adopts the research methods including deductive reasoning,micro-macro integration,corpus assisted research,close reading of texts.Currently,this dissertation explores the reasons that contribute to the implantation of“the Third Space” in diplomatic discourse,then discusses the characteristics of “the Third Space” in Chinese diplomatic discourse,and develops a tentative framework for C-E translation fusion of diplomatic discourse.According to the differences of the Chinese and Western culture,and the characteristics of Chinese diplomatic discourse,this dissertation applies the internal logic of Marxist dialectical materialism,focuses on writing and translating a text world that encompasses dialogue,resistance,empathy and integration,with the ultimate goal to spread the voice of China and to shape China’s national image in a more effective way.It also provides references and inspiration for the translation of political documents.This dissertation first analyzes the necessities and possibilities for the implantation of “the Third Space” into diplomatic discourse.The findings are as follows: as a special discourse with strong policy flavor and political overtones,diplomatic discourse creates a flexible discursive space with fuzziness,tension and contradiction.To some extent,such a semantic symbol is targeted at different audiences or readers.Diplomatic language and its figurative features are determined,perhaps it is relatively“transparent” for diplomatic officials.Through the interpretation of Chinese diplomatic discourse from the perspective of “the Third Space”,this dissertation explores understanding and manifestation of “the Third Space” in Chinese diplomatic discourse on some scales,including openness of symbol field,heterogeneity of cultural elements,dynamics of discourse styles,complexity of diplomatic themes and flexibility of communication modes.The attribution is discussed from the aspects of Chinese language characteristics,Chinese political position,Chinese diplomatic thinking,Chinese cultural background,Chinese aesthetic psychology,Chinese narrative structure and so on.Based on the above reasons,this dissertation employs Homi Bhabha’s “the Third Space”theory and takes the remarks by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson at the regular press conferences since the 18 th CPC National Congress as a case study,then summarizes the new characteristics of Chinese diplomatic discourse,namely inheritance,evolution and artistry,and argues the essence and causes respectively.Then,this dissertation attempts to construct a paradigm for the integration of the “third space” and the English translation of Chinese diplomatic discourse.Starting from the key elements of “difference”,the translation of diplomatic discourse is a process of expressing difference,preserving difference,reproducing difference and respecting difference;starting from the critical interpretation of “the other”,the translation of diplomatic discourse is an ethical construction process,which focuses on the manifestation,transcendence and generation of “the other”,and requires a more friendly attitude towards China’s voice in the international field of public opinion;starting from the text strategy of“parody”,the translation of diplomatic discourse is a two-way communication process,which is not a total “imitation” within the homologous culture system,but the transmission of Chinese culture and the construction of Chinese values,so as to achieve the accessibility,penetration and empathy in translation;starting from the spiritual characteristics of “harmony”,the translation of diplomatic discourse constructs a harmonious translation poetics which contains a philosophical theory of “harmony in diversity”,a cultural vision of“treasure culture altogether”,and an inter-civilizational concept of“mutual learning”.Nevertheless,this is an idealized model,which sometimes differs from the practice of diplomatic discourse translation.“The Third Space” helps to construct an open,dynamic,and heterogeneous discourse power.This dissertation regards the translation of Chinese diplomatic discourse as a relay translation practice of form and meaning reconstruction,which expresses a conversational and decentralized perspective and suggests a way of viewing diplomatic discourse translation as fluid,relational and creative process.On the whole,Chinese diplomatic discourse translation is a unique narrative that integrates politics,timeliness and flexibility.Based on the above analysis,this dissertation attempts to propose macro-strategy framework of diplomatic discourse translation since the 18 th CPC National Congress from the perspective of “the Third Space”,namely “dialogism”,“resistance”,“empathy” and “integration”.Among them,“dialogism” is the result of the interaction between Chinese and Western cultures in “the Third Space”,which is manifested in the relay translation of diplomatic discourse as text meaning and text style,reader consciousness and etic reference,dual attitudes towards Chinese and Western cultures.“Resistance” is the transformation mechanism of the innovation performed by “the Third Space”,which is indicated in the differences between language,politics and culture in diplomatic discourse translation.“Empathy” is an emotional dimension of transference in “the Third Space”,which includes cultural empathy and linguistic empathy,while the latter can be divided into empathy with the source text and its author,empathy with the target text and its author according to the direction of translation.“Integration” is the internal demand of civilizations fusion in“the Third Space”,which shows the possible fusion in some aspects in diplomatic discourse translation.Under the guidance of the translation strategies above,the following specific methods can be adopted in the practice of diplomatic discourse translation: Firstly,thick translation,thin translation and interpretative translation are employed to achieve the goal of “dialogism” in diplomatic discourse translation,so as to promote the“the fusion of horizons”,coordinate the “translation psychology” and strive for “equal dialogue”.Secondly,transliteration,translation borrowing and semantic regeneration are used to demonstrate the“resistance” of diplomatic discourse translation,for the purpose of safeguarding national interests,preserving an “exotic atmosphere” for target-language readers,getting rid of binary oppositions and respecting“the other”.This dissertation also emphasizes the importance of having a sense of proportion in “resistance”.Thirdly,intertextual translation,artistic translation and flexible transliteration are exerted to realize the“empathy” of diplomatic discourse translation,with playing a full role of empathy in building diplomatic images,transmitting the emotion of the source language and stimulating the resonance of readers.Meanwhile,translators should follow the principle of moderation to avoid “excess”empathy and “insufficient” empathy.Fourthly,creative translation,tensional translation and condensed translation are utilized to achieve the goal of “integration”,so as to form the translation poetics of “harmony”,highlight the “intertextuality” of discourse and realize the exchange and mutual learning between human civilizations.Finally,this dissertation points out that the relay translation of Chinese diplomatic discourse from the perspective of “the Third Space”is a crucial way to shape national image.The relay translation not only directly participates in the shaping of national identity and promotes the dynamic evolution of national image,but also inspires the way of shaping national image.Following suggestions are proposed to maximize the efficiency of self-shaping China’s national image: lead public opinions,enrich communication subjects,absorb Chinese culture and diversify transmission methods.The author believes that the perspective of “the Third Space” can bring requirements to the translation of political documents in the aspects of political height,cultural depth,tone accuracy,thinking dimension,comprehensive skills,and contextual effect.In a nutshell,through “dialogue”,“resistance”,“empathy” and “integration”,Chinese diplomatic discourse seeks the greatest common interests in the diplomatic field,so as to provide inspiration for building an all-round matrix of communication and enhancing international influence and discourse power.Overall 5 figures,10 tables and 357 references. |
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