A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Lu Xun’s Short Stories From A Perspective Combining Literary Stylistics And Narratology

The literary significance of literary works lies both in the content and the form. The latter are usually manipulated skillfully to reinforce or modify thematic or aesthetic meanings. However, in terms of the fictions, the translation of them has not received due attention to its form as the translators attach great importance to the rendering of the fictional facts while overlooking the linguistic forms and the stylistic effects generated by those forms. Moreover, traditional studies and criticism on fictional translation have been mainly confined to general and impressionistic comments or an intuitive analysis. Literary stylistics, a discipline mediating between literary criticism and linguistics, can be readily employed to scientifically analyze how the writer’s choices of linguistic forms contribute to the thematic and aesthetic meanings of literary works. When applied to fictional translation, literary stylistics helps to analyze the reason for the occurrence of "deceptive equivalence" and the key to the stylistic equivalence. Meanwhile, a study on the fictions is intrinsically connected with narration. Narratology focuses on relation between narrative form and narrative effect in a given context by using the methods of structuralism and formalism. When applied to fictional translation, narratology serves to examine whether the narrative forms in the ST are reproduced in the TT, and whether an equivalence of narrative effect is achieved.By combining the theories and methods of literary stylistics and narratology, this thesis made an attempt to conduct a comparative analysis of the two English versions of Lu Xun’s short stories. Applying the method put forward by English stylists Leech and Short, as well as combing study achievements made by Professor Shen Dan, this thesis makes a detailed stylistic comparative analysis from the levels of lexical expression, syntax and graphology. Based on French narratologist Genette’s classification of focalization and Leech and Short’s classification of speech/thought presentation, this thesis tries to analyze these two overlapping aspects of literary stylistics and narratology, namely focalization and speech/thought presentation.As the stylistic features and narrative forms in fictions are of great significance in exerting literary meanings and achieving certain narrative effect, translations focusing mainly on transferring the fictional facts are bound to meet "deceptive equivalence" at all levels, leading to a weakening or loss of the thematic meanings, aesthetic or narrative effect. Both Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s and William A. Lyell’s versions are great English translations of Lu Xun’s short stories, but "deceptive equivalence" also occurs here and there in both versions. After a comparative analysis of both versions, this thesis justifies the feasibility of applying literary stylistics and narratology to fictional translation as it can sharpen the translator’s stylistic and narrative awareness to avoid "deceptive equivalence" to the greatest extent.