A Comparative Study On Two English Versions Of The Novel Biancheng

Among the greatest works in history of Chinese literature, the novella Biancheng, published in1934, is one of the most famous masterpieces of Shen Congwen. During nearly80years, many translators rendered Biancheng into different languages, different versions communicating Chinese literature and culture to overseas countries. There are two popular English versions of Biancheng:The Border Town by Gladys Yang, published in1981and Border Town by Jeffrey C. Kinkley, published in2009. Up to now, little attention has been paid to Border Town by Kinkley as the latest version of Biancheng. This thesis is to conduct a comparative analysis of two English versions of Biancheng from the perspective of poly system theory and rewriting/manipulation theory. In terms of the high reputation of Shen Congwen’s Biancheng in history of Chinese literature, the further study of Biancheng and its different English versions is of great significance. Few had done any comparative studies of two English versions of Biancheng from the perspective of both polysystem theory and rewriting/manipulation theory. To some degree and extent, this thesis endeavors to fill this gap.The Israeli scholar Itamar Even-Zohar proposed and developed the polysystem theory in1970s. Polysystem theory takes human patterns of communication, including language, economy, culture, literature, ideology and society and so on, as semiotic phenomenon. According to polysystem theory, if translated literature takes a dominant position within the target polysystem, translators would employ foreignization in their translation. If translated literature occupies a subordinate or peripheral one, translators would like to adopt the strategy of domestication in their translation. In addition, Lefevere’s rewriting/manipulation theory includes three manipulating elements: ideology, poetics, patronage."Translation is a rewriting of the original, and rewriting is manipulation of literature in the service of power. The history of translation is the history of the shaping one culture upon another." To put it in another way, translation is an operation conducted in complicated society which involves various cultural factors from source languages and target languages. The manipulating/rewriting theory insights an extra textual perspective of translation studies.The analysis part can be divided into four major aspects:lexical analysis, syntactical analysis, and textual analysis and contextual analysis. Chapter three carries out comparative translation analysis of two English versions of Biancheng from lexical, syntactical, and textual perspectives. The lexical part involves analysis on character names, analysis on place names, and analysis on culturally loaded words. The positions of translated literature in these two periods, its influence on the translator’s decision making as well as translation strategies the translator adopted (Foreignization vs. Domestication) are discussed in this part. Chapter four is the contextual analysis of two English versions concerning manipulating aspects of ideology, poetics, and patronage. The social and historical contexts of each translator are concerned.The comparative study concerning about the positions of translated literature and translation strategies adopted by two English versions of Biancheng shows that polysystem theory has its own strengths and weakness. As the tentative study of two English versions of Biancheng demonstrates, to a certain degree polysystem theory can be applied to explain the translation of Chinese literature. Both two translators are quite familiar with and considerate toward their target readers, and their translations reflect their own identities, background, and linguistic competence. However, it has its own disadvantages, Lefevere’s rewriting/manipulation theory turns to be more systematic, reasonable and acceptable. Their translation strategies are deeply affected by various social and historical elements such as individual ideology, social ideology, poetics, and patronage which are the content of rewriting/manipulation theory. It is found that Lefevere’s rewriting/manipulation theory is more acceptable and reasonable to explain the analysis conclusion that both Gladys Yang and Jeffrey C. Kinkley employed foreignization as the main translation strategy, while domestication translation strategy serves as the supplementary technique in their versions.