An Intertextuality Approach To The English Translation Of Weicheng

Originating in the 1960 s,the Intertextuality Theory is proposed by French Post-Structuralism critic Julia Kristeva.She argues that “every text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations;every text is the absorption and transportation of other texts.”(Kristeva,1980: 66)Therefore,the Theory of Intertextuality provides a new perspective for the cognition of translation activities with its characteristics of dynamic,diversification and openness,and furnishes a brand-new angle for the understanding of translation phenomena.This paper will apply the Intertextuality Theory to the translation studies of novels.Weicheng is Qian Zhongshu's only novel which is a god-given masterpiece in the history of Chinese literature,enjoying the reputation of flourishing both in social value and literary value.By using humorous language and relentless satire,Qian depicts the tempest-tost vagrant life of the protagonist Fang Hongjian.Mr.Qian takes Fang's love,marriage,family,career and life experience as a representative to interpret the theme of “fortress besieged”,namely: those who are outside want to get in whereas those who are inside the fortress intend to escape from it.The main flow of plots is the besiegement and escape of young intellectuals from romantic complications.In essence,it portrays the loneliness,emptiness,helplessness and loss of some intellectuals during war time.Owing to the uniqueness and distinctiveness of stylistic writing features,this novel is embedded with strong,intense intertextual signs,together with conflicts and integration between Chinese and Western cultures.Therefore,effectively dealing with these intertextual signs can help to overcome the obstacle in language transference and further promote the culture communication and also the dissemination of Chinese culture.Fortress Besieged which is the first English translated version of Weicheng,was translated by Jeanne Kelly,with cooperative effort of Nathan K.Mao in 1979.A huge advancement and progress in researches of its English translation has been accomplished in more far-reaching and prominent dimensions.However,seldom have the researches conducted from the angle of Intertextuality by utilizing the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods.Therefore,there is still enough room for further studies.The research methodologies adopted in this thesis can be divided into two parts.One is the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis,conducting case studies on the basis of Macro and Micro Intertextuality to make a rigorous inquiry into the influences on the translation of novel and cultural communication.The other is,with the assistance of computer software Word Smith,AntConc and Text Pre-Processing,to analyze tokens,types,word length,sentence length and word frequency of the whole text or selected chapters to directly reflect the performance of Intertextuality in the original text and target text,therefore,to make the research more convincing.The micro exploration of the phenomena of different translations of the same word or phrase with the assistance of corpus is also explored.The thesis consists of five parts.The introduction includes research background,research significance,research questions and the organization of the thesis.The first chapter gives a brief review of the thesis concerning the previous studies on Weicheng and its English translation.The second chapter outlines a theoretical framework for this thesis by the introduction of Intertextuality to sketch its origin,development,broad divisions,and an analysis of the application situation of the theory to translation studies both at home and abroad.The third chapter gives a brief introduction to Weicheng and its author,Qian Zhongshu,and its English version Fortress Besieged and its translators,Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao.The fourth chapter will be established on the basis of Intertextuality Theory to explore the features of Macro Intertextuality and Micro Intertextuality in the classic work Weicheng and its translated version with the combination of qualitative and quantitative research.The conclusion is that the present author holds the position that in the process of cultural transformation and communication,the Theory of Intertextuality can be used as an epistemology,as well as a methodology to guide the translation practice.Reasons why two translators being capable of making the translation of the whole book converge naturally,smoothing the style coherence and unity fluently are that they highly recognize,understand and effectively interpret the implied intertextual signs and appropriately transfer the intertextual references into the target language.Therefore,employing the Intertextuality Theory into the studies of literary translation will not only help translators to break through the cultural barriers and improve communication efficiency,but also help readers understand the cultural connotation and realize the dynamic effects of intertextual signs.Intertextuality Theory provides a new perspective for the theory and practice of fictional translation,which broadens the new thinking and deserves further study.