On The C-E Translation Of Chinese Martial Arts Fiction From The Perspective Of Imagology

Imagology is an important branch of the variation studies in comparative literature,with alien images in literary works as research objects.When the author creates the image of the“other” as the “self”,his misinterpretation,exaggeration and imagination of the “other” lead to the image variation,which is the focus of the imagology study.The image of the “other”constructed by the author in his works embodies the writer’s complex feelings and also reflects the cultural differences between countries and nations.Imagology explores the creation process and rules of these images,and analyzes the deep cultural connotations entailed in these images.In the process of translation,the translator takes the place of the original author to become a new observer and “self”,and the exotic image conveyed through the original work becomes the “other” observed by the translator.Due to the influence of various factors in translation,the translator will re-examine the image of the “other” from the perspective of“self”,and recreate the new image of the “other”,which causes the image of the “other” in the translation text to vary from that in the original work.Martial arts fiction is the treasure of Chinese culture,and the martial arts fiction written by Jin Yong is the epitome of the martial arts culture and traditional historical culture in China.This thesis takes the English translation of Jin Yong’s Shediao Yingxiong Zhuan(hereinafter SDYXZ),translated by Anna Holmwood,as the case of study.It divides the cultural images in the original text into three categories: “wu” image,“xia” image and historical cultural image,intending to explore how the three kinds of images are observed,imagined and recreated,and the in-depth reasons behind the reproduction and variation.By means of the theory and methodology of imagology,this paper will make an analysis from both the intrinsic and extrinsic textual aspects.The intrinsic textual analysis is to be unfolded from the three aspects of lexicon,hierarchical relation and plot,and the extrinsic textual analysis includes the imaginaire social and the study on the translator.It is found that at the lexical aspect,translators mainly use the methods of transliteration,literal translation and free translation to recreate the “wu” image and historical cultural image;at the aspect of hierarchical relationship,the translator recreates the “xia” image and historical cultural image by using euphemisms to amplify the hierarchical relationship of the original work;at the aspect of plot,the methods of deletion and adaption are adopted to adjust the plot,so as to recreate the three kinds of cultural images.The reproduction of the three kinds of images as the “other” in the translated work is influenced by the imaginaire social of the translator’s native country,the translator’s knowledge and imagination towards the foreign country,and her personal identity.