| As one of the most distinctive and widely read forms of Chinese fiction, the martial arts fiction (MAF) has been staying on the agenda of the international dissemination of Chinese literature for a long history. In translation studies, it is of vital significance to improve the MAF translation, which facilitates a view into China and a rise of cultural confidence. Scholars at home and abroad have recently set foot in MAF translation studies. However, literature review reveals that there are scant theoretical considerations and little quantitative analysis in the previous studies. To rectify this situation, the author puts forward a theoretical framework of genre matchmaking for MAF translation research and conducts an in-depth corpus-assisted study on English translations of Louis Cha’s MAF.The researcher first provides a working definition of genre and illuminates the impact of genre on translation. Since MAF is a specific literary genre, it is natural to introduce the idea of genre matchmaking to MAF translation research. Genre matchmaking is interpreted as efforts with which the genre of the original text is preserved and conveyed in the translated text as much as possible. As a source-text centered idea, it highlights genre as the starting and finishing point of translation.Genre matchmaking can be carried out in three steps, namely, to discern and delineate, to compare and assess and finally to reproduce or recast. First, translators are supposed to discern the specific genre of an individual text and to identify the dominant characteristics of the very genre. This is a prerequisite for the following two steps. Second, translators had better compare the genre of the original text with genres in the target literature, so as to assess whether or not there is a parallel genre known in the target culture. This comparison would deepen or revise translators’judgment in the initial step. Third, if there is a parallel target-language genre, translators would readily represent those key characteristics of the specific genre. If there is no western analog for the genre of the original text, translators should have faith in recasting a product sui generis, a genre of translation.The study then puts the framework of genre matchmaking into practice with special reference to English translations of Louis Cha’s MAF. The researcher sums up the characteristics of Louis Cha’s MAF as the xia theme, the kungfu tradition and readability. The researcher explains the generic disparities between the Chinese MAF and such western genres as European chivalric novels, American cowboy novels, historical novels and picaresque. A conclusion that there is a generic vacancy of MAF in the West is reached. Hence, translators are advised to realize genre matchmaking and to avoid a Westernization of Chinese MAF in their translations. The researcher further lists the influential parameters of genre matchmaking as possible points of entry to explore translated Louis Cha’s MAF.For a more systematic exploration, the researcher has built up a Chinese-English Parallel Corpus of Louis Cha’s MAF (PCOCMAF). It is a pity that no more than three martial arts novels of Louis Cha are completely translated. They are Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain translated by Mok, The Deer & the Cauldron by Minford and The Book & the Sword by Earnshaw. PCOCMAF contains all the three translated texts in the subcorpus of CTMAF and their originals in the subcorpus of CMAF. With the help of corpus, the researcher could retrieve all relevant statistics and examples to avoid arbitrariness and partiality of the human mind.First, the researcher investigates how well the xia theme has been preserved in translations of Louis Cha’s MAF, taking translations of appellations concerning xia and the spirit of xia as a point of entry. A clarification of xia in Chinese history and literature is made. Translators make use of eight different words to render Chinese honorific xia, but these English words neither thoroughly nor accurately represent the culture-specific honorific. As for the spirit of Chinese xia, Mok uses a simplistic one-for-all translation. Earnshaw omits almost a half of the expressions implying the spirit of xia. Minford makes endeavors to deliver the spirit of xia in a plurality of layers.Second, the researcher investigates how well the kungfu tradition has been reproduced in translations of Louis Cha’s MAF, taking translations of verbs as a point of entry. Both the comparable corpus-assisted approach and parallel corpus-assisted approach are implemented in the present study. Distribution of word classes reflects generic characteristics of Louis Cha’s MAF. Verbs are the highest up the list of word classes in Louis Cha’s MAF. Louis Cha is reported to use more verbs than other martial arts novelists. Comparatively, the prominence and overuse of verbs in translations by Minford and by Earnshaw are against the rule that English is more stative with more nouns. However, there is an underuse of verbs in Mok’s translation. The "key" keywords program yields three verb groups, that is, verbs of avenging, of kungfu and of narration, whose frequencies are unusually high in translated MAF. Verbs of avenging and verbs of kungfu testify translators’efforts to maintain kungfu tradition. Thanks to PCOCMAF, the researcher can conveniently obtain enormous examples of the verb "da" in Louis Cha’s MAF and its equivalents in translated MAF. There occurs a strong collocation of "quanda" and two recurrent patterns of "da+weapon" and "da+result". Those sanguinary parts may well be left out in general novels. Nevertheless, Minford and Earnshaw apply lexicalized verbs to foreground various weapons and violent results in their translations. Unfortunately, Earnshaw still omits at least one fifth of action scenes. Mok employs too many delexical structures in changing context, reducing dynamism and diversity of kungfu description.Third, the researcher probes into the readability of translated Louis Cha’s MAF, taking translations of chapter headings and choices of illustrations as a point of entry. Ignoring the antithetical style of Chinese chapter headings, translators of MAF compose summary sentences of chapter headings and thematic phrases of section headings. Louis Cha’s MAF boasts cover pages for intertextuality to the texts, illustrations at the head of each volume for instructional impulse and inter-chapter illustrations for figurality. Minford and Mok choose to retain only inter-chapter illustrations of motion scenes for readers’vicarious experience in the fighting. Mok adds illustrations of Chinese weapons and paralytic points at the head of the text. However, few pictorial illustrations exist in Earnshaw’s version.On the whole, the xia theme has to a large extent suffered a distortion in translated MAF. The dynamism of kungfu has been weakened to some degree. In terms of readability, the enjoyable illustrations have more or less lost in English version. In contrast, Minford contributes most in genre-oriented translations of MAF. As the first full translation, Mok’s version blindly follows the original text and so seems a little rigid. With too much omission, Earnshaw’s translation at best leads to an illusion of action movies.To conclude, this study contributes a lot to MAF translation research. Theoretically, this study proposes an original model of "genre matchmaking" and expounds its connotation, procedures and parameters. It might offer theoretical support to future research on MAF translation in particular and translation of popular literature in general. Methodologically, the study, as the first corpus-assisted descriptive study of English-translated Louis Cha’s MAF, proves an important complement to the previous qualitative analysis. Practically, this study critically compares English translations of Louis Cha’s MAF, including their effects and deficiencies. Suggestions for translating MAF and the researcher’s translations are attached whenever necessary. Hopefully, it might benefit the "Going out" project of Chinese literature and the intercultural communication. Finally, this dissertation points out limitations of this tentative research and possible work to be done in the future. |
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