Cultural Vacancy In Translating Shui Hu Zhuan And Its Compensation Strategies In Literary Translation

Shui Hu Zhuan is a work of social encyclopedia. It is the most representati(?) classical novel on folk hero legends in the history of classical Chinese literature. Th(?) novel's application to superb narrative techniques and mature description approache(?) enables it to easily arouse readers' deep concerns over the development of the plo(?) and the fates of characters. The characters in the novel with colorful personalities and characteristics, humorous dialogues, vivid languages, and rich contents founded its important status as a classic. As one of the four famous literary works in the history of Chinese literature, Shui Hu Zhuan encompasses a large number of Chinese unique cultural words, expressions, and phenomena.Chinese language and English language belong to different language families with their respective characteristics. Linguistic and cultural nonequivalence and noncorrespondence exist in the translation process of Shui Hu Zhuan. Such phenomenon is labeled as cultural vacancy. Cultural vacancy, in translating Shui Hu Zhuan, results from non-correspondence and differences between Chinese and English in terms of linguistic and cultural connotations. It is known that language is rooted in culture and is an essential part of a culture. In this thesis, cultural vacancy includes the aspects of both language and culture.Translation theorists have done research on cultural vacancy from different perspectives and put forward different compensation strategies for cultural vacancy in literary translation. Based on the eleven strategies for culture-specific items proposed by Spanish scholar Javier Franco Aixela, and through a descriptive study on Sidney Shapiro's Outlaws of the Marsh, this thesis concludes that Javier Franco Aixela's translation theory provides us extremely helpful compensation strategies for cultural vacancy in literary translation; and based on the descriptive translation study, the thesis also observes some other compensation strategies for cultural vacancy. They are foreignizing translation, figurativization translation, non-figurativization translation, and shift of perspective, along with Aixela's translation strategies, to guide our translation practice.