On The Translation Of Idioms And Proverbs In Fortress Besieged From The Perspective Of Cultural Functional Equivalence

Idioms and proverbs usually contain culture-specific items, and they are viewed as a special phenomenon in language. Among Ch'ien Chung-shu's dozens of works, Wei Cheng (《围城》) is the most popular one with a profound influence. Wei Cheng, though a Chinese classic, is very skillfully in using both Chinese and Western-originated idioms and proverbs. Therefore, this thesis, based on a large number of convincing examples cited from Fortress Besieged, the English version of Wei Cheng, explores the cultural function they performed in the target culture by applying theories of cultural translation advocated by Bassnett.Susan Bassnett first proposed "cultural turn" in translation studies in early 1990s, and the cultural functional equivalence is a new perspective in viewing the translating of idioms and proverbs. By offering an introduction to the cultural translation theories held by Bassnett, this thesis lays a theoretical base for the further discussion. All the examples are mainly judged by the principle that whether they function equally in the target culture. Besides, based on the difference between the traditional Chinese idioms and Western-originated idioms and proverbs in Fortress Besieged this thesis also illustrates the relationship of culture and translation from microscopic view and macroscopic view. Finally, the thesis author draws the conclusion on the translation of idioms and proverbs in Fortress Besieged in three aspects. Meanwhile, the thesis also argues that Fortress Besieged is an event of great importance in cultural communication. The translation of all the idioms and proverbs along with the whole text is a good attempt in reproducing a new image of Modern China in the world today.