Cultural Vacancy And Translation Strategies

Ah Q Zheng Zhuan by Lu Xun is a masterpiece in the modern literary history in China. The novel was written in 1921, and with the background of a village called Weizhuang in Shaoxing at the time of the Revolutionary of 1911, it constructs a poor peasant deeply suffering from the persecution of old society. Additionally, the story analyzes the typical "spiritual victory" rooted in Ah Q, and disposes the weakness of the Chinese people and the class contradictions of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. As soon as Ah Q Zheng Zhuan came out, it attracted readers both from home and abroad. At present, over forty countries have translated the works by Lu Xun with over sixty languages, in all of which Ah Q Zheng Zhuan is included. Therefore, how to translate this works should be paid more attention to.Translation studies have a long history. In the late 1970s, it flourished all over the world. At the end of 20^th century, the culture school represented by Susan Bassnet and Andrew Lefevere put forward the "cultural turn" in translation. Translation, as the means of culture communication and transference, is not only the way of transferring language, but also the way of spreading, recording and constructing culture. In translating Ah Q Zheng Zhuan, it is the translators' task to consider how to transfer the Chinese culture to readers from other cultures. However, culture differs from one nation to another. Cultural information will probably lose in the crash and contradiction of two different cultures, which is involved with cultural vacancy.Ah Q Zheng Zhuan includes various cultures, which can be classified into ecological culture, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture. Therefore, this thesis will analyze the translation of cultural elements in Ah Q Zheng Zhuan from the perspective of cultural vacancy. By analyzing the cultural elements in the three English versions, the author will reveal the embodiment of cultural vacancy and the translation strategies.Consequently, the thesis as a whole consists of five chapters in total. Chapter one introduces the novel and its translations, and the whole structure and the method of analysis. Chapter two describes the cultural vacancy in Ah Q Zheng Zhuan. Chapter three analyzes the translation of cultural vacancy and the concerning translation barriers in the three versions. Chapter four aims at the translation strategies with cultural vacancy. Chapter five tries to bring in a conclusion of the whole thesis, at the same time, the author addresses the significance of this study, conducts her limitations and suggestions after this study.By the comparison and analysis of the three English versions of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan, this thesis aims at describing the phenomenon of cultural vacancy and the translation strategies, and attempts to discover the causes and significance, in which way it better transfer the Chinese culture and improve the communication among different nations.