The Imagined Other

The image is the stereotype with reference to the exotic land as the culturally emblematic representation.In substance,the Orient has been constructed as the other image characterized by mystery,novelty,weirdness and irrationality in a multiplicity of the Oriental texts to convey the relationship of the subject to object as well as conquering to being conquered in the two counterparts of the West and East coupled with the superior to inferior culture.The other is inevitably defined as the unfamiliar opposite or negative factor in the exterior of the dominant subject.Chapter 1 is the theoretical part,which profoundly interprets the conceptions of Orientalism and Imagologie in comparative literature at the core,reviews the specific particularities of the Chinese image constructed by the West and briefly introduces the Western translational history of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi.Meanwhile,the author clarifies that the thesis is perceived as the typical exemplification of the interdisciplinary study on the ground of the combination of Orientalism,Imagologie,ideology and postcolonialism translation theories for the purpose of establishing the theoretical foundations regarding the image construction and distortion when the Western translators render the Chinese classical literary works by means of the overall analysis on the strategic similarities and differentiations of diverse translators in coping with the identical source text Liao Zhai Zhi Yi.Chapter 2 clearly defines the other image into two categories and thoroughly investigates the penetratingly ideological causes lurking in the representations of the Oriental images of the original tales in Denis C.& Victor H.Mair's collaborative translated text of Liao Zhai Zhi Y in the six images of women,Taoists and Buddhists, folk acrobats,men of letters,merchants and officers.Chapter 3 makes the profound investigation into the settings of plots in the two target texts in particular,the three images of fairyland,dream and night to demonstrate the invisibly irresistible impact of Orientalism ideology on the Western translators in rendering the Oriental classicsChapter 4 makes the all-round comparison of the translational strategies with regard to the narrative patterns in the two target texts of Liao Zhai Zhi Y based on the three horizons involving the narrative perspective,time as well as structure to probe the ideological motives determined by the discrepancies of the translators' identities.Chapter 5 performs the deepgoing exploration into the misinterpretation of cultural information,in particular,with reference to the displacement of religious concepts,the loss of the cultural connotations,and the deviation from the cultural imagery in lexically literal translation to comprehensively elucidate the political and cultural factors embodied in the translational tactics.Chapter 6 presents the conclusion for the whole paper.The author signifies the defects and the further orientations of the thesis.Translation is the most important media for the communication and dialogue between heterogeneous cultures.The striking diversities in translation implies the cultural discrimination or arrogance,the combat and coercion of discourse hegemony even the colonial culture and racial politics,with the containment of the cultural collision and antagonism.Therefore,in the modernly cultural context of globalization and harmony with discrepancy,the Chinese intellects must reconstruct the authentically Chinese image by means of retranslating the traditional classics and positively exporting the excellent thoughts to establish the platform of equally cultural exchange between the East and West.