Intertextuality And The Translation Of Intertextual Signs In The Peony Pavilion;intertextuality And The Translation Of Intertextual Signs In The Peony Pavilion

Since the coined word intertextuality proposed as a text theory by Julia Kristeva in 1960s, it has been developed by multitudes of structuralists and deconstructuralists according to their own requirements. Intertextuality was originating from semiotics and its establishment overturns the disadvantages of structuralism whose opinion is that text is a self-reliant and closed system. The closed system is only composed of signifier and signified. Julia Kristeva breaks up the static way of analyzing texts and holds that each text is mosaic and has relationship with its pre-texts, intertexts and the whole sociocultural system, which has aroused deep interest of many scholars. This theory was originally used to analyze texts, aiming to reveal texts relationship and dig the meaning of the texts. After Hatim and Mason's application of intertextuality to translation studies, a new research method is introduced to translation research, which opens a new research area and provides theoretical basis to translation.This thesis is a tentative study and the concept of sign is used as a tool to analyze Chinese classical literature by taking The Peony Pavilion as a case study. The author holds the opinion that Chinese classics have much in common, that is, richly imbeded with allusions and quotations. All the citations can be regarded as intertextual signs imbedded in the text. In this thesis, intertextuality, as the theoretical basis, is applied to interpret the phenomenon of intertextual signs; it is also a creative thinking pattern, which is helpful to comprehend the connotation behind these signs. The author attempts to incorporate the intertextuality theory into the analysis of Chinese classical literature by evaluating the English version of Chinese Classical drama The Peony Pavilion translated by Professor Wang Rongpei. The reason why the author chooses this drama as the object of study is that it is rich in intertextual signs, typical in writing styles and great in artistic achievement. Since the theory is originating from semiotics, the author adopts the notion of intertextual sign as working terms to discuss the translation method of intertextual signs in the drama.This thesis is developed by the way of combining intertextuality with translation studies. The thesis begins with an overview of translation studies and the influence of intertextuality upon translation studies. Futher, a theoretical review of intertextuality theory is introduced aiming to comb out the origin and its development of the theory, especially to discuss different viewpoints of major scholars, who have significant influence upon the development of intertextuality theory. Then the author applies intertextuality theory with literary translation studies, aiming to discuss intertextual-angle translation are intertextual process of source text understanding, source text interpreting and target text reproducing. In the end, a case study is analyzed to discuss the function and translation method of intertextual signs based on the English version of The Peony Pavilion translated by Professor Wang Rongpei. After the analysis of The Peony Pavilion, the author draws a conclusion that the introduction of intertextuality to literary translation studies is not only a methodology but also an epistemology.