A Comparative Study Of Three English Translations Of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan From The Perspective Of Literary Stylistics

Importance has long been attached to style reproduction in literary translation both in China and abroad since the ancient times. However, the interpretation of style lacks a scientific and objective approach which is distinguished from the traditional impressionistic and intuitive inclined discussions. As an intermediary discipline connecting linguistics and literary criticism, literary stylistics, by means of the methodology of linguistics, serves to interpret how the writer expresses and strengthens the thematic significance and aesthetic effects through language choices; thus it is a comparatively objective and scientific approach in literary criticism. However, literary translation, particularly the translation of fictional prose, has benefited very little from recent developments in literary stylistics. And then there often unavoidably occurs the phenomenon of "deceptive equivalence", namely the translation conveys approximately the same fictional’facts’but fails to capture the thematic significance and aesthetic effects expressed in the original. In view of this, The present thesis is going to probe into the three translations of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan from the perspective of literary stylistics, with the aim of finding out how, and to what degree, the three translations reproduce the thematic significance and aesthetic effects expressed in the original. The author believes that it is of great necessity to apply the methodology of literary stylistics to the studies of fictional translation, and this will benefit the translators since the enhancement of their stylistic awareness will enable them to be more sensitive to the aesthetic function and stylistic value of linguistic forms.The thesis is composed of three chapters. In the first chapter, a general review of the studies of style translation both abroad and in China will be provided. And accordingly, the necessity of applying the methodology of literary stylistics to the studies of literary translation is proposed. Besides, a detailed exposition of the concepts of the basic terms and research method of the study is given in this part, in which the concepts of style, stylistics and literary stylistics are defined. In this thesis, since literary interpretation and translation are the research purpose of this thesis, style is defined as "artistically or thematically motivated choices". Therefore, style reproduction means the reproduction of the thematic significance and aesthetic effects of the original. In addition, the necessity of applying literary stylistics to the studies of literary translation is also pointed out in this part. In Chapter Two, the main body of the thesis, Leung’s, Yangs’ and Lyell’s translations of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan are chosen to carry out a detailed comparative study at lexical, syntactic and textual levels from the perspective of literary stylistics. Also, the issue of "deceptive equivalence" is focused in this chapter. According to the analysis, literary stylistics has provided the possibility of solving the problem of "deceptive equivalence". Accordingly, it also has confirmed the necessity and effectiveness of applying the methodology of literary stylistics to the studies of fictional translation. The last chapter is the conclusion, including the results and limitations of the study.The thesis is just a case study, in which the relevant discussion of stylistic problems are absolutely far from exhaustive. However, in terms of the academic value, the thesis at least provides a slim outline for the study of style translation.