On Transference Of Cultural Terms In Shuihu Zhuan Into English In The Postcolonial Context

Over the recent years, the English translations of Shuihu Zhuan have become important issues for discussion in the field of translation studies and there have already been lots of relevant research achievements in the academic field. Among them "The Comparative Studies of Cultural Terms in Shuihu Zhuan English Translations in the Colonial and Postcolonial Context" has become a program of human and social science research in2010sponsored by the Educational Department. Dent-Young’s The Marshes of Mount Liang came out as the latest one among the four full English versions, covering all the120chapters and taking the longest time, thus became a new milestone in Shuihu Zhuan English translation history. However, there hasn’t been much research on this version in the academic field so far and the studies on cultural terms transference is even rare. Aiming at the current research situation of this version in the field of cultural terms transference, this thesis chooses Dent-Young’s translation as the text for study. Based on postcolonial theory and postcolonial translation theory, this thesis discusses Dent-Young’s translating background, translating value orientation and their choice of translation strategy. Then through the transference study of cultural terms, this thesis explores the relationship between language and culture in the translating process of Chinese classics and also probes into the problem of power relations among different cultures in the cultural communication process in the postcolonial historical context of the modern society.This thesis consists of five parts with the first chapter the literature review. In the first chapter, the research situation of Shuihu Zhuan’s English translations is discussed, excavating the space for further research and pointing out the research question in this thesis. The second chapter is the theoretical foundation of this thesis, mainly taking about the definition and theoretical framework of postcolonial theory, also the emergence and development of postcolonial translation theory. The third chapter is mainly about the background knowledge of the source text and target text of Shuihu Zhuan, also explores the evolution process of Shuihu Zhuan and the translators’value orientations during the translating process. The fourth chapter is the core section in this thesis, through analysis on the transference of religious cultural terms and Chinese idioms from the perspective of postcolonial theory to see Dent-Young’s translation strategy, then to derive the conclusion in the final section.