An Imagological Approach To The Reconstruction Of The Cultural Images In The Translation Of The Joy Luck Club

Ever since the beginning of the1990s, Chinese American literature, which had been in amarginal position, has received much more attention from domestic academic circles.However, it is noteworthy that research on this aspect has mainly been restricted to literarycircles. At least, what discussed in the field of domestic translation studies are restrictedmainly on the perspective of functional equivalence, back translation of language and cultureor the translation strategies, and the translations of the cultural images of China and Americaare not studied specifically.This research studies the utopian images and ideological images of China and Americathrough the analysis of the original text of The Joy Luck Club of Amy Tan and its translationsfrom the perspective of imaglogie. Based on the theory of imagologie, first, an introduction ofthe full text is given, introducing the research objectives and significances, research methods,literature review and the organization of the thesis. Then, several concepts of the theory ofimagologie of comparative literature are introduced. And in the main parts of the thesis, first,the author analyzes the construction of the utopian images and ideological images of bothChina and America in the original text: instead of constructing the stereotypes of China andAmerica, Amy Tan seeks the “self” through the description of the image of the “other” andconstructs the utopian images and ideological images of both China and America; and thenthe author analyzes the reconstruction of utopian and ideological images in paratexts and intexts in translating the original text: instead of being faithful to the cultural images of Chinaand America which are multi-typed and complicated constructed in the original text, Chinesetranslators reconstruct some of the cultural images of China and America not only in paratexts,but also in texts; and at last the author investigates influences on the reconstruction of culturalimages in translations: the influences of the dominant ideology of target culture, individualideology of translators and poetics and patronage.It has been shown that with the rapid development of oriental countries and the frequentcultural exchanges and communication between eastern and western countries, the cultural images of China reconstructed in Chinese American literature are not always coming offinferior, negative or worse and the descriptions of the images of America are not alwayscoming off superior, positive or better, and readers can find both the utopian images and theideological images of China and America. And confronting the multi-typed and complicatedcultural images of China and America constructed in the original text, Chinese translatorsreconstruct some cultural images through omission, amplification and substitution and so onin both the paratexts which mainly includes covers, prefaces and postscripts and the textsinstead of translating them faithfully. And it has been shown that the dominant ideology oftarget culture and the individual ideology of translators are the most important factors whichinfluence translators’ reconstructing cultural images and poetics and patronage are alsoimportant controlling factors.Studying the translations of Chinese American literature from the perspective ofimagologie is of some significance in providing a more comprehensive and objectiveperspective to the study of Chinese American literature which inspires the cultural translationsof Chinese culture and Chinese translations of Chinese American literature and offers ChineseAmerican writers and Chinese translators a new pathway to promote the development ofChinese American literature and enhances the world’s cultural communication and helpsachieve the goal of “letting different cultures have dialogue with each other” and “acceptingdifferences and appreciating similarities”.