Contrastive Analysis Of Pipa Ji: A Textual Approach

Pipa Ji, entitled as “the Ancestor of Southern Drama” described an impressivelove story between genius and beauty. In1841, the French version appeared, and afterthat it was translated into many different languages, such as Japanese, German,English and Russian, etc. However, domestic scholars mainly concentrated on thestudy of the edition, the moral value, author and time of publication of the Chineseversion. Foreign scholars concentrated more on the study of different translatedversions. So far, the intensive and systematic studies on its Chinese and Englishversions have not been explored.In view of the above, this thesis exerts itself to have a contrastive analysis on itsChinese and English versions from textual approach. By the core concepts of textlinguistics, this thesis analyzes the internal structure of the two versions and thetranslation strategies that the translator adopted during the translational process, andthen aims to find out the similarities and differences between them. Finally, thereasons for those similarities and differences can be pointed out.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter mainly introduces theliterary status of Pipa Ji and its dissemination in English world, research methodology,significance and structure. The second chapter is a general introduction of thetheoretical framework, in which the previous domestic and western researches oftextual approach, the achievements and the application of the core concepts intranslation studies will be reviewed. The third chapter is the central part of this thesis.In this chapter, the inner construction of Pipa Ji in both Pipa Ji’s Chinese and Englishversions contrastively from the seven standards of textuality, i.e. cohesion, coherence,intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality will beinterpreted and the translation strategies adopted by the translator in the process oftranslation will be analyzed. The fourth chapter is the key part of this thesis. In thischapter, focuses will be put on the analysis of dynamic selection of translationstrategies in the English version and deduct the major reasons or factors whichinfluence the construction of Pipa Ji by Jean Mulligan. The fifth chapter is a generalconclusion of this thesis, in this part, major findings, limitations and suggestions forfurther studies in this field will be put forward. After contrasting the Chinese and English versions of Pipa Ji, we can hold thatthe translator is basically faithful to the original text, and the information in theoriginal text is well represented. In addition, the target text shares some similaritieswith the original one. However, the translator adopts many translation strategies, suchas domestication, foreignization, and footnote etc. because of the influences ofcultural differences, ideology, motivation of translation, and expectations fromreaders. Therefore, compared with the original one, the English version carries somedifferences to some extend.The present thesis is an analysis of the Chinese and English versions of Pipa Jifrom textual approach, which will be conductive to provide a new view for scholars intheir future studies on this perspective. Meanwhile, it can be helpful to the readers’scientific interpretation of the text. Finally, analysis of the textuality of both theChinese and English versions as well as the exploration into major reasons or factorswhich influences the construction of the English version of Pipa Ji can assist totranslators’ future translation studies when translating other Chinese classic works.