A Comparative Analysis Of The Two English Versions Of Biancheng From The Perspective Of Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a text theory emphasizing the openness and infinity of textswhich is of catholic concern in current academia. Intertextuality not only breaks theborder between texts, but also makes the whole world an infinite text. The20thcentury has witnessed three breakthroughs and two turns, as a result of whichtranslation activity is no longer simply viewed as a transformation behavior betweentwo different languages in modern translation studies, but is viewed in a largercultural background, which makes it in agreement with intertextuality. In recent years,translation studies in the light of intertextuality has attracted growing attention, andcontinuous progress have been made.Biancheng, a masterpiece of Shen Congwen, and also an excellent local novellain Chinese literature history, has attracted the attention of numerous readers at homeand abroad and has been translated into many different languages by virtue of itsunique artistic charm and vivid folklore customs. As the work plays an important rolein modern literary history of China, the novel and its translation versions have beenstudied from different perspectives with different theories, but none of the Englishversions from the perspective of intertextuality. A comparative analysis of the twoEnglish versions of Biancheng translated by Ching Ti&Robert Payne in the1940s andGladys Yang in the1980s will be done in this thesis to explain some translationphenomena and on the basis of which the relevance between intertextuality andtranslation studies is further explored.Through the comparative analysis of the two English versions of Biancheng andthe explanation of some translation phenomena from the perspective of intertextuality,it is pointed out that in the process of translation, the translator is influenced by aseries of factors such as the social, historical and cultural background, the culturaldifferences between languages, and the intertextual knowledge of the author and thetranslator, and meanwhile the intertextual knowledge of the target readers is considered so as to take appropriate translation strategies.