A Comparative Study On The Two English Versions Of Nahan

The short story collection Nahan, comprising fourteen short stories, is the first masterpieces written in vernacular Chinese by Lu Xun and enjoys a spectacular position in modern Chinese literature. Based on theories related with Skopos, foreignization and domestication and from the perspectives of language and culture, this thesis is a comprehensive analysis of Nahan’s two representative English versions by Yang Xianyi & Gladys Yang and Julia Lovell.According to the Skopos theory, the end justifies the means. The strategies and methods adopted during the translation are determined by the intentional purposes and functions of the target text. From the linguistic perspective, the thesis probes into three levels. Lexically, both versions’ handling of fuzzy hedges and abnormal combination of contradictory words seemed less than satisfactory and could not arouse the same responses as that of original readers. Syntactically, both translators made every effort to deal with zero anaphora, such as adding pronouns, using clauses. Stylistically, Lovell omitted some words vacant in target culture, which greatly damages the beauty of content and image of the source text, while her version with direct speech perfectly conveys the feeling of tragedy to target readers.Cultural analyses are focused on the translation of curses words, idioms, ages, ancient time and length. Due to different translational purposes, the Yangs tended to apply the approach of foreignization to preserve the flavor of the original text and disseminate traditional Chinese culture as much as possible. In contrast, Lovell worked on the expressiveness and smoothness of the target text. Her translation purpose is to highlight Lu Xun’s canonical status in the Anglophone readers, not just the western sinologists. In other words, she might prefer the approach of domestication. Foriegnization and domestication are dialectically integrated and complement each other.