On The Translation Strategy Of The Cultural Memes In Xi Xiang Ji

As one of the greatest four classical dramas in Yuan dynasty in ancient China, Xi Xiang Ji is renowned for its beautiful language and numerous cultural connotations contained. Many researches have been made on the surface connotations and inner implications of this literary treasure for the last many years. It is a pity that the research on its translation version is very limited. As a standard representative of the Chinese culture, translation of Chinese classics like Xi Xiang Ji is significant in the exportation of Chinese culture. But how can we transmit the cultural information in the classics like Xi Xiang Ji through translation effectively? This thesis will examine the English translation strategy of Xi Xiang Ji from the perspective of memetics and probe into the transmission method of its cultural information.As Dawkins puts it: meme is a kind of information unit which is similar to gene in biology and is transmitted by imitation. As its name implies, cultural memes is a kind of cultural information unit which have very clear national cultural characteristics. Because of the language characteristics of its text, Xi Xiang Ji can be regarded as a melting pot of cultural memes. This thesis is based on the analysis of the two translation versions and adopts the theory of memetics to explain the selection of translation strategy in the translation of cultural memes. In this way the author will try to prove that the strategy of foreignization will be more effective for the translation of cultural memes.This thesis is mainly divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, the author introduced the memetics theoretical framework and introduced the related definitions of memetics and made clear the relationship between meme transmission and translation strategy like domestication and foreignization. In the second chapter, the author firstly analyzed the linguistic characteristics of Xi Xiang Ji which further enhanced the basis of memetics to this research; then the author classified the four kinds of cultural memes in Xi Xiang Ji according to Nida‘s classification of culture: religious memes, allusive memes, forms of address memes and idiom and proverb memes and analyzed the schema of the meme transmission in it. In the third chapter, the author concluded four kinds of foreignization strategy and three kinds of domestication strategy through the comparative analysis between Xu Yuanchong‘s and West&Idema‘s translation versions. In the fourth chapter, the author analyzed the translation and effect of the cultural memes from the four origins in the two versions and finally drew the conclusion that foreignization is more effective for the transmission of all cultural memes except the addressing memes. This thesis is meant to explore the translation strategy of cultural memes in Xi Xiang Ji and the author hopes that the translation of classics could benefit a little from this thesis.