On The Translation Of Culture-loaded Terms From The Perspective Of Cultural Psychology

Cultural psychology, also known as cultural behavior, studies to how people in a certain cultural context react according to cultural stimulation. The process of translation is a psychological activity of language, or the psychological activity based on the medium of language, which is essentially a cultural psychological activity. The object of this study is the three English translations of Lu Xun’s novel Ah Q Zheng Zhuan. The theoretical starting point of this study, namely, cultural psychology, includes both the source text author’s cultural psychology and those of the three translators. The text is an external representation of the author’s psychological activity. It is a spiritual pursuit for self-satisfaction, which is a kind of exploration, understanding, and creation. As it reflects the cultural psychology of the author, the source text is also a cultural work. The translator, in the process of decoding the text, cannot just experience the feelings of the text like ordinary readers. This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter One introduces the research objectives and rationale, research scope, research methodology, and layout of the dissertation. Chapter Two is the literature review. Chapter Three demonstrates the theoretical framework of this dissertation, which includes study of cultural psychology, historical background of cultural psychology, and the study of culture-loaded terms. Chapter Four is a case study of culture-loaded terms in Ah Q Zheng Zhuan, analyzing the translation strategies and cultural psychologies of the three translators, i.e. Yang Xianyi, William A. Lyell and Lovell Julia. Chapter Five is the conclusion.