On The English Translations Of Na Han:From The Perspective Of Cultural Translation Theory

As a great writer in the history of Chinese literature, Lu Xun is the pioneer of Chinese vernacular fiction and known as “Father of Chinese Modern Fiction”. The translations of Na Han, the greatest achievement among Lu Xun fictions, have made Lu Xun and his works enjoy great reputation in the world. Abundant cultural connotations and unique local color in Na Han remain a great challenge as well as the key to success for translators. This study on cultural translation of the two versions is conducive to the transmission of traditional Chinese culture and beneficial for Lu Xun literature to “step out into the world”.Among the three most influential English versions of Lu Xun’s short stories, the most comprehensive ones are by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and by Julia Lovell, covering all the works of Lu Xun. However, previous studies mainly focused on Yang’s version and William A. Lyell’s translation. Studies on Julia Lovell’s version, in contrast, are insufficient.What’s more, those studies mainly dealt with metaphor translation and translations of culture-loaded words. And too much attention were paid to the meanings of words while factors that restrained cultural translation were neglected. Therefore, the thesis employs cultural translation theory put forward by Susan Bassnett to analyze translations of cultural factors in Na Han and to explore reasons why translators are restrained in their translation process.The thesis conducts a descriptive research according to the two aspects of cultural translation theory. For one thing, the thesis evaluates how the two English versions dealt with cultural factors in Na Han from the perspective of cultural functional equivalence. The translation of Na Han, to a large extent, is the transplantation of cultural information and cultural features from SL culture to TL culture. In the transplanting process, Chinese feudal society and religious superstition were revealed, culture elements full of Shaoxing local color were introduced to the English-speaking world, and part of Confucian culture was mergedwith Christian culture. In terms of translation strategies, Yang mainly adopted literal translation with many footnotes and endnotes for target readers to fully understand traditional Chinese culture; Julia Lovell, on the other hand, paid more attention to the fluency and readability of her translation so that she used as few footnotes and endnotes as possible.Some cultural factors were even omitted in her translation. For another, the thesis explores the differences between the two versions in cultural translation from the perspective of manipulation, coming to the conclusion that their translations were manipulated through distinct ideologies, poetics and patronage. What’s more, the two versions of Na Han have contributed to the reputation of Lu Xun literature on the international platform, making their efforts to change the fact that Chinese literature has always been marginalized among European literature in the world. Another is that two versions have penetrated the target language and created prototypical characters and images from Na Han in target readers’ mind so that typical characters and images in the source text have become classical literary images in the world.The thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter covers the research background and significance. The second chapter includes studies on the English versions of Lu Xun’s short stories and previous studies on the English translation of Na Han. The third chapter introduces the theoretical framework of the thesis, covering cultural translation theory and its main content. The fourth and fifth chapters are the main body of the thesis. The fourth chapter analyzes how cultural factors are dealt with and what translation strategies the translators have adopted from the perspective of cultural functional equivalence while the fifth chapter makes an analysis of the selection of source text and translation strategies from the manipulation perspective, and explains the role the translations of Na Han in cultural construction through ideology and poetics. The last chapter is conclusion, including the major findings, limitations and suggestions for further studies.