Transferring Characters In DECODED To The English World:An Imagological Perspective

Imagology originated and emerged in the field of comparative literature in France.As a critical and burgeoning branch of comparative literature,imagology has attracted more and more attention.The focus of imagology is not only on studying the exotic images in literary works,but also exploring how these images are observed,imagined,and created in the process of image construction.In addition,the deep reasons of the creation of exotic images and the "self" images reflected in speaking of the "other" are also emphases for research.As a cross-cultural activity,translation not only involves the transformation of language,but also influences the reconstruction of the original image.In the process of translation,translator becomes the subject of creating the images,while the author with the images created by him becomes the "other" observed by translator.In reconstructing the images,from the perspective of "self",translator may be influenced by various factors which may derivate the original images created by author.The perspective and methodology of imagology help to examine the "other" images in translated literary works,evaluate the transmission of image,and reveal the misunderstanding behind the phenomenon.Therefore,imagology can provide enlightenment and inspiration to the transmission of national image and cross-cultural communication.This thesis compares and analyzes the images created in Chinese writer Mai Jia's Jie Mi(????)and in its English version Decoded:A Novel from the perspective of imagology to discuss the variation and derivation happening in the reconstruction and transmission of the images.Following the methodology of imagology,this thesis conducts the analysis from the intrinsic textual aspect and the extrinsic textual aspect.Firstly,this thesis collects the examples and data the source text and translated text from intrinsic textual aspect which includes levels of lexicons,hierarchical relation and plot.According to the detailed analysis,this paper points out that derivation and variation of images happen in the process of translation in terms of vocabulary,hierarchical relation and plot,which reflects the difference between the understandings of the translators towards text and the intention of the author.For example,through translation,translators tend to omit certain lexical or paragraph structures of the original text.Second,this paper compares and analyzes Jie Mi and its English translated version Decoded:A Novel from extrinsic textual aspect,which includes "imaginaire social"(social imagination)of translators' native nation and author and translator's personal emotions,attitude and background.Through analysis and comparison of examples,it is found that the variation and derivation of the images in the process of translation is largely influenced by "imaginaire social".Besides,translators' personal experience and their attitude towards the "other" affect the reconstruction of the image in the target text.One of the translators of Decoded:A Novel,Professor Milburn also admitted that her translation is influenced by her academic interests.Lastly,this thesis is hoped to have positive enlightenment and referential value for further studies on translating Chinese literary works and how to establish a positive image of China through the translation of Chinese literature.