Explicitation Strategies In Three English Versions Of Fu Sheng Liu Ji:A Diachronical Study

As a precious work that truly reflected the life of the Chinese feudal society,Fu Sheng Liu Ji already had three English translations.Among them,Lin Yutang's translation was studied from many perspectives,while Black's and Pratt and Chiang Su-hui's translations were not paid much attention.It was not good for the overall studies on English translations of Fu Sheng Liu Ji.In addition,explicitation,as an important translation strategy,was particularly important in the translation of such Chinese classics.And many scholars have already studied explicitation in such translations.Since in different times,three translators all used different explicitation strategies,the author decided to study their characteristics and differences diachronically.In accordance with the steps "observation,assumption,analysis and reflection",the author respectively compared three translations with the original,analyzing how Lin Yutang,Black,Pratt and Chiang Su-hui used different explicitation strategies and exploring the possible evolutionary law.Also,relevant reasons were listed here,so that this study can be more credible.The study found that Lin Yutang chose the explicitation strategy which followed his translation principles of "faithfulness,smoothness and beautifulness".He applied in-text noting and footnoting so that the translation was faithful to the original.Also,he used explicitation skills such as free translating to explicate some cultural and contextual meanings of the original,so that the translation would be smooth and intelligible.And Lin Yutang reproduced the beautifulness of the original language by literal and idiomatic translating.Such explicitation tried to reserve both the content and the language,which was quite close to semantic translation.Black used a communication-oriented explicitation strategy.He took over-translating to enrich the original culture.However,when the readability was improved in this way,the translation seemed to be redundant.Moreover,Black adapted the original prose into the narration so as to conform to the logical thinking way of readers.And he modified the translation on the language level to explicate the feelings of characters so as to arouse readers' interests.Such explicitation made the translation closer to the Western readers regardless of the original.While Pratt and Chiang Su-hui mainly combined literal translating with annotating to elaborate customs,offer background information and explain allusions and idioms.Also,they used transliterating and annotating to reproduce and explain the proper nouns,which were originally untranslatable in language.Such"thick-translation" strategy basically reserved most of the original expressions and cultural connotations.In summary,the explicitation went through the process of "semantic translation,communicative translation and thick translation" in three translations of Fu iSTheng Liu Ji,which also reflected different requirements for translations in different periods to some extent.After the May 4th Movement,the spread of Chinese culture was very difficult.Lin Yutang,by virtue of his efforts,used the semantic translation.After the Second World War,Black's translation seriously deviated from the original for the sake of readers.Although the readability of the translation may be affected to some extent Pratt and Chiang Su-hui's "thick-translation" strategy still paid the most respect to the original,being the trend of today's literary translation.And translators should take into consideration their translation purposes,social and cultural environments and readers' expectations when doing explicitation.The author hoped that this thesis would provide reference for the translation of Chinese classics.In this thesis,the research background,significance,method and structure of this thesis were introduced in the first chapter.Next,studies on explicitation and three English versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji were reviewed.And the third,fourth and fifth chapters respectively showed different explicitation strategies in three English versions as well as relevant reasons.Finally,in chapter six,findings and limitations of this thesis and suggestions for further research were stated.