A Comparative Research On The Strategies Of Translating Culture-specific Items In Fushengliuji

Fushengliuji is an autobiographical novel written in the middle of the 19 th century by Shen Fu.Shen Fu described his personal life in a simple and vivid style,including the joys of wedding chamber,the pleasures of leisure,the sorrows of misfortune and the delights of roaming afar.This book is tranquil and lovely,which indicates Shen Fu‘s life attitude,value,personality and aesthetic taste.Currently,researches on the English translation of Fushengliuji are limited and focused on translation review and translation strategies.Most studies choose Lin Yutang‘s version as the object rather than Leonard Pratt and Jiang Suhui‘s version,let alone a comparative study between Lin‘s and the Pratts‘ translation of Fushengliuji.In addition,most studies on the culture-specific items in Fushengliuji are conducted with a qualitative method.Within the framework of culture-specific item,this research selects Fushengliuji and the English versions respectively translated by Lin Yutang and the couple Leonard Pratt and Jiang Suhui.The thesis identifies 402 culture-specific items in the source text together with their counterparts in the translation versions,and the translation methods of culture-specific items are classified and statistically analyzed with specific examples.Then,tendencies and differences of distribution of the methods are explored,and the constraints of translating culture-specific items are discussed.This research classifies ten types of culture-specific items and ten translation methods of translating them.The distributions of the culture-specific items and translation methods are statistically analyzed,and the thesis finds that culture-specific items mainly distribute in personal names(24.9%),geographic items(28.9%)and social items(13.4%).Both translations are highly foreignized,and the Pratts‘ version is more foreignized(Lin: 63.2%;the Pratts: 69.9%).Translators‘ choice is constrained by many factors,and the most distinct factors in these two versions are historical contexts and factors of translators,and previous and pre-established translation and the expectations of target readers also influence translators‘ choice.