The Comparative Analysis Of The Translation Of Luotuo Xiangzi From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Against the backdrop of Beiping in the 1920s-1930 s,Lao She depicts the ups and downs of the protagonist Xiangzi,a rickshaw puller as well as the hardships of other common people in his novel Luotuo Xiangzi.This novel is full of the local flavor of Beijing such as the Beijing dialect,the customs and daily life of the people in Beijing.On the basis of dynamic adaptation theory proposed by Jef Verschueren,this thesis is written to explore how cultural elements in the original novel is reproduced in the two English versions by Shi Xiaojing and Jean M.James respectively.Literary translation plays an important role in spreading Chinese culture and this thesis attempts to conduct literary translation studies from the perspective of dynamic adaptation theory.Adaptation in terms of context and style are two important parts of dynamic adaptation.Therefore,dynamic adaptation theory is employed to testify how dynamic adaptation is achieved in two aspects: context and style.At different periods of time,the context such as particular social,cultural and historical factors,readership and communicative purposes are different and thus need to be considered by translators.The contexts discussed in this thesis are mainly about the social,physical and mental world.The style discussed in this thesis covers the word level and the syntax level.By analyzing the two versions,the author of this thesis concludes that translation involves constant choice-making and the adaptation to contexts and style.Re-translation is needed to adapt to the changing time,communicative purposes and contexts.There are five chapters in this thesis.Chapter One is about the introduction of the thesis,including the significance,objective and methodologies of the study as well as introduction to the book Luotuo Xiangzi,its writer Lao She and its English versions.Chapter Two is the literature review of pragmatic approach to translation,dynamic adaptation to translation and studies on the English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi.Chapter Three illustrates dynamic adaptation theory in detail.Chapter Four is the main part and offers comparative analysis of the English versions in terms of dynamic adaptation.And conclusion is drawn in Chapter Five.