A Contrastive Analysis Of Two English Versions Of Na Han From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theoy

Na Han is a collection of short stories written by the modern writer and revolutionary Lu Xun.The 14 stories included in the collection depict people's social life in modern China in various aspects from the Revolution of 1911 to the May Fourth Movement,and shape a number of vivid,or miserable,or numb,or awakened characters.The collection gives an in-depth insight into the ignorance of the people at that time and profoundly exposes the oppression inflicted by feudalism.It is of great value in Chinese history and literature.There are overall three complete English versions of Na Han,namely,the-version by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang,Julia Lovell's version and William A.Lyell's version.Since publication,the three versions have been highly recognized by target readers,and the studies of them have sprung up endlessly,promoting the spread of Chinese culture.In this thesis,the Yangs' version and Lovell's version are compared from the perspective of Verschueren's adaptation theory.Adaptation theory,as a pragmatic theory,is widely used in translation studies.Adaptation theory holds that the use of language is a process of dynamic adaptation with continuous choices,while,for translators,the choices and use of translation language are also a process of dynamic adaptation.There are four investigation angles of adaptation theory:contextual correlates of adaptability,structural objects of adaptability,dynamics of adaptability and salience of the adaptation processes.This thesis compares the translation of the communicative context and structural objects in the two versions and carries out a detailed and systematic analysis of the adaptation they have made.The communicative context includes the physical world,the social world,and the mental world.The adaptation to structural objects is examined at the sound level,the lexical level,and the syntactic level.Through the contrastive study of the Yangs' version and Lovell's version,this thesis comes to the following conclusions:The Yangs' and Lovell's English versions of Na Han are both excellent works,and as a result of the translators' different translation purposes,cultural discrepancies and linguistic disparities,they have their own features.The Yangs prefer the strategy of foreignization through literal translation,adding annotations when necessary,while Lovell inclines to employ the strategy of domestication through free translation.The Yangs' version better adapts to cultural images,while Lovell's version better adapts to the English characteristic of hypotaxis,and is more natural in conforming to the thinking habits and reading habits of western readers.Because of that,the Yangs' adaptation to the material condition and social world is more comprehensive,and Lovell's adaptation at the syntactic level is more flexible.Adaptation theory is a strong guiding theory for translation studies.After analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the two English versions,this thesis offers some suggestions for literary translation studies,hoping to enhance the development of domestic translation studies and spread Chinese culture.