Study On Translation Strategies Of Figure Of Speech In Zhang Peiji's Selected Modern Chinese Essays

As is known to all,there are four kinds of literary genres,including novel,poem,drama and essay.In the voluminous treasure of Chinese literature,each kind of literature has its own glamour and characteristic.As one of the literary genre,essay enjoys wide popularity among readers because of its short length and natural language.Essay translation plays a vital role in promoting Chinese culture going outside,and Zhang Peiji should be the one that has made the greatest contribution in essay translation.His Selected Modern Chinese Essays selected 179 pieces of literary works of 78 different great writers,including Lu Xun,Hu Shi,Zhu Ziqing,Ba Jin,Bing Xin and so on,which provides translation learners with an excellent learning paradigm,offers translation researchers with rich studying materials and reveals an access to learning Chinese literature and culture for western English readers.The studies on Zhang Peiji's Selected Modern Chinese Essays in China started at the beginning of 21 st century,marked by the publication of Zhu Manhua's paper The New Achievement of Chinese Essays Translation-Professor Zhang Peiji's ‘Selected Modern Chinese Essays' in Chinese Translators Journal in 2000(Zhu Manhua,2000).After that,papers and dissertations on the topic of Selected Modern Chinese Essays have been issued almost every year.All of the papers or dissertation focus on different translation phenomenon,such as on Zhang's translation thoughts,translation style,translation strategies,translator's subjectivity,the translation of set phrase and so on.However,almost none of these papers do researches on the translation of figure of speech in Selected Modern Chinese Essays systematically,except Sun Lijin's Studies on Translating Chinese Figure of Speech into English-A Case Study of Zhang Peiji's Selected Modern Chinese Essays(Sun Lijin,2014).But Sun only selected some examples of Chinese figure of speech randomly,neither did she analyzedthese example systematically,nor did she draw some convincing conclusion.As a result,the studies on translation of figure of speech in Selected Modern Chinese Essays can be seen as none.As a necessary linguistic feature,figure of speech existed in all literary genres,so that studies on translating figures of speech should be paid attention to.According to Skopos Theory,translation purposes are the most direct factors that determine the translation behaviors of translator.To be specific,translation purposes decide the translation strategies and methods used by a translator.Different translation strategies lead to totally different versions.As a result,Skopos Theory can explain translators' behaviors and reveal their mentality for us.This thesis will base on Skopos Theory and select the most frequently used figures of speech in Selected Modern Chinese Essays.The specific examples with Chinese figures of speech will be analyzed to find out the translation strategies used by Zhang Peiji and to check whether his translation strategies confirms with his purposes.First of all,the background of the research,the significance of the research,the objective of the research,the methodology of the research and the structure of the thesis will be introduced.Then reviews of the relevant studies will be made,including previous studies on Zhang Peiji's Selected Modern Chinese Essays at home,previous studies on figures of speech at home and abroad,previous studies on translation strategies at home and abroad and previous studies on Skopos Theory at home and abroad.After the reviews of the previous studies are done,next comes the main body of the thesis,namely the analysis of the translation strategies used by Zhang Peiji when he dealt with the Chinese figures of speech in Selected Modern Chinese Essays.Owing to the limited length of the thesis,only 8 most frequently used Chinese figures of speech in Selected Modern Chinese Essays will be chosen and classified into three kinds according to Yu Lisan's classification.Specifically speaking,the definition,function and classification of the relevant Chinese figure of speech and its correspondent English figure of speech will be introduced and compared in detail so that readers can get general information about the figure of speech.By analyzing the specific examples with figures of speech meticulously,the author finds out that for figures of speech like simile,metaphor,allusion,parallelismand rhetorical question,Zhang Peiji prefers foreignization strategy and always tries his best to keep the original form of the Chinese figure of speech in English translation and for figures like personification,irony and onomatopoeia,domestication is his first choice because foreignization would probably lead to misunderstanding and confusion for English readers.The final conclusion is that the translation strategies used by Zhang Peiji are not only determined by the features of figure of speech and specific context,but also by translation purposes of the translator.Vice versa,the translation strategies taken by Zhang Peiji also help to achieve his translation purposes.