An Analysis Of Translation Strategies For Chinese Allusions From The Perspective Of Cultural Schema Deficiency Theory

As China's national status has increased and foreign exchanges have become more frequent,Chinese culture has spread to the outside world,and has become increasingly important to go global.The 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has stressed that we should “strengthen our cultural confidence” and “build a culturally-strong country”.Chinese classics,as excellent cultural resources of the Chinese nation,have rich Chinese social and cultural connotation and literary value.The translation of classics is a top carrier for spreading Chinese culture,deepening communication with countries around the world,and promoting the prosperity of socialist culture.Therefore,the translation studies of Chinese classics are urgently needed to be solved in the process of the rise of Chinese culture.Liao Zhai Zhi Yi is one of the representative works of Chinese classics,which develops Chinese classical short stories to a new height.It has more than sixty foreign versions,including 17 English versions.It has been written into the encyclopedia of many countries in the world,which is a masterpiece with high reputation in the world.Many masters of literature are more or less influenced by it.There are countless films and TV dramas adapted from the book.Liao Zhai Zhi Yi not only has its ideological and artistic achievements but also has a far-reaching impact on the cultural history of China and even the world.There are many abundant allusions in the book,which help to depict the vivid characters,make the story twist and deepen the theme of the article.However,being concise in expression and rich in meaning,Chinese allusions contain profound connotations with unique Chinese features,which brings many difficulties to translators.Therefore,the study of the translation of allusions can provide some guidance and reference for the English translation of Chinese classics.Language is an essential tool of human communication and the primary way of expression for people to communicate.People use language to preserve and transmit the fruits of human civilization,so language becomes the carrier of culture,and is an essential way of cultural communication and exchange.In the process of cultural communication,because each nation has its own language,there will be cultural deficiencies or unequal situations in cross-cultural communication.In this case,in order to achieve the smooth expression and transmission of different cultures,the accuracy of translation is indispensable,but at the same time,the integrity of the source culture should be preserved.When the source culture is deficient in the target culture,the translator should solve the difficulties caused by cultural differences and ensure the target-language readers' understanding of the source culture as far as possible.As a relatively new theory,Cultural Schema Theory is a branch of Schema Theory,and its focus is on cultural communication.Therefore,the translation of allusions into English under the guidance of Cultural Schema Theory has theoretical and practical significance.The deficiency of cultural schema will cause many difficulties in cultural communication.In the process of decoding and encoding,the translator should not only facilitate the understanding of the target-language readers but also pay more attention to the preservation of the source-language culture.Only when the cultural schema in the allusions is accepted in both languages can the allusions have “meaning” in the target language and Chinese culture.This thesis attempts to introduce the theory of cultural schema into the translation study of Liao Zhai Zhi Yi and to discuss the translation of allusions in Giles' version.Due to the differences between the source-language culture and the target-language culture,most of the source-language cultures do not exist in the schema of the target-language readers.Based on this,this thesis explores in depth the translation strategies “domestication” and “foreignization” used in the Giles' version when the cultural schema is deficient.This thesis makes a concrete analysis of the four translation methods under the foreignization strategy: “literal translation”,“literal translation plus annotations”,“transliteration and transliteration plus annotations”,“word-for-word translation” and the four methods of translation under the domestication strategy: “free translation”,“free translation plus annotations”,“imitation” and “variation translation”.On this basis,it is concluded that the domestication strategy can activate the cultural schema of the target language and enable the target-language readers to understand the implied meaning of allusions;the foreignization strategy can expand and reconstruct the cultural schema of the target language,so that the target-language readers can accept the exotic culture of the source language.Throughout the study,the thesis holds that when the cultural schema is deficient,translators should adopt translation strategies reasonably to ensure the transmission of the source culture.