A Comparative Study On Translation Of Irony In The Two English Versions Of Ah-Q Zheng Zhuan From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

As “Chinese Culture Going Global” campaign intensifies,translation,a special means of intercultural communication,plays an inseparable part in putting the strategy into practice.Lu Xun's works,which are hailed as the “cultural capital” of China,have always been the first choice for many domestic and foreign translators.Ah-Q Zheng Zhuan,the most prestigious of Lu Xun's fictional masterpieces,has been translated into many languages right after its publication.The novelette is permeated with exquisite art of irony,which poses great challenges to translators.Inspired by its far-reaching significance,the thesis conducts a comparative study on translation of irony in Ah-Q Zheng Zhuan based on a selected list of examples from the two well-accepted English versions by the Yangs(Gladys Yang and Yang Xianyi)and Julia Lovell.The thesis aims to make an overall evaluation of translation of irony from the perspective of Relevance Theory and provide guidance for future spreading of Lu Xun's works beyond the Chinese world.Within relevance-theoretic framework,human communication at its heart is a matter of manifestation and intention recognition.Ernst-August Gutt has proposed that translation is a dual ostensive-inferential activity,in which translators should attach great importance to the differences between cultures and properly render the communicative clues arising from the source text with an ideal achievement of the optimal relevance in translation.After a full demonstration of comparative analysis,the thesis finds that communicative clues arising from different properties in the source text have provided a reasonable inferential base for translators.As for strategies considering translation of irony in Ah-Q Zheng Zhuan,the Yangs and Julia Lovell have applied direct and indirect translation to render communicative clues.The translators have tried their utmost to recreate and reproduce ironic effects in their English versions.From an overall view,Julia Lovell attaches much attention to the fluency and naturalness of translation while the Yangs favor to preserve the original linguistic properties.Finally,the thesis demonstrates that Relevance Theory could provide accountability in translation of irony and at the same time formulate an effective evaluation on it.