Study On Four English Versions Of Mulan Ci From The Perspective Of Deconstruction

Mulan Ci is a long narrative folk song,which is a famous masterpiece in the brilliant glory of Chinese classical poetry.It describes the legendary story of Mulan disguising herself as a man and joining the army in “his” father's place,which affects such fields as literature,drama,film,and TV series.As one of the “Twin Pearls of Yuefu Poetry”,it is featured with far-reaching influence and high literary value and artistic value for its elegant language,rich rhetorical devices and profound culture,which also contribute to its numerous English translation versions.But the current researches on its English versions are mainly from the perspectives of “three beauty”,the concept of metonymy(cognitive poetics),communication,figure-ground theory(cognitive linguistics)and cross-cultural studies.There are few comparative analyses of Mulan Ci and its different English versions from the two dimensions of language and culture based on the deconstruction translation theory.Deconstruction translation theory,the deconstruction applied in translation studies,has experienced such three stages of development as “pure language”,“différance” and“foreignizing translation” in the West.From the late 1980 s to the early 1990 s,it was rapidly spread to China,establishing a pluralistic and inclusive deconstruction translation theory.This theory includes four claims: first,the meaning is uncertain;second,meaning depends on context;third,translator has subjectivity;and fourth,the original work and the translated version share the same status.Under the guidance of deconstruction translation theory,this paper selects the four English versions of Mulan Ci translated by William Alexander Parsons Martin,Hans Hermannt Frankel,Xu Yuanchong and Wang Rongpei as the objects,analyses Mulan Ci and its different English versions in a diversified manner on the basis of such two dimensions as language and culture.From the perspective of Walter Benjamin's “pure language”,Jacques Derrida's “différance”,and Lawrence Venuti's “foreignizing translation”,based on the linguistic dimension including the language style(vocabulary,syntax and discourse),rhetorical devices and rhyme,and the cultural dimension such asthe translation of the poem's title,the theme of the poem and the cultural elements(social relations and culture-loaded terms),this thesis explores the translators' subjectivity in different translation versions,the relationship between the original poem and translated versions,and the uncertainty of meaning,and further figures out such feasible translation strategies as domesticating,foreignizing,or the combination of domesticating plus foreignizing;and such methods as literal translation,free translation,transliteration,rewriting,and omission in poetry translation.At last,it concludes the influence of different cultural backgrounds,translation purposes and life experiences of translators on the choice of translation strategy and methods.