A Comparative Study Of Rhetorical Devices In The Three English Versions Of Panghuang

Lu Xun is one of the paradigmatic figures of twentieth-century Chinese literature as well as the pioneer of the modern Chinese literature.The Diary of a Madman(1918)marks the first vernacular novel.He is a prolific writer.His three collections of short novels Outcry(1923),Hesitation(1926)and Old Stories Retold(1936)have received immense popularity at home and abroad for its unique writing style,profound implication and unremitting satire towards feudal society.According to the resources available,18 scholars at home and abroad have translated Lu Xun's novels into English and their translation works have been officially published in the newspaper or magazine or in the form of book.Numerous English versions make the study on the translation of Lu Xun's novels a hot topic.Although many scholars have devoted themselves to the study on the translation of Lu Xun's novels,there is little to touch upon the comparison of rhetorical devices in the English versions of Lu Xun's novels.This thesis is based on Panghuang and its three most complete and influential English versions respectively translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang,William A.Lyell and Julia Lovell.With reference to the classification of rhetorical device made by scholar Zeng Qingmao in his book,titled Rhetoric Appreciation and Writing,the thesis extracts sentences from the three English versions involving the application of phonetic rhetorical devices,semantic rhetorical devices and structural rhetorical devices and builds a Chinese-English parallel corpus.The thesis compares all the collected examples in the corpus and explores the reasons of different(re)production of rhetorical devices in the three English versions.Through statistical analysis,the thesis discovers that Julia Lovell's version has done the best in rhetorical(re)production.The total number of rhetorical devices employed in her translation amounts to 143,the highest among the three English versions.Besides,Julia Lovell retains the original rhetorical devices to the greatest extend.More importantly,she often adds the application of rhetorical devices and the total number is 81.William A.Lyell's version has done better in rhetorical(re)production.The total number of rhetorical devices used in his translation amounts to 103.Apart from retaining the original rhetorical devices,William A.Lyell adds the application of rhetorical devices in his translation and the total numbers is 39.Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang's version has done poorly in rhetorical(re)production.Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang always faithfully translate the original rhetorical devices and rarely add the application of rhetorical devices in their translation.The different(re)production of rhetorical devices in the three English versions is closely related to translators' translation concepts,translation habits,personal characteristics and life experiences.