Studies On Translation Of How Old Dan Became A Tree From A Perspective Of Literary Stylistics

Chinese writer Yang Zhengguang’s novel How Old Dan Became a Tree is considered one of the novels rich in Shaanxi culture in China.Its unique stylistic features with regional characteristics are an important factor in the popularity of this novel.The translator must understand and restore the style of the original text when translating in order to reproduce the thematic meaning and aesthetic value of the original work.The object of this thesis is to study How Old Dan Became a Tree and its translation by Professor Hu Zongfeng and British scholar Robin Gilbank,with the aim of applying literary stylistics to examine whether the stylistic characteristics and effects of the original work can be demonstrated in the translation.This thesis briefly introduces the author Yang Zhengguang and his novel How Old Dan Became a Tree and its English translation,reviews the progress of Chinese and Western scholars in the study of literary stylistics and the translation of novels,and also reviews previous studies of Yang Zhenggguang’s How Old Dan Became a Tree.Based on the basic framework of literary stylistics,this thesis analyzes and characterizes the literary style of How Old Dan Became a Tree through the method of close reading.This thesis first reviews the literary stylistic features of the original text in terms of the degree of expression and the degree of information conveyed,specifically in terms of the analysis of the narrative structure,narrative layers,narrative persona,narrative approaches,main characters,scene descriptions,and themes,and then analyzes and summarizes the expressions and their aesthetic effects in the translation through a comparative study of the four aspects of lexical,syntax,figure of speech,and thought presentation in the original text and the translation,and The study shows that Professor Hu and the translators are able to assess the aesthetic value of the original text and the translated text.The study shows that Professor Hu Zongfeng and British scholar Robin Gilbank have,to a large extent,been faithful to the form and content of the original text in their translations,preserving such features as “illogicality”,“objectivity”,and “unreliability”in the original text,and basically achieving similar stylistic features and aesthetic values as the original text.However,there are some aesthetic deficiencies in the translation,which cause part of the novel’s aesthetics not to be fully reflected in the translation.Based on the theoretical approach of literary stylistics,this thesis’ s analysis of How Old Dan Became a Tree demonstrates the practical value of literary stylistics theory in literary translation criticism,adding examples of literary stylistics in the study of foreign translations of Chinese novels and increasing its application in Shaanxi school literature.In addition,this thesis uses literary stylistics theory supplemented by linguistics-related theories to analyze the language and literature in the work,providing a new way to appreciate literary translation.