An Analysis Of The Intertextuality Representation Of Fu Sheng Liu Ji In Its Four English Versions

Intertextuality,put forward by Julia Kristeva,considers that every exiting text often goes beyond itself and refers to its pre-text,which means that the meaning of the text is affected by its implied text.Based on Norman Fairclough‘s dichotomy,which classifies intertextuality into manifest intertextuality and constitutive intertextuality,this paper focuses on the intertextuality of the source text of Fu Sheng Liu Ji and makes a comparative analysis of the texts of the four English versions.The textual analysis is conducted according to Luo Xuanmin‘s explanation and subdivision of Norman Fairclough‘s dichotomy in order to find out the emphasis of different versions in which echoes the intertextuality of the source texts.The findings are as followings.Lin Yutang‘s version advocated the―spiritual beauty‖ of the source text,which uses fresh and concise language,and has a better presentation of the ―spiritual beauty‖.And the literary value created by this difference is different from other versions.Shirley M.Black focuses on reflecting the free and idle style of the source text,by boldly additions and deletions.She also rearranges the whole structure according to the chronological order to adapt to the reading habits of western readers.Her translation is easy to read because of the fluent structure.The English versions translated by Leonard Pratt and Chiang Su-hui,and Graham Sanders follow the original structure.In order to help readers to understand the social and historical background,their translations appends paratexts such as the chronology of the story,maps,relatives and family tree of Shen Fu,footnotes and endnotes.These additions make the two versions valuable as documental works.Intertextuality is a new concept of text as well as a way of reading.It is also a standard to evaluate the quality of translated works.Translators need to adopt the way of intertextual reading to create qualified translations,which could help to expand the intertextual space of the literary work.Frequent intertextuality is conducive to the target readers‘ familiarity with literary works.In a word,the increase of intertexts such as literary translation and intertextual reading are conducive to the development of Chinese literary works into the world.