| Ah Q Zheng Zhuan is the earliest piece among Lu Xun’s works to be successfully translated into foreign languages.The English versions have exerted great influence and greatly promoted the dissemination of Lu Xun and Chinese literature in the western world,which has great literature and research value.However,existing studies are not comprehensive.Among previous studies,most scholars have focused on the linguistic and cultural aspects,while research done from narratives in translations is rarely seen.In recent years,interdisciplinary studies have enriched the theoretical perspective and research approach in the field of translation studies.In 2006,Mona Baker integrated her personal perception of translation into some theoretical foundations of Social Narratology and Cognitive Science in her book Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account.She views translation as a form of re-narration in essence.Translators would implicitly or explicitly reproduce the original narratives in the process of translation so as to form the social reality.Mona Baker’s narrative theory creatively explores translation from the perspective of framing,which brings a brand new and insightful perspective to translation studies.This thesis takes an in-depth contrastive research among the three influential English versions translated by Yang Hsien-yi and his wife Gladys Yang,William A.Lyell,and Julia Lovell from the perspective of Mona Baker’s narrative theory on how translators reframe the narratives encoded in the original work.Here are three specific questions: 1)Which framing strategies does translator of each version employ to reframe narratives encoded in the original text? 2)What are the narrative standpoints of the translators in employing these framing strategies? 3)What are the effects of these strategies on the reframing of narratives in three English versions? To explore the research questions,firstly,through the comparison between the original work and translated versions,cases concerning the reframing narratives are collected and then classified by different framing strategies under the framework of Mona Baker’s narrative theory.Then the thesis mainly explores and discusses how translators reframe the original narratives from the four framing strategies.Through the comparison between three versions under different social and cultural contexts,the thesis analyzes the effects of these strategies in the construction of narratives and tries to explore the possible intentions behind translators’ selection of those strategies.Through the comparative analysis,this study finds that: 1)The three versions all strengthen and diminish certain parts of the narratives in the original work by means of temporal and spatial framing,selective appropriation of textual material,framing by labelling,and repositioning of participants.2)To achieve the expected social impact,translators all chose to translate and introduce Ah Q Zheng Zhuan into particular temporal and spatial contexts,which represent their narrative positions.Endowed with cultural and political significance,Yangs’ version stresses the revolutionary and cultural narratives.Out of academic interest and demand,Lyell provided a version that fully represents original narratives.With the purpose of introducing Lu Xun to more general readers,Lovell’s version caters to the readers’ acceptability of narratives.3)Firstly,in terms of selective appropriation,translators openly intervened the original narrative discourse by making additions,omissions,and sometimes even modifications to stress or downplay particular original narratives.Three versions all add notes to provide necessary cultural background knowledge so that readers could better comprehend the original narratives.Lyell also added many explanations and some modal adverbs within the text to ensure that the implicit narratives in the source text are clear to readers.Lovell’s version accelerates the narrative rhythm through making some deletions on some repetitive narratives and occasionally rewording the original narratives to improve the readability and cater to the readers’ acceptability.Secondly,in terms of labelling,translators handled the labels including names,appellations,and culture-loaded terms differently to direct or limit how readers respond to the original narratives.Both Yangs’ couple and Lovell tended to adopt the strategy of domestication and constructed the cultural context so as to enable readers easily accept and comprehend the original narratives.While Lyell usually retained the heterogeneity of source language and tried his best to fully recreate the original narrative.And,in the meantime,he provided a further and detailed explanation of the implied narrative intention for readers to make sure they understand.Lastly,in terms of repositioning of participants,through paratextual commentary and slight adjustment of the textual elements,translators rearranged the relationships between the author,readers,and their translations.Through paratexts of the introduction,Yangs’ version emphasizes the close relationship between Lu Xun’s revolutionary spirit and communist thought and sets a revolutionary and progressive tone for the narratives.While through the paratexts,Lovell’s version guides her readers to focus more on the literary value and realistic significance of the narratives.The paratexts in Lyell’s version indicate that his version has a great scholarly aura and positions his target readers as more professional readers and those who are interested in studies of Lu Xun and China.In addition,Lyell’s version uses American English to fully represent the original narrative style and reproduce the reading experience in Chinese for his readers.Both Yangs’ and Lovell’s versions use standard English and also plain and concise diction to seek readability,which to some degree might dilute the original narrative style,but shorten the distance between their translations and general readers.To sum up,through comparing and examining framing strategies in different translated narratives,it is hoped that this thesis could provide inspiration for translators to boost their role in well narrating and disseminating China’s story and voice in the course of Chinese literature and culture going global.Besides,this thesis focuses on the role of translators in the construction of narratives.In the future,research on the influence of other participants in translation activities on narrative construction awaits further exploration. |
