A Study On Stephen H.West And Wilt L.Idema’s Translation Of Xi Xiang Ji From The Perspective Of Thick Translation

Stephen H.West and Wilt L.Idema’s English translation of Xi Xiang Ji comprehensively employs multiple forms of thick translation and furthers the spread and acceptance of Xi Xiang Ji in the English world.The thesis makes a study of the English translation The Story of the Western Wing from the perspective of thick translation with qualitative and quantitative analysis,aiming to explore and analyse the strategies of thick translation adopted by the translators and reasons why the translators adopted thick translation through a thorough examination of the translated text.Xi Xiang Ji is a masterpiece in the history of Chinese classical dramas.It not only aroused a widespread "Xi Xiang Ji craze"in the Ming and Qing dynasties,but also had a great influence on the creation of later novels and plays about love such as Mu Dan Ting and Hong Lou Meng.The latest complete English version of Xi Xiang Ji is The Story of the Western Wing co-translated by Stephen H.West and Wilt L.Idema.Nowadays this rendition is recognized to be one of the most authoritative in the world,by dint of its faithfulness to the source text and meticulousness in the process of translation.It offers quite a few annotations and elaborately added materials outside the translated text.Thick translation,which was proposed by American cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah in 1993,is a type of translation in which translators attempt to locate target readers in a rich cultural and linguistic context in virtue of its annotations and accompanying glosses.The aim of this approach is to preserve cultural characteristics of the source language to the maximum extent and promote deeper respect and great admiration of the target reader for other people’s cultures.In addition,they learn more about the way people of other cultures live,how they express themselves and their way of thinking.The thesis provides a new perspective.It is very significant to literary translation studies,especially to the translation of literary classics.This thesis aims to explore the "thick translation" phenomenon in The Story of the Western Wing and how Stephen H.West and Wilt L.Idema manage to remain as faithful as possible to the source text in the hope of producing a readable translation.Th author attempts to explore the strategies of thick translation adopted in The Story of the Western Wing through a close examination of its substantial annotations,especially footnotes that cover four-character expressions,expressions about places and people,expressions about songs and poetry,idiomatic expressions,wordplay,proverbial sayings and couplets.In addition,its preface and foreword,introduction to this English translation,appendix and other supplementary materials are also examined.The study discusses the functions of thick translation,that is,compensating for cultural losses,which avoids a distortion of culture.Thick translation is important in the process of rendering the classical texts such as the Chinese popular drama Xi Xiang Ji.The writer hopes that this thesis would shed some light on the application of thick translation in translating a literary text,particularly in translating Chinese classics into English.