Variation Of Farewell My Concubine In The English World From The Perspective Of Comparative Literature Variation

Lilian Lee is one of the most popular writers in Hong Kong.In 1993,her novel Farewell My Concubine was adapted into a film by the famous director Chen Kaige.After it was released,the film was not only loved by domestic audiences,but also won many foreign awards such as the Golden Palm Award and the Golden Globe Award in Cannes Film Festival.These awards have also attracted attention abroad to the novel of Farewell My Concubine.In 1993,Andrea Lingenfelter,a scholar and translator at the University of Washington,translated the novel into English and released it in the United States.The novel Farewell My Concubine has attracted the attention of readers all over the world with its rich and dignified historical landscape and complex emotional images.Eastern and Western scholars have made an indepth analysis and interpretation of Farewell My Concubine from different angles.The characters of the three protagonists in the novel Farewell My Concubine are vivid,among which Xiang Yu and Yu Ji,the cultural archetypes of "Farewell My Concubine",are the classic cultural images of China.However,in the process of spreading this work overseas,both the character and classic cultural image have changed to varying degrees,which is a very typical phenomenon of variation.Variation theory is one of a comparative literature theory rising in China in recent years.Professor Cao Shunqing divides the research scope of variation theory of comparative literature into four aspects:variation at the language,variation at the literary text,variation at the cultural and variation at the national image.This paper aims to study the variation phenomenon in Farewell My Concubine,and analyze this variability with the theory of variation.Firstly,based on the English translation of Farewell My Concubine published by Andrea Lingenfelter in 1993,this paper makes a close reading of the text,analyzes the research of overseas scholars on Farewell My Concubine,and excavates the variation of character and cultural image in the dissemination and acceptance of this work.Secondly,using the theory of variation theory,this paper analyzes the reasons for the variation of Farewell My Concubine under two different cultural backgrounds,that is,the translator’s own cultural filtering and misreading,the consideration of ideological trade-offs,and Western scholars’ use of western literary and cultural theory to filter oriental culture.Under the influence of American cultural tradition,the translator Andrea Lingenfelter transformed the original work according to American values and the aesthetic taste of American readers.As a result,the novel was Americanized and the characters of the story were Americanized.At the same time,in order to meet the aesthetic expectation of "paying attention to China" in the west,the translator weakened the description of love in the novel,and strengthened the disclosure and criticism of the problems of the system in the novel from another angle.Under the framework of western literary theory,foreign scholars grafted the "patriarchy" on the images of Chinese traditional culture Xiang Yu and Yu Ji to interpret and imagine the construction of oriental cultural violence in Chinese culture.Through the above analysis,this paper will help readers understand the translation,introduction and dissemination of Chinese classical culture and literary works abroad,so as to explore effective cultural communication paths and help Chinese culture go global.