| Para-texts are an important part of English translations of Chinese classics,and they together with the main-texts build the complete discourse.After the introduction of the concept of “para-text” and its interdisciplinary extension from the original literature field to the translation field,the perspective of “para-text” has gradually become one of the hot spots in the study of Chinese classics’ translation.As the indispensable part of the Chinese pre-Qin classics,Mozi boats a wealth of philosophy,natural science and military knowledge,and para-texts in its English translations have also attracted the attention of the academic community.The current research on the para-texts of the English translations of Mozi has focused on the interpretation of the para-text itself under the guidance of “Thick Translation” theory,and,thus,there is a large space for exploration in the study of the integrity between the main-texts and para-texts in the English translation of Mozi.And it is the theory of “Discourse Intertextuality” that emphasizes the wholeness of the main-texts and para-texts on the basis of the concept of “intertextuality”.This theory adheres to two principles: one is “combination of form and meaning”,the other is the reflection of intertextual structure within discourse on the external world.Based on the above research background and theoretical foundation,the latest three English versions of Mozi have been selected in this thesis-Ian Johnston’s version in 2010,John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel’s version in 2013,Chris Fraser’s version in 2020,and the research is carried out according to the research path of “intertextuality within discourse-external factors-enlightenment”.Focusing on the three English versions,this thesis takes the intertextuality between the main-texts and para-texts of the three versions as the research object,and covers two aspects of formal intertextuality and semantic intertextuality:Firstly,with the change of the intertextuality markers,from Johnston’s version,to JK&JR’s version and to Fraser’s version,the para-texts gradually turn to the external position of the translations,causing a fact that the presence of para-texts in the main-texts gradually diminishes.Such trend is the product of the digital reading era to adapt to the reading habits of readers.Hence,translators should flexibly use electronic intertextuality markers to optimize the typesetting structure between the main-texts and para-texts,so as to promote the overseas transmission of the English translation of Mozi in the digital reading era.Besides,as for the study of the semantic intertextuality between main-texts and para-texts,the author concludes that,in “Jian Ai” triad of three versions of Mozi,the annotations to the key concepts and related expressions,proper nouns and controversial expressions have different functions.The annotations of Johnston’s version and Knoblock and Riegel’s version have multiple functions,and the latter has the better actual effect than the former;while the annotations in Fraser’s version have a single function.Combined with the translators’ academic backgrounds and translation purposes,this thesis makes a summary that the different annotations are the concrete reflection of the translators’ academic backgrounds and translation purposes,which also confirms the interpretive power of “the theory of context” of Chinese Hermeneutics on the para-texts of Chinese classics’ translations.As a result,translators in the future not only need to focus on the actual effect of annotations’ language on target readers,but also combine their own research direction(existential contexts)and give full play to the advantages of single-functional annotations to better create the thematic translations,promoting overseas readers to understand the multiple aspects of Mozi and its theories presented in the dissemination. |
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