A Study On Lin Yutang’s Widow,Nun And Courtesan From The Perspective Of Mona Baker’s Narrative Theory

With increasing development of the “generalization of narrative”,narrative takes on an appearance of interdisciplinary tendency,and starts to focus on the relationship between socio-historical context and narrative structures.Narrative was not just limited in inner structure of the text study anymore.In 2006,Mona Baker’s Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account was published.In the book,through a creative combination of narrative theories from sociology and communication studies with translation studies,Baker proposes that translation is renarration and emphasizes the vital role that translation plays in cultural exchanges and political environments.In the process of translation,translators take different narrative stance involved in the interaction.They may undermine,or change some of the content that is implied in the original discourse.Through various translation strategies,they adjust the narrative features,and realize narrative framing in the target text.Lin Yutang’s book Widow,Nun and Courtesan is translated and adapted from different literary works of different time,with the same topic of the rebellious spirit and pursuit for freedom of women at the bottom of society.The significance of the research lies in not only the book itself but also the times and history.Under the guidance of Mona Baker’s narrative theory,this thesis is supposed to probe into the narrative framing strategies applied in Lin Yutang’s translation and adaptation of Widow,Nun and Courtesan — three stories as the book title indicates.Through careful comparison between the original texts and their translations,the author draws the conclusion that Lin adopts four narrative strategies to reconstruct new narrative in the process of translation and adaptation.Firstly,Lin changes the time sequence in telling story.Lin also composed the story under the space of the Western reader’s familiar way of narration to shorten the time and space distance to target readers.Secondly,Lin appropriately selects the textual material to reconstrue his own personal narration.By means of omission or addition to plots in these three stories,Lin reconstructs narrations.To be specific,in the first story Widow Chuan,human has right to resist to acts of oppression,which conforms to the public narrative;in the second story A Nun of Taishan,the magic formula of Taoist lies in vigorous training of body and adjusting oneself to whatever the surroundings;and the love story of protagonists is foregrounded while the criticize for feudalism is undermined in the last story Miss Tu.Thirdly,through naming,titling and other framing labellings,Lin can realize his personal narrative.All the three stories are renamed by Lin to serve his personal narrative purpose.Finally,repositioning of participants is usually achieved by prefaces,shifting of register and other devices.The translator repositions the relationship between the participants,and shortens the distance between target text and readers.Lin illustrates his translation motivation and understanding for three stories in the part of introduction and prefatory note.Besides,the protagonists in the three novels are all from different areas with different identity.Their identities are revealed by language or register.Lin adjusts their expressions in dialogue and register to reposition the relationship between participants in the narration.Through the device of paratext and adjustment for the expression,Lin takes part in the reconstruction of narration.The repeated application to four framing strategies in translation and adaptation enhances the public narrative of the rebellious spirit,which is helpful to promote the spread of the translation.Influenced by ideology difference between Chinese and western and dominant poetic discrepancy,the translator needs to apply reframe strategies to realize smooth communication.Lin’s translation and adaptation not only helps to shape a positive image in certain historical time,but also improves the cultural communication between China and western countries.It is safe to say that Lin’s frame strategies in narration provide a good choice to spread the Chinese voice and tell Chinese stories better.