| Author: | Hu, Yuqi |
| Title: | A stylistic analysis of thought presentation in two English translations of Luotuo Xiangzi |
| Advisors: | Li, Dechao (CBS) |
| Degree: | DALS |
| Year: | 2022 |
| Subject: | Lao, She, 1899-1966. Luo tuo Xiangzi. English Translating and interpreting Chinese language -- Translating into English Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Humanities |
| Pages: | viii, 203 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Drawing on Gideon Toury’s (1995/2012) paradigm of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), this thesis compares the translation of the stylistic technique of thought presentation in two English translations of Luotuo Xiangzi (《駱駝祥子》) (1937): Evan King’s Rickshaw Boy (1945) and Shi Xiaojing’s Camel Xiangzi (1981). This study comprises a descriptive section and an explanatory section. In the descriptive section, thought presentation, a frequently-used writing technique in novel writing, serves as the “coupled-pair” (Toury, 2012, p. 33) for comparison and analysis. The translation of thought presentation is described and analyzed on both the “narrating” and “narrated” levels, which are two concepts borrowed from Prince (2014). The analysis of the narrating level identifies how the formal and structural features of different modes of thought presentation vary in different translational contexts; while that of the narrated level investigates how the literary themes in Luotuo Xiangzi as realized by these different modes vary in different translational contexts. In this study, the gendered gaze is chosen as the focused theme due to its relative prevalence in the novel. The significance of this study is twofold. First, DTS allows an empirical textual examination of the formal and literary features of thought presentation, relating the textual analysis to the contextual factors that govern translational decisions. The translation process thus serves as a discursive lens through which relevant historically situated cultures, ideologies, and values are revealed. Second, the study seeks to associate the formal features of thought presentation identified on the narrating level with the literary themes of the novel on the narrated level. Identifying the linguistic manifestations of thought presentation concerning the gendered gaze allows the application of literary criticism in translation to achieve more empirical and replicable results. On the narrating level, the modes of thought presentation of the male and female protagonists, Xiangzi and Huniu, are analyzed within an integrated narrative framework adapted from Shen (1991), Leech and Short (1981/2007), Fludernik (1993), and Rundquist (2017). The results of this analysis show that both King and Shi tend to comply with the norms of thought presentation in Western modernist writings, in particular adhering to the norm of the time whereby showing surpasses telling (Messerli, 1984, p. 282). However, the two translations still demonstrate stylistic differences concerning narratorial flow and intervention. King’s translation tends to slow the narrative pace and construct more rounded characters with intensified descriptions of their psychology and subjectivity. By contrast, in Shi’s version, the original novel is adapted into a faster-paced story featuring more narratorial intervention, emphasizing the quick unfolding of the plot over the construction of the characters’ inner worlds. Moreover, although adopting an overall acceptability-oriented approach, King did not stick to a fixed pattern in his renderings. Occasionally, he shifted the original thought presentation modes to the narrator’s level of discourse. The presence of the interactive and overt narrator creates a similar effect as the storytelling mode rooted in the Chinese vernacular novel-writing tradition. On the narrated level, the modes of thought presentation are examined as the linguistic manifestation of the gendered gaze. The two translations are distinguished in terms of various features in their textual (re)construction of different types of gaze. In King’s translation, both Xiangzi’s and Huniu’s objectifying and eroticizing gazes and Huniu’s female subjectivity are intensified, and Xiangzi’s glorifying male gaze is more gender-virtue-oriented. In Shi’s version, the eroticizing and objectifying gazes and Huniu’s subjective female gaze are attenuated. In contrast, the glorifying gaze on the working class figures of Xiangzi and Xiao Fuzi is strengthened and idealized. Potential factors behind such stylistic differences are manifold, including sociocultural and historical context, literary conventions, patronage relations, translation skopos, and ideological values. Since the two translations were produced at particular historical moments, these macro-level sociocultural and political factors are identified as the overriding ones governing translation choices. This research contributes to stylistic translation studies by suggesting the efficacy of thought presentation as the linguistic realization of literary themes, making the examination of the translational shifts from the perspective of literary criticism more operationalizable. Furthermore, by uncovering the gender theme in ST and TT, this study facilitates readers’ understanding of not only the translations of Lao She’s work but also the different gender values across languages and cultures in history. There are a number of possible future directions for the research. First, fieldwork involving collecting data on reader reception via questionnaires and interviews can be conducted to complement the textual analysis and interpretation in the current study. Second, due to the limited scope of the current thesis, the presentation of characters’ thoughts was the only linguistic tool used to analyze the construction of the gendered gaze. Future studies can investigate how other potential linguistic tools, such as those relating to the system of Appraisal and cues of characterization, can be adopted for the empirical analysis of the gendered gaze. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7062.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.82 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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