| Author: | Yue, Qian |
| Title: | Unlocking Sherlock : a narratological, stylistic, and sociological analysis of point of view and characterization in the Chinese translations of Sherlock Holmes stories (1896–1916) |
| Advisors: | Li, Dechao (CBS) |
| Degree: | DALS |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Subject: | Holmes, Sherlock -- Fiction Detective and mystery stories, English -- Translations into Chinese -- History and criticism Translating and interpreting Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Humanities |
| Pages: | xii, 166 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This dissertation analyses narrative points of view and characterization in the Chinese translations of Conan Doyle’s detective fiction from 1896 to 1916. Analytical and explanatory models, which are based on the theories of descriptive translation studies, narratology, stylistics, and sociology, have been established to investigate various factors, such as poetic and literary traditions, translators themselves, society, and culture, that influence translation choices in rendering original points of view and characters into Chinese. Presumably the most celebrated detective character both in the world and in China, Sherlock Holmes, along with his detective stories, immediately garnered a wide readership since his first introduction to China in 1896, when the Chinese literary community started to seek modernity through the translation of foreign works into Chinese. Although a certain number of research has been conducted on the Chinese translations of Sherlock Holmes stories during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period, an interdisciplinary study combining the theories of descriptive translation studies, narratology, stylistics and sociology is still lacking. The reason why narrative points of view and characterization are chosen as the research objects is two-fold: on the one hand, they are the two most important features of narrative discourses and thus deserve meticulous attention; on the other hand, previous studies on this topic yield findings often in broad strokes, with few attention being paid to the subtle yet important function of these two narrative features. A study with a finer analytical granularity, such as the present one, is thus needed to complement previous research on this topic. There are mainly two reasons why descriptive translation studies (DTS) is chosen as the theoretical framework for the current study. First, it provides a more rigorous approach compared with other schools, such as Vinay and Darbelnet’s linguistic approach and Nida’s dynamic equivalence. The five translation steps proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet appear to be prescriptive and thus fail to explain idiosyncrasies or solve translation problems in practice, as they have definite rules about what translation should be like before what happens in reality. Achieving equivalence has traditionally been regarded as the ultimate goal of translators; however, such a goal often appears to be impossible to achieve, especially when the source and target languages drastically differ. By contrast, adopting a descriptive approach and looking into the reasons underlying the translation choices would free research from the fruitless discussion of equivalence. Second, DTS matches the research object–literary translation–well. Since literary works are closely intertwined with culture, when dealing with foreign literature, translators need to deal with a plethora of socio-cultural factors. Compared with the linguistic approach and theories that focus on equivalence, DTS appears to suit literary translation well, as it allows for both empirical textual analysis of the translator’s renderings and the potential contextual and extra-textual factors leading to such choices. The research addresses the following questions regarding the rendering of narrative points of view and characterization: (1) How did the translators render the narrative points of view/characterization in the Chinese translations of Sherlock Holmes stories from 1896 to 1916? Are there any shifts in the narrative points of view/characterization compared with those of the original English texts? (2) What are the possible factors governing these translatorial shifts within the target cultural, literary, social, political, and writing systems? To answer these research questions, a comparative analysis of the narrative points of view in the Chinese translations of Sherlock Holmes stories was conducted. It is found that 59 out of all the 67 narratives during this period were internal narration, seven were omniscient narration, and one was narration from a blended point of view. Among the 59 Chinese translations narrated by the internal narrator Watson, two sub-categories were also observed: one category of narrative texts was consistently narrated by the internal narrator Watson, and the other was largely Watson’s internal narration while it also included expressions like “華生曰” (Watson said that) at the beginning of the first paragraph of each story. The addition of reporting verbs in the second sub-category revealed the author’s presence. This technique resembles the openings of traditional Chinese historical novels, showing the influence of Chinese poetic traditions. As for the one Chinese translation that was narration from a blended point of view, the Chinese translation can be interpreted as both first-person narration and narration from an omniscient perspective. Such duality can be attributed to one of the distinctive characteristics of the traditional Chinese language (i.e., expressions like “滑震又記歇洛克之事雲：……” (Watson’s notes of Sherlock’s stories: …) can be interpreted both as an omniscient narrator telling stories of Watson and Holmes and as Watson telling the story of himself and Holmes) and may also reflect the translator’s skillful navigation between Eastern and Western influences in his careful deliberations. Furthermore, theoretical constructs from cognitive stylistics were employed to analyze the two Chinese translations of The Naval Treaty, published in 1896 and 1916. It was found that the two translators manipulated narrative information, added or generalized reporting verbs, repositioned the reporting clause, shifted from direct speech to indirect thought and utilized model verbs to adapt the discourse presentation in the target texts, resulting in a telling rather than showing effect in the translations. Such adaptations also constitute shifts in narrative points of view. The characterization of characters, especially female characters and Sherlock Holmes, was analyzed by using Culpeper’s characterization theories from cognitive stylistics and the narrative framing theory from sociology. It was found that translators manipulated female characters’ personal traits, physical appearance, and power relations with men in the Chinese translations, and thus, these women were presented as physically attractive yet weak and unintelligent individuals who rely on others, especially men, for love, care, and redemption. Such adaptation deviates from the portrayal of physically attractive, determined, strong-minded, and intelligent women depicted in the original texts. As for the characterization of Sherlock Holmes, the translators employed a wide range of narrative reframing strategies such as manipulating relationships, selectively appropriating textual material, labeling, and repositioning participants. Through these strategies, Holmes was portrayed more positively than the original, with details that could have revealed unwelcome personal traits being extensively altered or omitted. Regarding his relationship with Watson, the originally respectful yet independent dynamic connection was transformed into a more intimate and fraternal one. Holmes’ initially aloof yet decent attitude towards women was also modified to be less respectful. These alterations aimed to reposition Holmes and create a closer resonance with Chinese readers. The observed shifts in narrative points of view and characterization in the Chinese translations of Sherlock Holmes stories during 1896–1916 can be attributed to the influence of factors such as poetic traditions of the target culture (e.g., the addition of expressions like “華生曰” (Watson said that…) to render the first paragraphs of the Chinese translations similar to the openings of traditional Chinese historical novels), patronage (e.g., translators working for Shiwubao magazine were all required to be faithful to the source texts and therefore their translations did not include much adaptation), socio-cultural influences (e.g., framing Holmes to be a trust-worthy detective and a champion of traditional values to offer readers a sense of security during a time of warfare and social changes), and the personal inclinations of translators (e.g., Lin Shu translated political refugees and revolutionists as “虛無黨人” (Nihilistic Party members) who were willing to give up their lives for revolutions). The contribution of this research to the field is as follows. It complements previous studies by presenting a more detailed analysis of the use of narrative points of view in the Chinese translations of Sherlock Holmes stories. Contrary to existing popular findings that only the translations before 1900 adopted an omniscient point of view, and all translations after 1900 employed an internal point of view, it is found that two subcategories of first-person narration abound in the Chinese translations. Furthermore, translators altered the discourse presentation in the target texts to subtly adapt the narrative points of view in the Chinese translations. The research finding re-confirms the need for introducing analytical tools from other disciplines in the study of literary fiction by adopting the stylistic approach in the analysis to find out how the narrator was recreated in the translation to manipulate narrative points of view. It is also found that translators manipulated narrative information, added or generalized reporting verbs, repositioned the reporting clause, shifted from direct speech to indirect thought and utilized model verbs to adapt the discourse presentation in the target texts, resulting in a telling rather than showing effect. Possible future directions for research on this topic may include the use of corpus analysis to analyze long stories. In the current research, the source texts analyzed are mainly short stories translated by different translators. If used for corpus analysis, they might produce unreliable results. Using corpus analysis to analyze long stories, future researchers might obtain statistically significant and reliable descriptive data and better understand the research topic. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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