Exploring Translational Norms In Chinese Novels Of The New Period From The Perspective Of Critical Discourse Analysis

With the help of sinologists and overseas publishers,quite a few Chinese writers in the New Period,including Mo Yan,Yu Hua and Liu Cixin,have consectively won prestigious international literary prizes,the fact of which,in turn,promotes the international influence of Chinese novels of the New Period.In the context of relating Chinese literature to the world,it is of practical significance to explore textual-linguistic and translation-practice norms shared by these sinologists and publishers.Hence,taking the English translations of Yu Hua’s four novels,and other Chinese novels of the New Period which have been translated and published by sinologists and publishers in English-speaking countries throughout the past decade,as a research subject,this dissertation mainly adopts critical discourse analysis to explore the similarities,differences and reasons of their translational norms under the guidance of a three-dimensional critical discourse analysis framework of their translational norms.In this manner,the experiences of translating and disseminating Chinese literature in the New Period may be learned and the influence of ideology upon the translational norms may be unveiled.Specifically,the features,causes of the translational norms and the influence of ideology upon them are mainly explored from the point of view of their textual-linguistic features,translation practices and social practices.First,in respect to the textual-linguistic norms demonstrated by sinologists’ English translations of Yu Hua’s novels,it is found that the translation of lexical,grammatical,rhetorical and narrative features prone to the manipulation of cultural values is marked by the acceptability–prevailing strategy,with a certain diversity in the employment of some translation methods.The influence of ideology is demonstrated in the following aspects: the translation of political words and phrases,the substitution of passive-voice sentences with active ones,the preservation of artistic features similar to the target literature system,and substitutions made in the opposite direction.The most evident characteristicc is the positive presentation of insider information,and the negative portrayal of outside information,when translating political wording.In this part,this dissertation mainly adopts the random sampling method to retrieve culture-specific items,marked passive-voice sentences,repetition,and signs of minimalist and zero narrative styles from Huozhe,Xu Sanguan Maixueji,Xiongdi xiabu,Diqitian and their English translations To Live,The Chronicle of a Blood Merchant,Brothers II,The Seventh Day.Next,statistical analysis,such as the relevant chi-squared test and other tests,are employed to study the regularity of sinolgoists’ translation methods and strategies in the aforesaid indicators.The specific findings are as follows: in as far as culture-specific items are concerned,Michael Berry,Andrew F.Jones,Carlos Rojas and Allan H.Barr mainly employ the substitution translation strategy to render such items,supplemented by the preservation approach.The chi-squared test and other statistical tests indicate that there is no marked difference in the employment of the conservation strategy,but that there is a marked difference in the employment of the substitution strategy by these four sinologists.With regard to political,culture-specific items,the conservation strategy is used more frequently,and there is a tendency to present in-group information positively and out-group information negatively.In terms of ideologically-loaded,passive-voice sentence transferring,the diversifying strategy is adopted to domesticate the linguistic and cultural features of the source texts.Interestingly,passive-voice sentences relating to females or politics are susbtituted by those in the active voice during the transferring process,so that the potential of oppression may be diluted,and so that the target-culture norms may be satisfied.In respect to repetition,the employment of which is quite different from the aesthetics of the target literature system,these sinologists mainly use the tranferring procedures of synonym substitution and deletion to diversify the wording of the target texts.Only when the poetic effect incurred by repetition is identified and recognized,is the conservation strategy utilized in some cases.The log likelihood-ratio test shows there is no obvious difference in the translation strategies employed by the sinologists.Finally,in respect to the minimalist zero narrative style,which is quite similar to the aesthetics of the target literature system,the conversation strategy is frequently used,and the sentiment of the narrative style is slightly adjusted in a few cases out of consideration for content explication and the strengthening of dramatic effects.The influence of ideology is perhaps shown in the substitution of repetition,the preservation of a minimalist and zero narrative style,and an adjustment to the narrative sentiment.Second,in the translation practice norms demonstrated by English translations of Chinese novels from the New Period,sinologists and publishers in the English-speaking world have translated and published an increasing number of fictional works from diverse genres,but their pragmatic function and political implications have still been greatly foregrounded.For this part,this dissertation mainly examines high-frequency words,semantic prosody and sentiment analysis to explore paratexts pertaining to the English translators,publishers and readers of Yu Hua’s novels,as well as of other Chinese novels of the New Period translated by sinologists and published in the English world during the past ten years.In this manner,some light may be shed upon the source text-selecting strategies,marketing strategies,dissemination strategies,and the reception of these translations as practiced by the relevant parties in English-speaking countries.The research reveals that the translation interests of these sinologists are usually ignited by their personal hobbies,and that their translation agendas subsequently diverge owing to their personal research interests.Overseas publishers often regard the potential sales volume and consider political factors when establishing standards for deciding their Chinese-fiction translation priorities.In terms of translation dissemination,the target readers of Chinese-fiction translations from the New Period have expanded beyond the segment of professional readers to the general public,yet the image of those translations in the mass media is still marginal and distorted.However,the literary value of Chinese fiction from the New Period is greatly underestimated,while the pragmatic value and political background are hugely foregrounded.As far as the consumption of such translations is concerned,the general public has paid a great compliment to the creative writing talents and skills of Yu Hua,as well as to his depiction of universally-shared feelings.Meanwhile,their feedback also conveys political biases and practical functions shaped by publishers and the media.Yu Hua’s novels have been positively evaluated,with comments comprised mainly of trust and joy,as well as sad reviews prompted by the themes of hardship in his novels.In the end,this dissertation discusses the causes of English translational norms for Chinese novels from the New Period from the perspective of the constituents of social practice,primarily including power,social identity and cultural values.It is found that the aforesaid translational norms are closely connected to the asymmetrical power relations existing between the relevant participants in the above-mentioned translation activities,and the cultural and gender identities of sinologist translators,as well as the prevailing cultural values of the United States of America,which are marked by superiority and hegemony.This part mainly adopts a literature review to explore the contributing factors of the linguistic-textual and paratextual features of the aforesaid translational norms from the perspective of interdiscursivity between English translation examples from contemporary Chinese novels and other relevant cultural and political events.The research finds that power has exerted influence upon the linguistic-textual features in an invisible way.This is mainly manifested in shifts between the source texts and target texts.Global consumerism has contributed enormously to the increasingly asymmetrical power relations between writers and readers,which in turn leads to the prevalence of acceptability-oriented translational norms in terms of their textual-linguistic features.Outside the text,power has exerted influence upon the translational standards practiced by sinologists and publishers in an evident manner.This is mainly reflected in a market-driven,source-text selecting standard with political implications,which is closely related to the authority of editors,the worship of sales in the American publishing industry,the pragmatic and post-colonial tradition of American sinology,as well as its natural and close ties with the political field.Additionally,as people of a half-source culture and a half-target culture,the extent to which sinologists identify with the cultural identity of the target culture and the source culture contributes to the aforesaid linguistic-textual and paratextual translational norms.Lastly,the domestication of linguistic and aesthetic features in those translations and politically motivated source-text selection can be explained by the American cultural values of equality,superiority,and its stance on cultural hegemony.The innovation of this dissertation mainly lies in three aspects: its research perspective,content and methodology.Firstly,upon the basis of previous studies,this dissertation has constructed a three-dimensional critical discourse analysis framework for the translational norms,which can advance transdisciplinary cooperation between critical discourse studies and translation studies,and provide new insight into translation criticism and the translation of ideology.Additionally,in respect to research content,the emphasis is upon a group of sinologists who have been engaging in the translation of Chinese literature from the New Period.Systemic research into the similarities and differences of their translation strategies and source text-selecting standards can enrich the study of foreign translators and translational norms,which can also shed light on how to comprehensively,effectively and continuously export Chinese literature to foreign countries.Finally,the research methods and techniques of translational norms can be enriched and innovated by statistical analysis and tests applied to four translations generated by four translators,as well as by an analysis of the emotions and sentiments expressed in readers’ feedback.