On The Creative Translation Of Hybridity

As a particular literary text, Chinese American literature is characterized by hybridity not only presented in language aspect, but also in cultural aspect. Maxine Hong Kingston, a master of creating the hybrid story, shows us a highly hybridized culture in her masterpiece The Woman Warrior:Memoirs of a Childhood Among Ghosts. Kingston combines the stories narrated by her mother and the myths as well as legends, while at the same time adding new interpretations, which is inspired by the Western culture, to make people understand her context and her role in her community. Her appeals to a unique identity and a hybrid culture are fully expressed.Translation, especially literary translation, should fully represent the aesthetic significance and literary function of the source text, and the readers of the translations expect to comprehend as much as possible both the feelings and the ideas in the source texts. Thus, literary translation needs to be creative because such comprehension cannot be gained by simple transformed language forms. Referring to the Chinese American literature, the creative translation should represent the cultural hybridity and help the readers understand the hybridity.Structurally, there are three chapters and conclusions in this thesis. Chapter One serves as an brief introduction of the Chinese American literature and The Woman Warrior. Chapter Two summarizes the former studies on hybridity in translation and on The Woman Warrior. Chapter Three elaborates the hybridity in language aspect and cultural aspect in the source text, and analyzes the translation of both the language hybridity and the cultural hybridity in The Woman Warrior, as well as the other creative translations. The creative translation of hybridity may represent the hybridity or dissolve it. In either way, the creative translation is a way of representing the author's appeal to a hybrid culture.