A Study Of The English Translation Versions Of A Dream Of Red Mansions From The Perspective Of Cultural Context

The knowing of the culture of human kinds has become deeper and this can showthat the importance of the culture has been discovered more. The time and the historycan change but the culture will show its changeless and classic face in the changingconditions and it can also advance with times. So keeping paying high attention to theculture is an important way of keeping the development of the history and society.When we know the importance of the culture, the better understandings andapplications of the cultural context play the important roles at the same level andpeople should have the cognitions like that no matter they are the translators, culturetransmitters, policy makers or the common people, etc. Since the whole world isbecoming a more concentrated “village” the understandings and applications of thecultural context will not only benefit the better work of the translations andculture-transmission, but also benefit the culture-based communications of the wholeglobal.From the perspective of the cultural context, the thesis uses the ways of comparingto make the analyses of the two translated versions of A Dream of Red Mansionstranslated by Yang Xianyi&Gladys Yang and David Hawkes. The thesis shows thecognitions and applications of the cultural context we should have. That means that weshould get better understandings and make more flexible use of the cultural context andthen we can get the better performance of the translations. The thesis also thinks thatfor the evaluations of the translations we should have the same cognitions andapplications. Besides, the thesis also extends and sublimates the fields of the culturalcontext and translations and the related opinions, and also thinks that the cognitions andthe applications of the cultural context should be extended to wider and higher scopesand makes the discussion combining the economy and some other aspects related to thehuman world. It also shows the three “good” of the translation.The thesis consists of the Introduction, the main body and the Conclusion parts.In the Introduction part, the thesis shows the importance of the context and thecultural context first and makes the brief summarization of some of the foreign andChinese studies of the context and cultural context, then it introduces what the thesis will research and the opinions of the thesis, and the thesis also introduces the wholeways of the researching. At the same time, it shows the important theoreticalsignificance and the practical significance of the thesis and also shows the innovationsof the thesis. Meanwhile, it also shows the scope of the chosen materials, and makes abrief introduction to the researching of A Dream of Red Mansions in different fields.The main body part consists of four chapters.Chapter One is the literature review. The thesis makes a brief introduction to themasterpiece and its author Cao Xueqin and the two English versions of it translated byYang Xianyi&Gladys Yang and David Hawkes and the thesis also introduces both ofthe translators briefly and for the readers this can lead to the better understandings. Atthe same time the thesis also makes the introduction to some important theories, studiesand definitions of the culture, context and the cultural context which includes theforeign and Chinese ones. In this chapter, the thesis also quotes the importantclassifications of the cultural context and shows the thesis’ own opinions and aspects ofthe cultural context which the thesis focuses.In Chapter Two and Three, the thesis makes the case studies of the examples of thetwo English versions of A Dream of Red Mansions from the perspective of the culturalcontext. The thesis shows some important aspects of the cultural context which thethesis focuses in the first parts of both two chapters. In these parts the thesis shows theexamples of the related aspects from A Dream of Red Mansions with the specificexplanations and closely combines the whole together showing the features andimportance of them and the special functions of the parts. That is the importantcomponent of the part of the case studies. The thesis puts the cultural context into theaspects of allusions, Special Days, religions and the etiquette&customs, and, of course,the thesis also shows that these aspects are not the complete and absolute ones but someof the important ones. In the aspects of the allusions and Special Days, in chapter Two,the thesis shows the different but typical examples, just as it does in chapter Three, toshow the features and the importance of them. In the aspect of the religions, the thesisalso shows some related information of the Buddhism, Taoism and Christianism andthe objective factors such as the different doctrines of them. In the aspect of the etiquette&customs, the thesis also puts the expressions related to the officials,appellations and some folk adages into this aspect. The thesis chooses some of thematerials from the Cao-written parts of original masterpiece and makes some parts ofthe explanations combining with the Dictionary of A Dream of Red Mansions and theAppreciation Dictionary of A Dream of Red Mansions. The thesis also thinks that eachof the two versions has its merits. The thesis puts the examples from A Dream of RedMansions into the aspects mentioned above to make the detailed and furthered analyses,and the author shows the opinions of the thesis and the related extensions.Chapter Four shows the inspirations and sublimations of the importance,cognitions of the cultural context and the whole thesis. This chapter has the closerelationship with chapter Two and Three, and this is also the important aspect andcomponent of the studies and the thesis and that is also the continuation and extensionof the thesis’ opinions. In this chapter the thesis shows that besides the fields related tothe translation work the cultural context also has the close relationships with the higherand wider scopes of the human world such as the development of the economy and soon. The thesis shows the relationships of the cultural context and the development ofthe economy, the maintenance of the nationalities, the development of the history, theliterature achievements, and the peace of the world. Meanwhile the thesis also makesthe further summary of the relationship of the cultural context and translation which isthe important component of this chapter and shows the opinions of three “good” of thetranslations, and then the thesis also shows that for the evaluations of the translationswe should also hold the same cognitions of the cultural context, etc.The last part is the conclusion. In this part the thesis makes the summarization ofthe core opinions, and the opinions of the thesis are explained deeper: we should getbetter understandings and make more flexible use of the cultural context and it is notlimited in the translation work and evaluations but should be extended into the higherand wider scopes of the human world. At the same time, the thesis also shows theimportant significance of research and some limitations.