A Contrastive Study Of Luotuo Xiangzi’s Two English Versions From The Perspective Of Style Translation

Style and its translation has long been one of the main topics on the translation forum. The style of literary works, an embodiment of the writer’s unique individuality, reflects his language skill, habitual way of expressing as well as his mental and spiritual characteristics. An adequate translation should be in conformity with the original in content and form, in other words, in style.Style, intangible as it seems to be, can still be recognized through stylistic markers. Considering this, Liu Miqing proposed the system of stylistic symbols or the theory of stylistic markers, which consist of formal markers and non-formal markers.Laoshe’s unique literary style is very well epitomized in Luotuo Xiangzi, one of his most representative works, highlighted by the colloquial expressions and the employment of Beijing dialect. Its two English versions translated respectively by Evan King and Shi Xiaojing have both merits and demerits in terms of style translation. As a native English speaker, Evan King produced a smooth and natural translation. However, the cultural differences inevitably led to some mistranslations in his version. On the other hand, the stylistic features of the original lost more or less in Shi Xiaojing’ version due to the domesticating strategy employed by the translator.After a thorough investigation of the previous studies concerning style and its translation, the thesis further confirms the translatability of style as well as its limitations. Furthermore, the thesis makes an introduction of the writer Laoshe, Luotuo Xiangzi and its English versions. In light of Liu Miqing’ theory of stylistic markers, the thesis then makes a contrastive study of the two English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi respectively by Evan King and Shi Xiaojing in terms of the transference of style. The thesis is in an attempt to dig out how the two translators deal with the stylistic elements in the original, and to emphasize the importance of style translation. By analyzing the two English versions’ merits and demerits from the perspective of style translation, this thesis is intended to offer a lesson to other translators and benefit the translation practice.Style is an important feature of literary works, and to reproduce the original style poses a necessary and challenging requirement to the translators. In other words, literary translation should be based on translators’ deep understanding of the original style and its full transference so that it can help the readers feel the same as the original readers do.