On The Translation Of Lu Xun’s Style In Engaging Readers

This thesis is an attempt to deal with two research questions:First, what is style and how can it be approached; Second, What is Lu Xun’s style and how is it represented in translation. With these questions, the study is conducted along two lines.As for the first line of style study, a literature review reveals two problems existing in the previous studies on style. The author has accordingly proposed to situate style study under the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Basing on a detailed exposition of the main concepts of SFL, the author shall summarize the adequacy and applicability of SFL in style study.As for the line of Lu Xun’s fictional style and how is it translated in English, a review on previous studies on Lu Xun’s style offer several key terms, including "subjectivity of paradox","irony" and "polyphony". They share the common ground of the narrator’s dialogues with oneself and the implied reader, which is a good example of the realization of interpersonal function of discourse. Therefore, the author concludes that the key to studying Lu Xun’s style is to examine the interpersonal aspect of his discourse, that is, to conduct a systematic analysis of the text under a framework of interpersonal function. A review of the previous studies on the analytical framework of the interpersonal aspect of style leads the author to choose the Systemic Network of Engagement, Prefacing and Hedging summarized by Wang Zhenhua.Next, the author has chosen Ah Q Zheng Zhuan and two of its English versions as the data of case study, which serves both as the verification of the proposal of the first line and a follow-up discourse analysis of Lu Xun’s style. Following a thorough coding of the three texts according to the analytical framework, the coding results are interpreted to provide textual evidence on how Lu Xun’s style has been effective and to describe how it is represented in the two translated versions.This thesis has proposed to study style under SFL both in terms of conception and methodology. Basing on the literature review, it has also made a prediction on Lu Xun’s style, which is proved by textual evidence elicited from a discourse analysis under SFL. Apart from these achievements, a comparative description of Lu Xun’s style in translation under SFL may serve as a starting point for future studies on style translation.It is hoped that this thesis may contribute to studies on style, Lu Xun’s style as well as style translation.