On Moss Roberts’ English Version Of Three Kingdoms From The Perspective Of Thick Translation

Taking Moss Roberts’ Three Kingdoms as a case study, this thesis is an attempt to analyze the application of thick translation in Roberts’ version and the reasons why Roberts adopted this method so as to explore the positive significance of thick translation in the rendering of ancient Chinese classics.In 1993, the American translation theorist Appiah put forward “thick translation”, or “thick contextualizaiton” in his essay “Thick Translation” for the first time. He defined it as a translation “that seeks with its annotations and its accompanying glosses to locate the text in a rich cultural and linguistic context”(Appiah, 2000: 427). And he also held that by providing annotative text materials such as footnotes and commentaries, translators aims to provide background knowledge, arouse the target readers’ concern and interest in the original culture and achieve optimizing appreciative effect.Three Kingdoms is the first historical Chinese multi-chapter novel. It describes the military and political rivalry between the kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu, headed by Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan respectively and exerts tremendous influence on the later generations. And it naturally integrates history with literature, combining both realism and romanticism. The outstanding literary achievements make it exert a great influence on Chinese literature, art and all aspects of social life. Ever since its publication, Three Kingdoms has attracted much attention from scholars both at home and abroad. Numerous scholars have studied Roberts’ translation from various perspectives, but few researched it from thick translation. Under such circumstances, this thesis tries to make an analysis of thick translation in Roberts’ Three Kingdoms from the aspects of preface, annotations and postscript. In addition, this paper also investigates the reasons for adopting thick translation, indicating that readership, patronage, text type of Three Kingdoms as well as the linguistic differences all contribute to employ this method.Above all, through the analysis of the embodiment and function of thick translation in Moss Roberts’ Three Kingdoms and the reasons for applying this method, this thesis makes an attempt to demonstrate thick translation’s positive significance in disseminating Chinese literature, especially the very essence of Chinese classical literature and strengthening cultural interflows.This thesis is composed of five chapters:Chapter one gives a general introduction to Three Kingdoms, and the research background and significance, research methodology, questions and the structure of the thesis.Chapter two retrospects the previous researching condition of the English versions of Three Kingdoms, Roberts’ version and thick translation.Chapter three states the definition of thick translation and then elaborates thick translation’s origin and development, significance and necessity.Chapter four is the main body of the thesis. It firstly investigates thick translation phenomenon in Three Kingdoms from the perspectives of preface, notes and postscript, then probes into the reasons why Roberts adopts thick translation method in rendering Three Kingdoms and lastly expounds the significance of employing thick translation strategy to translate Three Kingdoms.Chapter five is conclusion. The author lists the main findings and limitations of the thesis and puts forward some suggestions for further studies.