A Comparative Study Of Hong Lou Meng's Two English Translations From A Perspective Of Shen Dan's Narratology

Since the introduction into China since 1980s, narratology becomes the new theory to study the Chinese classics. The novel narrative perspective in Hong Lou Meng stands out for its ingenious connotation. The translations of Hong Lou Meng respectively by Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang and David Hawkes accelerate the popularization of Chinese classic culture, begetting considerable research value. However, the comparative research between two English versions through narrative perspective still leaves much to be desired. This thesis will compare the two English translations, point out the distortion of the original narrative style and the impairment of the implication and summarize the regular rule and the potential reasons of the translatorsThis topic is to be a data based study of the narrative perspective in translating Hong Lou Meng from Shen Dan's quartering point of views. In order to analyze the compliance and incompliance with the narrative requirements in the origin, the thesis selects the typical chapters of the zero point of view and the internal point of view to focus on.Through the study, the thesis points out that both the translations cause divergence from the original Chinese version. There are striking mistranslations like creating perspective chaos and changing the perspectives. The phenomena that the translation changes the original internal point of view into the zero point of view in Yang's version is very common. Fully aware of the narrative perspective, Hawkes'version is more loyal to the original one. Based on the theory of the translator's subjectivity, the complication of the original version's narrative perspective and the social and academic background respectively lead to this research result.