The Combination Of Thick Translation And Paratext

This thesis aims to certify that “thick translation” is a valid strategy for translating Chinese classics and prove that “paratextual elements” of translated texts greatly affect their receptions by analyzing The Wisdom of Laotse,the translation of Tao Te Ching,written and edited by Lin Yutang from the perspectives of the two theories,hoping to make contributions to the translation,overseas publication,circulation and marketing of Chinese classics,and bring inspirations to the Chinese literature outward-going studies.In the book of The Wisdom of Laotse,along with the original linguistics features of the Tao Te Ching,Lin Yutang supplemented a large amount of notes and glosses,added titles for each chapter,and expounded Taoism by the thinking of Chuangtse.All these fit to the strategy of thick translation.The book was first published in 1984 by Random House and soon got popular.In 2009,Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press republished The Wisdom of Laotse and received pretty good responses from American Amazon,because of the photographs of Lin Yutang,the cover full of Chinese classic characteristics and other paratextual elements.By using the methodology of Descriptive Translation Studies,the author classifies and analyzes the phenomena of thick translation and the paratextual elements in The Wisdom of Laotse.The thesis is composed of five parts: The first part is introduction,which contains the research background,aim and significance of the research and the brief introduction to the structure of the thesis.The second part is literary review.In this part,the previous studies and researches about the theory of thick translation,the notion of paratext and the translations of Tao Te Ching,including the former researches of The Wisdom of Laotse,abroad and at home,will be given.The third part is theoretical framework,which covers the origin and development of thick translation theory and paratext theory,as well as the overlap between the two theories.In this part,the positive role of these two theories in translation practice and translation theory studies is stressed.The forth part is the case study,the main part of the thesis.In this part,the phenomena of thick translation and paratextual elements inthe book will be analyzed.It fully demonstrates the effectiveness of thick translation as a translation strategy in translating Chinese classics,and how the paratextual elements impact on the reception of translated texts.The fifth part is the conclusion.The major findings and contributions of this research will be listed,along with the limitations of the present research and remaining questions for further study.By analyzing the features of thick translation and various paratextual elements in The Wisdom of Laotse,this thesis proves that the very phenomena of thick translation make Lin's version a significant example for the study of English translation of Tao Te Ching and the various paratextual elements added by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press promote the sales of this book in foreign market.These two findings show that thick translation and attractive paratextual elements obviously have positive significance for the translation of Chinese classics and their reception in foreign market,the combination of these two can bring great benefit to the Chinese literature outward-going studies.