Narrative Reframing Through Recourse To Paratexts

Zuo Zhuan is representative of pre-Qin narrative prose with its distinctive narrative characteristics.Based on the historical events recorded in Chunqiu,it supplies a great number of historical facts to it,giving a full account of the political,economic and cultural conditions of all the states during the Spring and Autumn Period.In addition to the text,Legge's translation of Zuo Zhuan is accompanied by pages of paratexts,including prolegomena and the translator's notes.Previous studies on the translation of Zuo Zhuan rarely focus on paratexts,but they are essential to the translation of Chinese classics.The present study mainly explores the strategies adopted by Legge to reframe the narrative of the source text through recourse to paratexts.This study is a descriptive one,and the analysis is based on Margaret Somers and Gloria Gilson's theories about narrative frame and Mona Baker's theory about narrative reframing.After analyzing the source text of Zuo Zhuan,the present study finds that the narrative frame of the source text has the following five characteristics:(1)as historical annals,Zuo Zhuan arranges historical events in a chronological order by using the ancient Chinese chronology;(2)Zuo Zhuan is about the China in the Spring and Autumn Period,and records the scattered historical events in each state,which fails to give a general picture of the China during that period;(3)the plots of the same historical event are scattered in the source text,making it difficult to reveal the associations of the same historical event;(4)the narratives in Zuo Zhuan are not only related to the social and cultural contexts at that time,but also to other texts;and(5)part of the source text fails to disclose the historical reality.According to the present study,Legge reframed the narratives of the source text through adding paratexts,and the strategies he adopted include temporal reframing,spatial reframing,causal emplotment,relationality reframing and selective appropriation.The findings show that:(1)Legge reframed the time and space of the source text in the target text by illustrating the chronology of Zuo Zhuan and the China in the Spring and Autumn Period in prolegomena;(2)Legge reframed the same historical events in Zuo Zhuan with his own notes,making the plots of these events complete;(3)in the form of the translator's notes,Legge reframed the ambiguous designations in the source text according to the context,relating them to the social and cultural contexts,and related the narratives in Zuo Zhuan to other texts in prolegomena and translator's notes;(4)Legge revealed the implied attitudes of the author through the translator's notes,thus strengthening the narrative purpose of the author.The above research findings show that it is feasible to discuss the functions of paratexts from the perspective of narratology.The present study is expected to hold implications for related studies.