A Study Of Cultural Loss And Compensation In The English Translation Of The Republic Of Wine From An Intertextual Perspective

The essential idea of the theory of intertextuality is that there is no original texts and they are always dependent on other existing texts.Such intertextual references are used to convey meanings for certain purposes by the author.From a synchronic perspective,in the process of cross-cultural communication,especially when literary works are translated from one language to another,intertextuality in the source text(ST)is difficult to adjust to a different frame of principles and norms in the target text(TT).As a result,the cultural meanings would become blurred,lost or intentionally erased.Therefore,it would be essential for translators to make Chinese intertextual signs to gain ground in the English world.Since Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature,more Western readers have learned about modern and contemporary Chinese literature by reading the English translation of his works.This thesis studies Goldblatt's English translation of Mo Yan's Jiuguo(The Republic of Wine),a satire novel first published in 1993,by exploring the cultural loss and compensation when intertextual signs are translated from Chinese to English,focusing on extratextuality in terms of two categories: explicit extratextuality and implicit extratextuality.While explicit extratextuality includes reference and allusion,implicit extratextuality involves structural and functional dimensions.Structural extratextuality focuses on word formation,sentence formation and discourse pattern,and functional extratextuality is more concerned with cultural and aesthetic dimensions.An analysis of Goldblatt's English translation of Jiuguo shows that the cultural effect of the translation of extratextual signs can be classified into three categories,namely,translation with little cultural loss,which is roughly considered perfect,with some cultural loss in spite of some efforts made to compensate the absence of cultural significance that is unique in Chinese conventions,and with crucial cultural loss leading to misunderstanding or complete confusion.Three suggestions for compensating for the losses of cultural meanings are given at the end of the thesis.To be specific,translators are encouraged to present relevant information consistent with existing research results,to retain the structure of the ST especially when it comes to verses or proverbs,and to provide readers with necessary annotations.It is hoped that this study and the suggestions given can help bridge the cross-cultural communication between China and the West.