Comparative Study On Reconstructed Cultural Identity Of Women In Chinese Translations Of The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston is an influential Chinese American author,whose masterpiece The Woman Warrior criticizes the oppression of women in traditional Chinese society and racial discrimination against Chinese Americans in mainstream American society,constructing a new identity of Chinese American women.Studies on cultural identity in The Woman Warrior have always been a hot topic both in China and abroad.Cultural identity is a concept imported in 1990 s from the west.It refers to social construction based on cultural patterns and recognized by oneself or other people.Cultural identity is mainly made up of cultural nodes such as human physical characteristics,nationality,religion,language and lifestyle.At present,most studies on The Woman Warrior focus on literary analysis of diaspora literature,cultural conflict and female identity as well as cultural misreading and translator’s cultural identity in translation with post-colonialism and feminism as theoretical framework.It can be concluded from previous studies that in context of Chinese American literature,there is binary opposition in race and gender,which is also a key point in Imagology.But now Imagology is rarely applied in studies on cultural identity.Theoretically,this thesis combines the above two areas,providing inspiration for Imagology and its application in translation studies.Meanwhile,in the era of globalization and cultural hegemony,Chinese American literature is worth studying since it takes a special place in cultural transmission.So practically,this thesis investigates the relationship between women and Chinese traditional culture and the construction of their identity in The Woman Warrior,which reflects the hetero-image of China to a certain extent.This thesis investigates cultural identity in Chinese versions of The Woman Warrior;it is a comparative analysis of reconstructed female cultural identity in translation of Wang Aiyan and co-translation of Li Jianbo and Lu Chengyi.Brave Orchid,Moon Orchid and “I” are picked as example according to their attitude to“Chines American” and “Chinese women”.This thesis attempts to answer the following two questions:(1)What are the differences in reconstructed cultural identity in the two translations?(2)How the translators presented such differences in the text?This thesis adopts Imagology as theoretical framework.As an important part of comparative literature,Imagology was first proposed by Jean-Marie Carrie.It explores the changes of hetero image,including some core concepts like stereotype,social imagination and binary opposition.The application of Imagology in translation is construction of hetero-image and cultural identity,which includes stereotype,social imagination and binary opposition.Stereotype is the minimum unit of describing the other.Social imagination is common opinion on the other,thus including stereotype and bringing binary opposition.Based on theoretical framework,this thesis will first explore the differences in the reconstruction of female cultural identity in translation from the perspectives of race and gender;the two translations are compared to examine women’s relationship with mainstream American society and patriarchal society in order to analyze differences.Then the presentation of such differences will be analyzed from aspects of stereotype,social imagination and binary opposition.In other words,this thesis analyzes whether the two versions retain the linguistic features of the original version,whether American readers’ social imagination to Chinese American brought by stereotype turns to that of domestic readers and whether translations succeed in reconstructing cultural and gender binary opposition in original text.After analysis,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)Due to the time span of as long as 20 years,the differences of translators’ gender and background,there are subtle differences in the reconstructed female images and cultural identities in the two translated works.Li and Lu’s translation reproduces status of Chinese American women as the “other” in American mainstream society and male dominated society.Brave Orchid,Moon Orchid and “I” can neither integrate into mainstream society nor recognize American culture;they can neither voice in male dominated society nor be willing to be silent.Wang’s version weakens the conflict and the dual-marginalization of Chinese American women;the female cultural identity is more traditional in translation.(2)Li and Lu’s translation retains the stereotype in the original text,successfully reproduces the image of the other constructed by the original text,keeps the exotic flavor of the original text,caters to the domestic readers’ social imagination of the Chinese American female group,and emphasizes the binary opposition between eastern and western cultures and gender.So the reconstructed identity of Chinese American women in the translation is closer to the original text.However,Wang’s version tends to seek the corresponding expression in Chinese traditional culture to increase the fluency and readability of the translation;it also dispels the binary opposition and ignores its influence on the cultural identity of Chinese American women.This thesis links Imagology to cultural identity research by translation,providing a new idea for Imagology,literary translation and cultural identity research in Chinese American literature.