A Study On Functions Of Paratexts In The English Translation Of Taipei People From A Cultural Perspective

Paratexts are the textual elements surrounding the main text,which contribute to the formation of the textual framework and affect the acceptance of the main text.Taipei People is a collection of fourteen short stories authored by Pai Hsien-yung,a renowned novelist in contemporary Chinese literature.The Chinese-English translation of Taipei People has diverse forms of paratexts added by the translators with rich cultural implications,which have been underexplored in previous research.This study takes the paratexts in the English translation of Taipei People as the research object and aims to explore major types of these paratexts and their functions from a cultural perspective.Based on Genette’s paratext theory,the thesis provides a descriptive overview of different types of paratexts in the translation and their features.Meanwhile,Bassnett’s theory of cultural translation is applied in the case study to demonstrate the functions of these paratexts in cultural translation.Through qualitative textual analysis,the study concludes that the paratexts in this translation consist of peritexts including the foreword,prefaces,notes,and appendix,and epitexts such as correspondences between the translators and the editor,the translators’review and interview.These paratexts mainly show three aspects of cultural functions:portraying the source culture,mediating different cultures,and coping with cultural untranslatability.The foreword,notes,appendix,and other paratexts construct the source culture by providing historical and cultural background information;prefaces,the translators’ review and interview reflect the translators’ mediation of cultural differences;the translators cope with culturally untranslatable phenomena such as characters’ names and historical allusions in paratexts including notes and correspondences.This study hopes to supplement the paratextual research in novel translation and to offer sources for translators’ paratext writing practice.