A Comparative Study On The English Translations Of The Chapter Titles Of Xi You Ji In Anthony C. Yu’s Version And W. J. F. Jenner’s Version From The Perspective Of Eco-Translatology

Xi You Ji,one of China’s Four Great Classical Novels,has gained much popularity among readers both in China and other countries over the world.This novel tells a story that Tang xuanzang led his three disciples to get scriptures from the west.The whole story,interspersed with Buddhism and Taoism,is thrilling and exciting.Due to its fame and popularity around the globe,Xi You Ji has been translated into many languages at present.Only Anthony C.Yu’s translation(hereinafter referred to as Yu’s translation and W.J.F.Jenner’s translation(hereinafter referred to as Jenner’s translation)are Xi You Ji’s full-length English versions.On the basis of Eco-translatology,this thesis makes a comparison between similarities and differences of Yu’s and Jenner’s translations of cultural elements in chapter titles of Xi You Ji,namely character names,places names,religious elements and rhetorical devices,analyzing the selections made by the two translators based on adapting to their own translation ecological environment from three dimensions: linguistic dimension,cultural dimension and communicative dimension.It is found that both translators have different translation ecological environments in the process of translation;In terms of the linguistic dimension,both Yu and Jenner mainly adopt the translation methods of transliteration and literal translation,reproducing the formal beauty and linguistic characteristics of the original text;In terms of the cultural dimension,Yu conducts a better cultural transmission than Jenner.He adopts literal translation plus annotation,not only retaining the basic information of the original text to the greatest extent,but also deeply excavating the cultural connotation hidden in the original text and showing Chinese culture to the western readers;In the communicative dimension,the two translators give up pursuing the beauty in form and rhyme for the sake of fluency and preciseness of the translation.In the meantime they fit the language habits of the target language and achieve the communicative intention of the author.On the whole,the two translators have achieved an ecological balance of three-dimensional adaptive translation.It is hoped that this thesis can contribute to the study of Xi You Ji’s English translations and provide reference for later researchers.