| Wolf Totem is a long semi-autobiographical novel written by Chinese writer Jiang Rong,the novel has gained numerous readers’ attention.Previous studies have mostly focused on the qualitative vein on the ecological concept,narrative technique,translation strategy,and overseas dissemination,with less attention paid to the readers’ comments(textual-external factors)and quantitative features(textual-internal factors)on the semantic and lexical level.This study brings together these two strands from the perspective of Chinese-English comparison to explore the degree of matching of external with internal textual features,as well as their contribution to the subtle differences of themes presented.The research procedures are starting from the similarities and differences between Chinese and English readers’ comments,based on the manual scores given to them with reference to the Chinese and English sentiment classification of How Net sentiment dictionaries(HNSD).We also use Freytag’s Pyramid Structure to analyze the text characteristics of the novel in English and Chinese with the help of "Topic Concentration(TC)" and "Text Activity(Q)",which are commonly used in text analysis in linguistics.This paper compares and contrasts the textual characteristics of Chinese and English novels,and also uses manual scoring to score the sentiments of the main characters in the novels to explore the author’s sentimental preference,and finally combines the above two dimensions of internal and external text for a comprehensive analysis.The purpose of this paper is to study the connection between Chinese and English readers’ comments and the internal text of the novel,and to make a multi-dimensional analysis and comparison of the novel Wolf Totem.Three research questions are put forward:(1)What are the similarities and differences of readers’ comments in Chinese and English?(2)What are the similarities and differences of quantitative textual features and sentiment scores of the main characters in Chinese and English?(3)Do readers’ comments match the quantitative textual features and sentiment scores of the main characters in Chinese and English?In terms of Chinese and English readers’ comments,the overall trend of sentimental preference of the novel is different.Chinese readers have more negative evaluations,while English readers have more positive ones.However,there is an overlap in their concerns about the novel,both advocating positive views concerning the theme,content and storytelling of the novel,while negative views concerning the uneven plot development,i.e.,the first half is more interesting than the second half;as well as those bloody scenes causing discomfort.The differences lies in the fact that Chinese readers have more controversial attitudes towards the value of the author,while English readers have fewer comments on it.In terms of quantitative textual features and sentimental preference of the main characters in Chinese and English,the differences are as follows.Firstly,concerning thematic concentration,the TC and STC values in Chinese are higher than those in English,and there are significant differences between both.The overall trends are similar between Chinese and English of TC and STC values with the development of the plot;concerning the theme words,the noun theme words for “animal” and“environment” in Chinese are mostly retained in the English,while those verb theme words representing “behavior”,“senses” and “state” are abundant,but some of them do not appear in English.Secondly,concerning “Activity(A)” and “Descriptivity(D)”,The values of Text Activity(Q)are greater than 0.5,but the range of variation is greater in Chinese;while the ones of descriptivity are less than 0.5,but the range of variation is greater in English.This indicates that both the English and Chinese favor portraying actions rather than describing attributes,but the feature of “portraying actions” is reinforced in Chinese while the one of “describing attributes” is highlighted in English.The “active and descriptive” game balance of the source text are mostly retained in the translation,but the translator’s fingerprints are reflected to a certain extent.Thirdly,concerning the sentiment scores of the four main characters,Chen Zhen,Bilig,Bao Shungui and Yang Ke,their overall ups-and-downs are similar with the development of the plot in both Chinese and English,but the ranges of variation via sentiment scores of each character is less in English than in Chinese,indicating that the translator has preserved the positive and negative attitudes towards the main characters in the original text,but in a reserved manner.There are some matches between the readers’ comments and their textual quantitative features in both Chinese and English.The first is the manifestation of the themes.The “animals” and “environment” theme words rank top in the wordlist in the five stages of plot development in both language,which is in line with the ecological and animal themes mentioned by the readers’ comments.The second is the plotting.The three indicators of TC,STC,and Q have higher values in the “Rising Action” and“Climax” than in the “Falling Action” and “Ending”.This is consistent with the unevenness of the plot development mentioned by readers and explains why the first half of the novel attracts more readers’ attention.The higher Q values and the presence of more verb theme words may,to a certain extent,explain the comments made by some readers about the presence of bloody scenes in the novel.The third is that the sentiment scores of the main characters do not exactly match the readers’ comments.The scores of the main characters can,to a certain extent,reflect the author’s value orientation mentioned in the Chinese readers’ comments and it is true that the comments in Chinese is more subjective than those in English,and the main character’s negative attitude toward environmental destruction and invaders reflects the novel’s eco-critical concept.However,when facing “wolfiness”,the main character Chen Zhen holds a critical standing point,not just agreeing or affirming,which shows that the author is not just pursuing the “wolf spirit”.This study combines readers’ comments with single-out quantitative textual indicators to examine the reasons for the thematic differences in Wolf Totem in Chinese and English,adopting the perspectives of both “textual-external +textual-internal” and “quantitative + qualitative” research design.It is hoped to enrich the dimensions and methods of literary research and provide some insights for translation studies under the cross-disciplinary perspective. |
