| With the theory and methods of imagology,this thesis conducts a comparative study of wuxia images in Anna Holmwood’s translation and wuxia fans’ translation of Legends of the Condor Heroes: A Hero Born.It not only examines the texts of the two translated versions,but also discusses the influence of external factors such as social collective imagination and translators on image construction.Through both intrinsic and extrinsic comparison,this thesis aims at finding the similarities and differences between the wuxia images in the two translations,and explaining the reasons for them from the perspective of imagology.The intrinsic comparison has found two similarities between the wuxia images in the two translations.Firstly,the unique xia characteristics of wuxia have been weakened in both translations.The translators have explained the words closely related to wuxia based on specific contexts,which lacks of a focus on the uniqueness of wuxia;and they have also omitted some of these words,leading to the weakened xia characteristics of wuxia.Secondly,the wuxia images constructed in the two translations tend to be positive.The translators have avoided some expressions which may cause negative impressions,and thus introduce wuxia as a positive hetero-image.The intrinsic comparison has also shown two prominent differences of the wuxia images.Firstly,the translators have sometimes emphasized different aspects of the characteristics of wuxia.Secondly,Holmwood’s translation has shown more intentional image constructions than wuxia fans’ translation.Although both translations have a tendency of lessening the uniqueness of wuxia and reducing the unfamiliarity of the hetero-image,Holmwood has sometimes deliberately emphasized the characteristics of the wuxia group,but this tendency seldom shows in the wuxia fans’ translation.The extrinsic comparison has seen the influences of social collective imagination and translator on the wuxia image constructions.Both translations have been influenced by positive collective imagination of China,and the stereotypical imagination of kungfu image has also affected the wuxia images in the translations.As to translators,the wuxia fans’ translation of wuxia images relies more on the source text,while Holmwood seems to have added more personal understanding with here better language competence.However,although Holmwood and the wuxia fans sometimes emphasize different characteristics of wuxia,they have both tended to construct positive wuxia images,because they possess positive attitude towards wuxia.Since there have been few comparative studies on the translation of martial arts novels,this thesis hopes to provide experience for the translation of Chinese image,and to make a contribution to introducing Chinese culture to the world. |
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