Analyzing Two Translations of The Well of Loneliness on their Translational Strategies and Positions in the Target Literature from a Cultural Perspective

• Main Authors: Chan, Ya-ting, 詹雅婷
• Other Authors: Cecilia H.C. Liu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/64352983754752682741

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 跨文化研究所翻譯學碩士班 === 103 === The thesis aims to observe how classic features of The Well of Loneliness, an English lesbian classic fiction in the early 20th century, have been transformed with the change of time in the target culture. To achieve the aim, this study analyzes the translational strategies, or norms, of its two Chinese translations published in Taiwan. The classic features in this study refer to the two literary ambitions the author demonstrates throughout the book. One is the use of the term “invert,” which reflects different medico-scientific ideas from then sexologists, psychopathologists, and psychoanalysts, to challenge the Church’s accusation of immoralty. The other is the abundant use of Biblical allusions and metaphors that also serve to counter inverts’ stigma of sin in then society. Following the deductive research method proposed by Gideon Toury in Descriptive Translational Studies, the study focuses on (1) what translational norms have been applied to representing the two classic features in the two Chinese translations, and (2) how these norms reflect the two translations’ positions in the target culture, more towards classic literature or mass literature. Therefore, chapter two compares the two translators’ Chinese translations of the term “invert,” and observes how their choices match with the author’s writing ambition while also answering to the changing atmosphere in the receiving society. Then, chapter three analyzes the two translators’ representations of the Biblical allusions and metaphors, with Toury’s and Nida’s categorizations of metaphor translation and Bible translation. Chapter four looks at publishers’ arrangements for the two translations on their translator’s notes, introductory prefaces, front covers, back covers, and intertitles, using Toury’s, Gérard Genette’s, and Carmen Toledano-Buendía’s ideas of extratexts, or paratexts. The final chapter concludes some translational norms in construction of the two classic features in the two Chinese translations, and provides some advice and suggestions for future studies on the classic fiction’s future Chinese translations.