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A Study of Hybridity in the Two English Versions of Xi You Ji

Author: JingMaoMao
Tutor: JiangQiuXia
School: Northwest Normal University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: hybridity domestication foreignization Xi You Ji ideology poetics patron
CLC: H315.9
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2013
Downloads: 7
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Abstract

“Hybrid” is used in biological field originally, and lately used in electronics and other disciplines innatural sciences. Later on, some disciplines of social sciences borrow this concept, including linguistics,literary theory, and cultural studies, etc. It is defined roughly the same meaning in various disciplines,referring to a new unique thing that comes into being after interaction of things of different characteristics.In translation studies, hybridity is used to describe the feature of translated text that contains thelinguistic, cultural and literary elements both from the source text and target text. Hybridity is an essentialand universal characteristic of literary translated text and it is directly related to translation strategies.Historically, scholars held heated discussions over domestication and foreignization. However, findingsindicate that there is neither absolute domesticated translation nor absolute foreignized translation. Alltranslations are hybrid, resulting from a combination of domestication and foreignization. Thedomestication and foreignization translators adopt in translation process decides the kind of hybridity. If thetranslator mainly employs domestication, it will be domestication-oriented hybridity; otherwise, if thetranslator mainly employs foreignization, it will be foreignization-oriented hybridity.Xi You Ji, one of the Four Chinese Classical Chinese Novels, not only enjoys extremely high literaryvalue, but contains large amounts of Chinese traditional cultural information. It has been rendered intodifferent languages for foreigners.The present study makes two English versions: Monkey translated by Arthur Waley in1940s andJourney to the West by Jenner in1970s as the research objects and compares and analyzes the hybridityreflected at the cultural level in Xi You Ji in terms of Nida’s classification of culture in translation. Theresults show that Waley adopts domestication-oriented hybridity and Jenner employs foreignization-oriented hybridity. As to the hybridity reflected at the cultural level in the two English versions,interpretation and analysis is conducted from the angles of text structure and single sentence.This thesis, applying Lefevere’s manipulation theory as theoretical framework, explores the influenceideology, poetics and patrons exert on the two different kinds of hybridity. The author concludes that thedomestication-oriented hybridity Waley adopts is subject to the joint constraints and influence of the thensocial ideology, political ideology, mainstream poetics and patrons—publisher. Ideology varies with thechanges of time and under different ideological background different translations will be produced. When itcomes to Jenner’s era, the social ideology, political ideology and mainstream poetics have undergone certain changes. The patrons—Foreign Language Press also plays a great role in encouraging Jenner toadopt foreignization-oriented hybridity.The study consists of six chapters. The first one mainly states research background, the significanceand structure of the thesis. In the second chapter, the author advances the necessity of this study based onthe reviews of previous studies related to this study. The third chapter focuses on theoretical foundationemployed in this study, containing Lefevere’s manipulation theory and its three aspects which influencetranslators on their choice of translation strategies, and the practice of Lefevere’s Manipulation theory inthis study. Chapter four gives a succinct presentation of research design, which is made up of researchquestions, research object, research methods, data collection and analysis, research procedure and possibleresults. Chapter five is the core of the research. By analyzing the data, the author tries to find out the kindof hybridity reflected at cultural level and discusses the influence of ideology, poetics and patrons on thetwo translators’ choosing different kind of hybridity. The last chapter summarizes the conclusions andpresents the limitations of the study.

A Study of Hybridity in the Two English Versions of Xi You Ji

Abstract

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