Table of Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Research Background 1
1.1.1 Lack of Conceptual Metaphor Studies in A Dream of Red Mansions 1
1.1.2 Studies on Translator’s Subjectivity 2
1.2 Research Question 3
1.3 Purpose and Significance of the Study 3
1.4 Research Methodology 4
2 Translator’s Subjectivity 5
2.1 Definition of the Translator’s Subjectivity 5
2.2 Translator’s Subjectivity in the Process of Literary Translation 6
3 Conceptual Metaphor 8
3.1 The Definition of Conceptual Metaphor 8
3.2 Characteristics of Conceptual Metaphor 9
3.2.1 Universality 10
3.2.2 Systematicity 10
3.2.3 Cultural Coherence 11
4 A Comparative Study of the Two English Versions of A Dream of Red Mansions 11
4.1 Translation of RED Metaphor 11
4.1.1 Hong and Names 12
4.1.2 Summary 20
4.2 Translation of POETIC Metaphor 21
4.2.1 Writing About The Chrysanthemum VS Celebrating The Chrysanthemums 22
4.2.2 All Good Things Must End VS Won-Done Song 26
Conclusion 32
Acknowledgements 34
Bibliography 35
1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
1.1.1 Lack of Conceptual Metaphor Studies in A Dream of Red Mansions
From 1979 to 2011, Journal of A Dream of Red Mansions has totally published more than 4500 papers, in which only 23 articles were of study on English translation of A Dream of Red Mansions (one article in 1980, 1986, 1997, 1998, 2006 respectively, two articles in 2008, 7 in 2010, and 9 in 2011). The two articles written in 1980s conducted an overview of evaluation of David Hawkes' and Yang Xianyi's translations, but without in-depth analysis for precise areas. The two articles in the 1990s adopted more specific theories like equivalent theory and conducted the study of the translation of A Dream of Red Mansions from the perspective of extended translation strategy, but were still confined to the stage of rhetoric. Since the cultural turn of translation study, studies of the English translation of A Dream of Red Mansions have gradually increased. A wider range of researches appear, including the study of words, syntax studies, textual studies, literary studies, style studies, religious studies, cultural studies, and tendency studies, but few choose metaphor and its translation strategies as research content. Translation studies of metaphors in A Dream of Red Mansions have not been put into the high light, neither in stage of metaphor as a rhetorical mean, nor after the occurrence of the cognitive shift in metaphor study. In 2002, Nankai University held the National Translation Seminar of A Dream of Red Mansions, producing over 50 articles. The vast majority's study is based on Yang's and Hawkes' versions. Some papers discuss translation purposes, the form of translation, translation methods, the choice of the original version, and the identity of the translator; some paper's study euphemism in A Dream of Red Mansions and its translatability; some discuss the translation of cultural factors and their impact, the loss of cultural information and the issue of compensation, and some concentrate on translators' orientation and ideological issues. Among these papers, only five falls within the scope in the study of metaphor translation, of which four are obviously studies on rhetorical translation of metaphor. The last one only mentions a little about Newmark's semantic translation and communicative translation theory analysis of metaphor translation concept, but still explores from the language layer. Regarding metaphor as simply rhetoric, and isolate from the language level of metaphor translation, itself, and from writers' creative minds, and from the theme of the works and characters, could just from a one-sided point of view, and cannot explain the fundamental contradictions between understanding and expression in metaphor translation. 《红楼梦》中概念隐喻的翻译策略(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_6475.html