Abstract

The Chinese classic novel Hongloumeng is considered as an encyclopedia of Chinese culture. Its high literature and aesthetic value is highly appraised at home and abroad. Fundamental color are commonly used in the Hongloumeng and play an important role in the description of the characters’ appearance, the psychological and facial movements of the characters, furniture and equipment in the residence, and seasonal sceneries in poems, couplets, and idioms. It is well accepted that the words for basic colors are an inseparable part of color words and are bearing quite different cultural connotations. Therefore, it is of great significance to study and translate the fundamental color properly while introducing it to the world. However, how to translate fundamental color is a big challenge to the translators because of the abundant cultural factors. Meanwhile, due to the different cultural stands, it is necessary and feasible for the translators to employ different translation strategies. This thesis conducts a comparative study on the translation of fundamental color in the two English versions of Hongloumeng: A Dream of Red Mansions by the couple of Yang Xianyi and The Story of Stone by David Hawkes. An attempt is made to explore the different translation strategies in dealing with culture-loaded fundamental color in hope of probing into the reasons for different strategies and providing some guidance to cultural transmission. 

 Keywords: Hongloumeng; fundamental color; translation strategies

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

2.1 Previous studies on foreignization and domestication-1

2.2 Previous studies on the translation of color words in Hongloumeng-2

3. A Comparative Study on the Translation of Fundamental Color in Hongloumeng-3

3.1 Translation of words for color red in two English versions of Hongloumeng-4

3.2 Translation of words for color green in two English versions of Hongloumeng.5

3.3 Translation of words for color blue in two English versions of Homgloumeng-7

4. Conclusion-10

Works Cited-11