敘事學視域下余華小說英譯分析

【摘要】在《許三觀賣血記》這部小說中，余華采用對話的敘述方式、重復的敘述模式，以敏捷的思維和豐富的情感利用“客觀的敘述”、“單純的對話”、“簡單的重復”，達到了令人心動的效果。本文作者認為，如果在翻譯之前，譯者除了做必要的語言和文化準備之外，也能夠充分了解原文的敘事特點，然后在特定的敘事模型范圍內研究字詞和篇章的翻譯，便可以在譯文中建立起對等的敘事類型，使詞句和篇章的傳譯服從原文的敘事類型，從而使譯文在韻味和風格等層面更加貼近原文，避免產生只重視內容而忽略形式的“虛假等值”翻譯。本文從敘事學理論下的敘事模式和敘事時間理論出發，對比原文和譯文，以此來說明，通過準確再現原著中的敘事類型方能將原作精髓和作者風格帶入譯文。作者也希望通過本文，對敘事學在翻譯批評和翻譯研究方面的應用能夠起到一定的促進作用。

【關鍵詞】《許三觀賣血記》；英譯；敘事學；敘事模式；敘事時間

【作者簡介】楊玉婉，華中師范大學外國語學院。

1. Introduction

Writers of Yu Huas generation are often referred to as the “experimentalists”. In 2002， Yu Hua became the first Chinese writer to win the prestigious James Joyce Award. His novels Huozhe（To Live） and Xu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji （Chronicle of a Blood Merchant） have been named as two of the top ten most influential books in China during the last decade.

The translator Andrew F. Jones is a Professor of Modern Chinese Literature and Culture at UC Berkeleys Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. Being a friend of Yu Hua， Andrew Jones also translated Yu Huas short story collection The Past and the Punishment （Wang Shi Yu Xing Fa）. In understanding the characteristics of Yu Huas work， Andrew did more than just grasp the life trails of this writer； he also investigated into the cultural background of the novel.

Therefore， the translator has the advantage of understanding both the then history and culture of China in Xu Sanguans time as well as of being familiar with Yu Huas writing style. Yu Hua himself is also curious about the outcome of the translation. He even suggests readers to buy both the Chinese version and the English version for the sake of checking whether there is any misunderstanding in the transference.

2. Narratology and narration type

Generally， the history of narratology falls into three phases：

At first， narratology took its materials from three main sources： the remnants of normative rhetoric and poetics， the practical knowledge of novelists and the observations of literary critics.

However， it was only in its second phase that “narratology” became a distinct sub-discipline of discourse studies， after the term was first used in 1969 by Tzvetan Todorov in his Grammaire du Décaméron， it began to find wide international acceptance.

The third phase in the history of narratology， extending up to the present，

has seen a tremendous expansion and diversification of the sub

discipline.（Ansgar， Nünning， 2003： 239-275）

In this article， only the narrative point of view and narration time are taken into major consideration.

2.1 Transference of narrative point of view

As is mentioned， Yu Huas keen on narrative technique is best revealed in Xu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji， or rather， at a more proficient level.

Source text： 他們的鄰居一個一個走過來，他們說：

“許玉蘭，你哭什么……是不是糧票又不夠啦……是不是許三觀欺負你了，許三觀！許三觀呢？……剛才還聽到他在說話……許玉蘭，你哭什么？是不是丟了什么東西……是不是又欠了別人的錢……是不是兒子在外面闖禍了……”（《許三觀賣血記》第五章，P36）

Target text： One by one their neighbors gathered around the doorstep. “Xu Yulan， why are you crying？ Not enough grain coupons again？ Has Xu Sanguan been bullying you？” “Hey， Xu Sanguan！ Wheres Xu Sanguan？” “I thought I heard him say something just a second ago.” “Xu Yulan， what are you crying about？ Did you lose something？” “You owe someone money？” “Did something happen to one of the boys？” （Andrew， 2003： 36）

This is a brilliant job done by both the writer and the translator. Andrew deliberately divides the whole remark which seems to utter from a single focalizer into six ones， making the situation more confusing.

The variable internal focalization replaces the fixed internal focalization in the translation. It emphasizes different attentions on the same issue. Thus it succeeds in appealing to the readers and calls up their experiences.

Whats more， all the focalizers are unprepared for their utterances. Therefore， some sentences are short whereas some are relatively longer. “Not enough grain coupons again” is even not grammatical. Yet these short and long and colloquial sentences create a noisy but casual situation， which further shortens the distance of the narrator and the readers.

When it comes to the reproduction of the subtle shifts of point of view， Andrew Jones does a good job.

2.2 Transference of repetition

There are a lot of good reproductions of repetitive narration in the English version， due to the limited space of this thesis， only a few can be analyzed here：

Source text： 許三觀對許玉蘭說：“前天我帶你們去絲廠大食堂吃了飯，昨天我帶你們去天寧寺大食堂吃了飯，今天我帶你們去戲院大食堂吃飯。（《許三觀賣血記》第十八章，P110）

Target text： Xu Sanguan said to Xu Yulan， “I took you to the canteen at the silk factory the day before yesterday， and we went to Heavenrest Temple canteen yesterday. Ill take you to the canteen at the theater again to eat today.” （Andrew， 2003： 111）

Due to the lack of grammatical markers in Chinese to indicate tenses， the same verb “我帶你們” are rendered to “I took you”， “we went to”， the past tense， and “Ill take you”， the future tense respectively， with a shift of personal pronoun in the middle. To reiterate the time， the translator keeps the time adverbials “the day before yesterday”， “yesterday” and “today”. The original layers of repetition are faithfully transferred.

The faithful conveyance of repetition parts in the English version successfully transfers the foregrounding in the source text. Being the core of this novel， the structure is fused with the sense and aesthetic value. The fore-grounded form of the original novel is terse and self-embodying. So the translator grasps this point and keeps both the original form and the different layers of emotion.

3. Conclusion

As a tentative study of the transference in Chronicle of a Blood Merchant in the context of narratology， the translation is analyzed in a descriptive way. Among these transference， due attention has been paid to the subtle shifts of point of view and repetition are especially carefully and well handled.

Therefore， it is concluded that as far as the transference of the narrative point of view， and frequency are concerned， the translator Andrew Jones has faithfully delivered the original sense as well as form， and he has achieved in the translation as high， if not higher aesthetic value as the source text reader Yu Hua. Some faults in the reproduction， either due to carelessness or misunderstanding， also call for the translators attention.

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