This thesis examines two Korean translations of Lao She’s novel Rickshaw Boy, namely the 1986 translation and the 2008 retranslation. Through a comparative analysis of the translation differences between the two versions, the study investigates the ...
This thesis examines two Korean translations of Lao She’s novel Rickshaw Boy, namely the 1986 translation and the 2008 retranslation. Through a comparative analysis of the translation differences between the two versions, the study investigates the translation patterns manifested in the retranslated text and, on this basis, examines the applicability of the Retranslation Hypothesis.
In order to conduct an objective and systematic comparison of the two translations, this study adopts Lambert and van Gorp’s (1985) Synthetic Scheme for Translation Description as its analytical framework. The translations are divided into two levels: paratexts and translated texts. The translated texts are further analyzed from both macro-level and micro-level perspectives. The macro-level analysis focuses on changes in paragraph division and sentence structure, while the micro-level analysis concentrates on translation shifts at the lexical and discourse levels.
The results indicate that, in the translation of culture-specific terms, the later retranslation more frequently employs transliteration strategies, thereby actively preserving the cultural otherness contained in the source text. In the translation of idiomatic expressions, the retranslation tends to use corresponding idioms or commonly used expressions in the target language, which more fully reproduces the colloquial stylistic features of the original text. Accordingly, with regard to the translation of culture-specific terms and idioms, the retranslation demonstrates a tendency to move closer to the source text, which overall accords with the Retranslation Hypothesis that later translations tend to be more source-oriented.
However, at the discourse level, the retranslation frequently exhibits the addition of reporting clauses as well as the deletion of dialogue content, reflecting a translation tendency that emphasizes conciseness and clarity in dialogue. This tendency, to a certain extent, instead increases the distance between the translated text and the source text, which runs counter to the direction proposed by the Retranslation Hypothesis and therefore does not support its claims.
Overall, the findings of this study present a complex outcome in which the Retranslation Hypothesis is partially supported and partially challenged. In other words, the hypothesis does not possess sufficient explanatory power across all levels of translation analysis, but can only account for certain translation phenomena and patterns of textual change, indicating its theoretical limitations. Moreover, the evaluation of the “distance” between the source text and the translated text should not be confined solely to a binary framework of domestication and foreignization, but should also take into account multiple factors such as the transmission of source-text meaning, the reproduction of stylistic features, and pragmatic effects. As retranslation is influenced by various factors, including the translator’s intentions, the anticipated readership, publishing purposes, and the socio-cultural context, all of which exert a significant influence on the distance between the source text and the translated text.
The significance of this study lies in its empirical examination and discussion of the validity of the Retranslation Hypothesis through detailed textual comparison. By focusing on concrete retranslation phenomena, this research provides valuable empirical evidence and contributes to the relatively underexplored field of Chinese–Korean literary retranslation studies.