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Insert non-formatted text here= 周清: A study on the Translation Strategies from the perspective of Feminist Translation Theory: Taking Le Rouge et le Noir as an example =

摘要

女性主义翻译理论颠覆了基于结构主义的传统翻译理论为翻译界提供了新的视角并取得了丰硕的成果。目前学界对《红与黑》的研究主要集中在对主题意义的探寻和人物形象的解读方面。本文试图从小说叙述故事的结构角度切入，以司汤达的《红与黑》的两种译本为研究对象，通过运用女性主义翻译理论对司汤达的作品进行分析，旨在为司汤达的作品翻译提供一定的启示。第一章是引言，说明本文的研究背景和研究意义；第二章是理论框架，阐述了女性主义理论的背景及主要翻译策略；第三章是对司汤达作品的翻译策略进行研究，在女性主义翻译理论视角下对比分析两个译本；第四章对全文进行总结，通过研究发现女性主义翻译理论对于女性翻译者的指导作用。

关键词

女性主义翻译理论；《红与黑》；翻译策略；司汤达

Abstract

Feminist translation theory overturned the traditional translation theory based on structuralism, provided a new perspective for the translation industry and achieved fruitful results. The current academic research on Le Rouge et le Noir mainly focuses on the exploration of the theme's meaning and the interpretation of the characters. This article attempts to cut into the structure of the narrative story of the novel. It takes two translations of Stendhal’s Le Rouge et le Noir as the research object, and analyzes Stendhal’s works by applying feminist translation theory, aiming to provide Stendhal’s The translation of his works provides some enlightenment. The first chapter is the introduction, explaining the research background and significance of this article; the second chapter is the theoretical framework, explaining the background of feminist theory and the main translation strategies; the third chapter is the research on the translation strategies of Stendhal’s works. A comparative analysis of the two translations from the perspective of feminist translation theory; Chapter Four summarizes the full text and discovers the guiding role of feminist translation theory for female translators through research.

Key words

Feminist translation theory;Translation theory;Le Rouge et le Noir;Stendhal

Introduction

Stendhal was a great writer in the nineteenth century. He created many influential and subversive characters, such as Julien Saussure in Le Rouge et le Noir. However, the female images in his works are often ignored by literary critics. This article attempts to analyze the different translation strategies of the two Chinese versions of Le Rouge et le Noir from the perspective of feminist translation theory, in order to make the translation more accurate and provide readers with a new perspective to understand the work.

Research Background

Feminist Tranlation Theory urges translators to reflect on female characteristics accurately by holding a feminist perspective. It is believed in feminist translation studies that language can actively interfere with the creation of meaning.

Feminism originated in liberal feminism in the 18th century. As a new school in the field of translation, Western feminist translation theory was introduced to China in the 1980s, but it has not attracted much attention from the translation community in our country.(蒋骁华,2004,04) Since 1999, some scholars realized that gender is also one of the factors that affect translation. At the beginning of the 21st century, with the increasing frequency of international cultural exchanges and the increasing contact with various foreign translation schools, Chinese scholars began to really pay attention to feminist translation theories. Up till the end of 2013, 296 essays about femnist translaion theory have been published on CNKI, and translaton works and books about feminism translation theory have also been published. Speaking from translation criticism, there are not many works about feminism translation, but those works have reflected that the gender perspective has enlightened translation.(李晨,2011.)

Significance of the Research

Stendhal play an important role from his contemporaries on the conception of romanticism. Although his works are accomplished during the Romantic Movement, which guard against his influence. Since the novel was translated and introduced to China, many scholars have conducted in-depth discussions on it from different angles and put forward many constructive points, which laid the foundation for our research and appreciation of this work. However, there are not many papers studying the translation of Le Rouge et le Noir from the perspective of translation, and few researchers have tried to use feminist translation theories to study the translation of female images in novels from the perspective of translation and cultural integration. Therefore, the author selects two Chinese translations of Le Rouge et le Noir as research objects, hoping to use feminist translation theory to explore the gender differences between male and female translators in their translations, and to explore whether the female images in the novel can be highlighted, what’s more this leads to new thinking on feminist translation theory and practice. The practice is not only applicable for the field in translation, but also can provide some reference for other fields.(陈颖,2008.)

About the Translators and their Chinese Translation Versions

Le Rouge et le Noir as an excellent foundation work of critical realism literature, is famous for its literary and critical nature. (Babara Godard,1990.)The Chinese translation of the novel Le Rouge et le Noir occupies a very important position in the history of Chinese translation. Generations of translators have devoted their efforts to its translation and re-translation. Especially in the 1980s and 1990s, the retranslation of Le Rouge et le Noir was a shocking event in the translation, reading and criticism circles. With the efforts of all translators, there are about 20 Chinese translations of the novel in the book market. It can be said that Le Rouge et le Noir is the most translated novel in China among foreign literary works.In order to make the contrast clearer and more intuitive, the author specially selects two representative translations: Le Rouge et le Noir by Mr. Zheng Kelu (published by Commercial Printing House) and Le Rouge et le Noir by Ms. Luo Xu (Published by Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House) as the research object.

Zheng Kelu, a well-known translator in our country, as an outstanding representative of the Chinese translation industry, his translation works and academic thoughts are a monument in modern literature and translation circles. The total amount of his translation works has exceeded 15 million words, involving literary, theoretical and historical classics , There are more than ten thousand lines of poetry translation, and he presided over the editing and publishing of nearly 20 million words of foreign literary works, making a great contribution to the sinicization of French literary culture. Mr. Zheng's Selected Preface to French Short Stories won the second prize of Shanghai Social Outstanding Achievement Papers from 1986 to 1993, and History of French Literature (Volume 1 and Volume 2) won the first prize of Scientific Research Achievements of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1994 .

Luo Xu, a famous diplomatic translator in our country. She is engaged in translation work in English and French, and participated in the translation and revision work of The Complete Works of Balzac and Memoirs of De Gaulle. She loves French literature, especially the works of George Sand, a famous French writer in the century, and Stendhal, a pioneer of French realism literature. She has translated and published novels such as Le Rouge et le Noir. Based on the two Chinese translations, Zheng's translation is popular and accurate, and Luo's translation is lively and fluent, and both are the best translations. As for Mr. Zheng , who is a man, and Ms. Luo Xu, who is a woman, who are also fond of the works of French writer Stendhal, will gender differences affect their translations?

Theoretical Framework

Since the "cultural turn" in the century, translation studies from a cultural perspective have yielded fruitful results. People began to understand translation activities from multiple angles, and gender was gradually incorporated into translation theory and practice, thus forming a brand new translation theory—feminist translation theory.（杨朝燕，刘延秀，2007，02.）

Origin and Development of Feministe Translation Theory

With the development of feminism, the concept of gender has been brought into translation studies, helping scholars to take a new perspective at the relationship between original text and translated text. For a long time, traditional translation theories have been based on "faithfulness" and "equivalence." The translator has always been in a passive position, and the translation has always been considered a vassal of the original. The translator is only engaged in derivative and non-creative activities. Its subjectivity is suppressed and cannot be manifested. However, feminist translation theory starts with the gender role of the translator, trying to break the traditional dualistic model of opposition and advocate the "symbiosis" of the original text and the target text. They advocate that female translators move from the periphery to the center, become the subject of translation activities, protect their right to speak, and highlight the female figure in the translation as much as possible.(哥校琴,2003,6.)

Strategies of Feminist Translation Theory

In order to highlight the subjectivity of women as much as possible, and to intervene and rewrite the translated text with feminism as its value orientation, feminist translators give full play to the role of translator's subjectivity. They generally use three translation strategies to complete their "rewriting" process: supplementing, prefacing and footnoting, hijacking or appropriation .

“Supplementing” is to compensate the way the original text expresses the gender meaning, and to make up for the difference between the two languages (the original language and the target language). By supplementing the differences between the source language and the target language, the translator intervenes in the original text, and the translator's ideas can penetrate into the translation. For example, someone created a new word auther in English to translate French autheure and so on.

“prefacing and footnoting” means that female translators can intervene in the original text, explain and describe the intention of the original text, and at the same time explain the purpose of their material selection and translation, as well as translation strategies. Feminist translation theorist Simon believes that these descriptions and explanations highlight the translator's desire for people to pay attention to their feminist status, or more precisely, feminist status.（Butler, J. Gender，1999.）

Three Analyses on Translation Strategies of Le Mare Diable from the Feminist Perspective

Le Rouge et le Noir is the representative work of French writer Stendhal. The novel can be said to be a love novel, but it is not a simple love novel. Stendhal reflects the cruel reality of feudal society by telling the two love stories of the protagonist Julien. The two heroines have completely different personalities and represent different aristocratic classes. Feminist Translation Theory mainly entails translation from the feminist perspective. In the practice of interpretation, female translators can make sure women’s speech right by using a variety of language strategies. This chapter will analyze Luo's translation strategy from the perspective of feminist translation theory.

Footnoting

“Prefacing and Footnoting” is one of the techniques often used by feminist translators. After observing the text, it is found that no matter it is the translation of Ms.Luo or Mr.Zheng, there is no preface by the translator, and the strategy of adding a foreword is not shown in this translation comparison. This strategy of Footnoting is more obvious in Luo's translation. Due to many differences in history, culture, and customs, there are often allusions, common sayings, names, etc. in foreign novels that are difficult for Chinese readers to understand. Footnotig can help explain the original text and enable readers to better understand the original text.

Example1:Cet inconvénient, senti par tous, mit M. de Rênal dans l'heureuse nécessité d'immortaliser son administration par un mur de vingt pieds de hauteur et de trente ou quarante toises de long.（Stendhal，2008,2）

Luo: 这种困难给了德·瑞那先生一个很好的扬名机会，他建筑了一段二十英尺高、三十到四十特瓦兹①长的宽厚堤墙。

① 特瓦兹（Toise）：法国古度名，约合一点九四九米，大约等于六市尺。（罗旭译,2007，7）

Example2:Prenez garde, mon enfant, à ce qui se passe dans votre cœur, dit le curé, fronçant le sourcil ; je vous félicite de votre vocation, si c'est à elle seule que vous devez le mépris d'une fortune plus que suffisante.

Luo: “我的孩子，注意，注意你的脑筋里想了些什么。”教士皱着眉头说道，“你为宗教而舍身①，我真庆幸你有这点灵性。”

①指于连想当神父，这和东方出家当和尚差不多。(罗旭译,2007,49)

Example3:Ce refus de tutoiement, cette façon brusque de briser un lien si tendre, et sur lequel il comptait encore, portèrent jusqu'au délire le transport d'amour de Julien.

Luo: 这种亲密的称呼的拒绝①，粉碎如此温柔的联系的急遽方式，可是他还沉醉在这种联系里，这反而使于连爱恋的快乐达到巅峰的程度。

①德·瑞那夫人在上节的谈话里，称呼于连是用第二人多数而不是第二人单数，这种语调，含有拒绝之意。(罗旭译,2007,224)

Example4:Voilà donc la cause de la froideur de tes lettres ! s'écria Mathilde avec l'accent de la folie plus que de la tendresse.（Stendhal，2008,223）

Luo: “所以，那就是‘你’在回信里冷酷的原因了。”玛特儿叫道。她的声调与其说是温柔的不如说是疯狂的。

①“你”：法国人用单数的你，表示亲昵，玛特儿第一次这样称呼于连。（罗旭译,2007,345）

The above are examples of adding footnotes in Luo's translation, including explanations of the source of the names of people and books in the original text, and explanations of allusions. “Footnoting” is an important way for translators to intervene in the text, and it is also one of the common methods used by feminist translators. It achieves the purpose of establishing a cognitive bridge between the author, the translator and the reader through supplementary interpretation of the original text. It is the most intuitive embodiment of the translator's subjective initiative. However, comparing Luo's version with Zheng's version, it is found that Zheng's version also adopts the same strategy of adding footnotes, although the way and position of adding annotations are not the same. At the same time, we can also observe some Chinese translations of novels, regardless of whether the translator is male or female, there are also footnotes added. Therefore, the author believes that footnoting is indeed one of the translation techniques that female translators love, but it is not a strategy dedicated to feminist translation. Only when it reflects feminist tendencies, that the strategy is applied to feminism, the field of translation is more meaningful.（Flotow, Louise Von. 2004，29）

Supplementing

"Supplementing" is a translation strategy that compensates for the differences between the two languages. Western feminists often emphasize compensating for the gender differences in the original work, awakening people's awareness of gender oppression, and resisting the dominance of patriarchal culture and patriarchal language. When the original text involves the description of female images and the description of the psychological activities of men and women in love, Luo's translation always boldly adopts the "addition" translation strategy commonly used by feminist translators. However, Luo's translation did not interfere with the original text as much as Western feminists did when using this strategy. Instead, it focused on subtleties to make up for the lack of gender awareness in the original text. On the basis of not rewriting the original text drastically, Luo's translation compensates for the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, highlights the female image of the original text, and inadvertently demonstrates the translator's female identity.

Example1:Tourmentée par l'idée de la pauvreté de Julien, Mme de Rênal parla à son mari de lui faire un cadeau de linge.(p.22)

Luo：于连贫穷的景象，把她心里幽静的世界扰乱了，她忍不住向她丈夫请求，买一些常用的换洗衣物给他。（罗旭译,2007,39）

Zheng：德·雷纳尔夫人牵挂着于连的贫穷，同丈夫谈起要送给于连内衣。（郑克鲁译，2018，42）

Comparing the two translations, it can be seen that Luo's translation has more words "把她心里幽静的世界扰乱了" than Zheng's version. By referring to the original text "Tourmentée par l'idée de la pauvreté de Julien", it is found that Zheng's translation is completely faithful to the original text., literally translated as “德·雷纳尔夫人牵挂着于连的贫穷”, but the original text does not describe inner activity of Madame de Rênal. Luo added this sentence “把她心里幽静的世界扰乱了” in her translation,which is an in-depth interpretation of the heroine's psychology from a female standpoint. From the perspective of the translator, she firmly grasped Madame de Rênal's inner contradiction through "Supplementing" and presented it to the readers more clearly, allowing the readers to feel the inner world of the protagonist more clearly. In this process, the translator is no longer invisible, but intervenes himself in the translation, adding his own understanding and interpretation of the original work, and carrying out meaning innovation or text reconstruction, highlighting his own subjective status.

Example2:Les flatteries précoces dont elle avait été l'objet, en sa qualité d'héritière d'une grande fortune, et un penchant décidé àla dévotion passionnée, lui avaient donné une manière de vivre tout intérieure.

Luo：因为她是一位极富的产业的承继人，所以在幼年时代，她早已经是众人阿谀逢迎的对象。再者她生来便具有热情、信心和狂热殉道的倾向，因此使他倾向于精神生活。（罗旭译,2007,40）

Zheng：她是一大笔财产的女继承人，过早收到阿谀奉承，况且她笃信宗教，形成完全内向的生活方式。（郑克鲁译，2018，42）

This passage is a description of the image of Madame de Rênal. The heroine has a superior life since childhood and inherited a large inheritance. It can be said that she has never suffered from life and does not understand the detachment of the extreme cold of the world. Luo's translation adopts the "Supplementing" strategy, which makes the image of Mrs. Drenaa more vivid and lively.

Example3:Un éclat de rire grossier, un haussement d'épaule, l'accompagné de quelque maxime triviale surla folie des femmes, avaient constamment accueilli les confidences de ce genre dechagrins, que le besoin d'épanchement l'avait portée à faire à son mari, dans les premières années de leur mariage.

Luo：他们新婚的几年内，她心里有这类的不快意时，常常向她丈夫倾诉。因为一个心里痛苦的人，有向亲人倾诉心底秘密的必要。然而当她倾诉时，她所得到的回答，常常是粗鲁的笑声，和肩头的一耸。（罗旭译,2007,41）

Zheng: 在结婚的头几年，她要倾吐衷肠，便把这类烦恼悄悄地告诉她的丈夫，但是迎来的却经常是哈哈大笑。（郑克鲁译，2018，43）

Comparing with Zheng's translation, it is obvious that Luo's translation has added the sentence “因为一个心里痛苦的人，有向亲人倾诉心底秘密的必要”, this sentence is not in the original text. In the process of translation, the translator modified the original text and even added words that did not exist in the original text because the target of the description was women and he was familiar with the situation. After supplementing the words, readers can better understand the necessity of Madame de Rênal's wanting to confide in her husband, but she cannot get a response from her husband. The addition of this sentence not only enriched the original text, but also Lay the groundwork for the following that Madame de Rênal derailed by Julien. Only women understand women better. Most women may have experienced this kind of psychology of Madame de Rênal. Therefore, Luo Xu is more handy when portraying as a female translator. The translation of Luo, which is a female translation, is more sensitive to Madame de Rênal psychology. It is not surprising that Luo's translation portrays heroine's psychological activities so vividly.

Example4:Voilà,se dit Mathilde, qui prouve joliment ma maxime : La haute naissance ôte la force de caractère sans laquelle on ne se fait point condamner à mort .

Luo: 高贵的出生，摧毁了人的性格和力量，没有这力量，人们便不会自己甘愿领受死刑了。我今晚特别敏感，注定了要想起许多没有道理的事情。（罗旭译,2007,294）

Zheng: 出身高贵祛除了性格的坚毅，而没有性格坚毅，就决不敢去赴死。那么，我今晚注定要胡思乱想。（罗旭译,2007,323）

In the novel Le Rouge et le Noir, Miss de La Mole was born a nobleman and loved by her family. She was the jewel in the palm of the marquis' father. At the ball, she was the queen. The young talents worshipped her beauty, but Julien's disdain made her annoyed. The more disinterested she is, the more she wants to conquer him.

Compared with the literal translation of Zheng's translation, the supplementary sentence “我今晚特别敏感”in Luo's translation shows the heroine's boring feeling at the prom and the confusion about the future. At the same time, Readers can clearly feel her delicate feelings and erratic temperament from this sentence.

In summary, through comparison, it is found that Luo's translation adopts the strategy of "Supplementing" in many places. Since there is no obvious gender oppression and gender discrimination in the original text, the feminist ideas in Luo's translation are more embodied in the portrayal of women's images and the description of the psychological activities of the characters. Stendhal is a male writer, but the women in his works have obvious rebellious characteristics of that era. Therefore, how to express the female characters in the original novel is very important to the translator, and it is even related to the success or failure of the translation. Female translators used "Supplementing" to highlight the image of women, successfully conveying the feelings that the original author wanted to express, and implicitly metaphors the translator's female identity, thereby "making women more understood and seen."

Hijacking

Compared with Western Feminist translators who consciously and politically change or rewrite the translation, most of the changes made by the translator in this article are based on the translation of the original work or based on the target language habits, target language style, aesthetic standards, etc. . The last "hijacking" of feminist translation strategies is often used by some radical feminist translators. In order to question the gender meaning of the original text, they misappropriated texts with no feminist intentions and adopted creative translation methods to rewrite the texts. Therefore, this strategy is often controversial. After observation, there is almost no such manipulation of the original text in Luo's translation, so the last translation technique will not be discussed here.

Conclusion

Feminist translation theory has injected fresh blood into today's translation studies. It uses translation as a breakthrough to introduce individual issues into the social and cultural field, with the goal of fighting for the rights of women, so that more women can be respected and understood. The main contributions of feminist translation theory to the field of translation research and translation practice include: redefining the status of translators and translations, exploring translation activities from a new perspective, and new interpretations of some basic translation issues such as the concept of "faithfulness", etc. . Under the influence of feminist translation theory, translation is no longer a simple act of language conversion, but an active rewriting activity that combines multiple factors such as authorship, translator's identity, ideology, and reader experience. Feminist translators use various translation strategies such as "footnoting", "supplementing", "hijacking" and other translation strategies to incorporate feminist ideas into their translations, so that women's figures can be seen as much as possible, and their voices can be heard as much as possible. Combining feminism with literary translation is an important way to realize the new development of feminist translation theory. The difference between literature and practical style is that it emphasizes "individuality"-the author's creation, the translator's creative translation, and the reader's interpretation with personal emotions. Since translation is a second creation, it will naturally incorporate the translator's personal factors and become the translator's reflection of himself, thus showing various differences.

Major Findings of the Study

Through a comparative study of the two Chinese versions of Le Rouge et le Noir, it is found that there are gender differences between Zheng's version and Luo's version. Ms. Luo Xu’s gender identity has a significant impact on her translation, enabling the author to more closely grasp the original author’s thoughts and the psychology of female readers in the nuances of the text’s meaning, making the translation present a feminist color. However, this kind of feminism is different from Western feminism. It is gentle and natural. It does not adopt too many feminist translation strategies. Instead, it pays more attention to improving the status of women, portraying female psychology, and highlighting female images in wording and sentence making. In this way, it reflects the translator's dominant position and realizes women's self-identity and social identity.（周建军，张顺生,2019，10.）

All in all, Western feminist translation theories have gradually been "sinicized" in the process of being introduced into China: "faithfulness" is still the main translation criterion. Through the grasp of vocabulary, tone and other details to shape the image of women, praise the beauty of women, and then express their feminist tendencies. The main reasons for this difference between China and the West can be analyzed from the following two aspects: First, different national conditions and backgrounds. The dictatorship of feudal culture for more than two thousand years has made Chinese women more restrained, making them still subconsciously influenced by traditional ideas and dare not express their true desires. The second is the difference in language and culture. The implicit, euphemistic, and affectionate features of the Chinese language have determined that Chinese female translators express their feminist ideas more often through wording, making sentences and shaping female characters.

Limitations of the Study

The author believes that regardless of whether it is a feminist avant-garde work, translations of different genders can convey a certain gender color. Feminist translation view can play a very good interpretive role in the interpretation of literary works, especially when it comes to the analysis of female images. This enlightens us that when shaping female images in the translation process, translators should strive to cultivate their own gender awareness and actively move closer to the gender perspective in the original text, so as to achieve a more perfect translation effect. Even male translators should try their best to look for female perspectives and penetrate into female psychology in the process of translating female works. Only in this way can they be considered faithful to the original work and the original author and serve half of the female readers. Of course, for feminist translation theory, we should also critically inherit and discard the too subjective and radical ideas in it, so that the theory can better guide our country's translation practice of foreign literature, so as to achieve longer-term development.（Lefevere, A.2016.）

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