叙事学视域下余华小说英译分析

【摘要】在《許三观卖血记》这部小说中，余华采用对话的叙述方式、重复的叙述模式，以敏捷的思维和丰富的情感利用“客观的叙述”、“单纯的对话”、“简单的重复”，达到了令人心动的效果。本文作者认为，如果在翻译之前，译者除了做必要的语言和文化准备之外，也能够充分了解原文的叙事特点，然后在特定的叙事模型范围内研究字词和篇章的翻译，便可以在译文中建立起对等的叙事类型，使词句和篇章的传译服从原文的叙事类型，从而使译文在韵味和风格等层面更加贴近原文，避免产生只重视内容而忽略形式的“虚假等值”翻译。本文从叙事学理论下的叙事模式和叙事时间理论出发，对比原文和译文，以此来说明，通过准确再现原著中的叙事类型方能将原作精髓和作者风格带入译文。作者也希望通过本文，对叙事学在翻译批评和翻译研究方面的应用能够起到一定的促进作用。

【关键词】《许三观卖血记》；英译；叙事学；叙事模式；叙事时间

【作者简介】杨玉婉，华中师范大学外国语学院。

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： 他们的邻居一个一个走过来，他们说：

“许玉兰，你哭什么……是不是粮票又不够啦……是不是许三观欺负你了，许三观！许三观呢？……刚才还听到他在说话……许玉兰，你哭什么？是不是丢了什么东西……是不是又欠了别人的钱……是不是儿子在外面闯祸了……”（《许三观卖血记》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： 许三观对许玉兰说：“前天我带你们去丝厂大食堂吃了饭，昨天我带你们去天宁寺大食堂吃了饭，今天我带你们去戏院大食堂吃饭。（《许三观卖血记》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 “我帶你们” 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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