Comparative Study of Three Translations of the Picture of Dorian Gray

BY XUAN FANG

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B. A. degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

Acknowledgment

First of all, I would like to give my sincere appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Chen Zhijie. He gave me a lot of suggestions and advice when I write this paper. I would never finish a qualified paper without his helpful support. I made many mistakes, and I was very upset. But his encouragement helped me overcome a lot of obstacles that I encountered during the writing of this paper.

I also want thank Professor He Sanning. He inspired me a lot when I learning translations. He taught me many useful translation skills, which were very helpful when translating literature works.

Contents

1. Introduction 5

1.2 Introduction to the Novel 5

1.2 Introduction to Oscar Wilde 6

1.3 Introduction to Three Translators 7

2 Domestication and Foreignization 7

2.1 The Concept of Domestication 7

2.2 The Concept of Foreignization 9

3.Domestication in Three Versions of the Picture of Dorian Gray 11

3.1 Reproduction of Meaning 11

3.2Reproduction of the Rhetoric’s Devices. 12

4. Foreignization in Three Versions of the Picture of Dorian Gray 13

4.1 Reproduction of the Cultural Images 13

4.2 Reproduction of Language Form 14

5. Conclusion 15

References 16

Comparative Study of Three Translations of the Picture of Dorian Gray

XUAN FANG

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

Abstract: Oscar Wilde is one of the world’s greatest writer and artist. The Picture of Dorian Gray was the only long novel he had ever written and also his representative work of Oscar Wilde’s aestheticism. The debate over domestication and foreignization is becoming all the more heated in translation studies; However, both of them have respectively their own advantages and disadvantages. This paper intends to compare three Chinese versions of the Picture of Dorian Gray, and analyze the functions and effects of domestication and foreignization in translations, exploring how domestication is an effective way to convey the meaning and the rhetoric’s device of the source text, and foreignization can be used to reproduce the foreign cultural images and imitate the expressive forms of the original text. Therefore, domestication and foreignization are not opposite to each other, and they are complementary to each other in translation.

Key words: Oscar Wilde; The Picture of Dorian Gray; translation; domestication; foreignization

摘要：奥斯卡·王尔德是世界著名的作家和艺术家。《道连格雷的画像》是王尔德唯一一部长篇小说，同时也是王尔德美学主义的代表作。近年来文学翻译中采取异化还是归化策略的争论一直很热，然而二者都有其利弊点。本文从文学翻译中归化与异化的角度，对比分析了三种译文的《道连格雷的画像》，研究其中使用的翻译技巧与策略。本研究发现，归化的翻译策略在《道连格雷的画像》的翻译过程中，可以有效地再现原文意义和修辞手法；而异化的翻译策略能传达异域文化形象，模仿语言表现形式。因此，归化和异化的互补作用，有助于取得较好的翻译效果。

关键词：奥斯卡·王尔德；道连格雷的画像；翻译；归化；异化

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction to the Novel

Dorian Gray was an extremely charming young man with a face of an angel. In the book, Wilde write: “he was certainly handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, and his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candor of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted.” (Oscar Wilde, 2001:10) When Dorian Gray saw the picture he drew back, his cheeks flushed with pleasure. He was amazed as if he had recognized himself for the first time. But under the influence of Lord Henry, who said to him “when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines, and passion branded your lips with its hideous fires, you will feel it, you will feel it terribly. Now, wherever you go, you charm the world”, (Oscar Wilde, 2001: 12) he started to feel sorry for his beauty. Suffering from the mortality of mankind and the transiency of all beauties, he wished the self-portrait could replace his flesh to resist the passage of time as well as to take the responsibilities of the choices he made in his life, so that he would have eternal beauty and youth. What he was unexpected is, all of a sudden, a mysterious power made his dream come true. As the years went by, Dorian Gray became more and more corrupted. However, his face was still pure and beautiful whereas the picture became older and uglier. “Though he escaped the shamefulness and embarrassment in the society, the picture gave him the most impartial judgment by the deformation of itself. The picture was like an amulet that covered all his moral sins.” (Zeng,1988:69) Dorian decided to hide his secrets forever. The only way he could find was to destroy the picture of himself that was very likely one day to conceal his evils by chance. Yet when he stabbed a knife into the stomach of his portrait, the knife stabbed through his own stomach.

The plot of The Picture of Dorian Gray seems to be quite absurd, but it has abundant implications. Someone had once compared the story of Dorian Gray to Faust, depicted by Goethe. “Faust sold his soul to Satan in pursuit of love and the creation of new mankind, but Dorian Gray sold his soul for his own beauty, indulgence and entertainment. In the end, beauty and soul are dead at the same time.” (Li,2007:5)

1.2 Introduction to Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist and poet. In the early 1890s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the 1880s. He is remembered for his plays, his epigrams and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as his imprisonment and early death. Oscar Wilde was born to be a master of language. His wording was fascinating, vivid, intriguing, witty, and most of all, humorous. The Picture of Dorian Gray was full of witty remarks and paradoxes. He certainly knew how to make full use of metaphors to express his opinions in a beautiful and elegant way. In the preface of Huang’s version of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Huang said “what attract people most in Oscar Wilde’s works were quick-witted dialogues, forceful remarks, ambivalent paradoxes and thoughtful opinions.’’(Huang 2005:3) The wording he used were always precise and to the point. His discussion of matter was usually paradoxical, thus provoking readers to think profoundly into the matter. All of these induce us to have a good taste of his work and thoughts. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the representative work of Wilde’s aestheticism. It embodies his principle of “art for art’s sake”. “Beautiful metaphors, precise remarks, witty puns, thoughtful paradoxes are ubiquitous in his novel. He’s good at philosophic remarks, ironies and sarcasms.” (Liu, Dao, 2008:12) Readers will discover that when reading this long fiction. Metaphors in this novel, will make the sentence precise, vivid and forceful. When the novel was translated, a lot of new expressions and writing skills from Oscar Wilde were introduced into China. All of these characteristics are main driving force to initiate its translations as well as obstacles for translators to overcome, and for readers to comprehend.

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