An Analysis of the Paratext in Graham Sanders’s Six Records of a Life Adrift: Features and Functions

Abstract

As a classic piece of Chinese literature, Shen Fu’s (1763–1825)—a famous writer and literary figure of the Qing dynasty—Fu Sheng Liu Ji (Six Records of a Life Adrift) has been translated into more than ten languages. To date, it has had four English versions, and enjoys a favorable reception in the English-speaking world. By analyzing the paratext (including footnotes, the introduction, the note on the translation, the title, illustrations, and other elements) of the latest English version by Canadian scholar-translator Graham Sanders, this paper intends to identify the features of the paratext in terms of spatial distribution, category distribution, and detail density, as well as its functions of facilitating the reader’s reception of the work, explaining unfamiliar cultural concepts, highlighting the translator’s role, and so on. The paper finds that the paratext contributes to a clear and comprehensive understanding of the translated work, and it, as the peritextual and epitextual ties, plays an important role in the translation, publication, and international reception of the translated work, which affect the canonization of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world. Hopefully, this paper will provide a valuable reference for translation theory and practice as well as relevant research in the future.

Keywords

• Fu Sheng Liu Ji
• translation
• paratext
• features
• functions

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