Image Construction in The English Collaborative Translation of Brothers

Feihan Lu

doi:10.6918/IJOSSER.202606_9(6).0008

Authors

Feihan Lu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6918/IJOSSER.202606_9(6).0008

Keywords:

Imagology; Brothers; Image construction; Social collective imagination; Translator’s subjectivity.

Abstract

Yu Hua’s novel Brothers is famous for its profound portrayal of the fate of characters under the dramatic changes in Chinese society, and its English translation plays a key role in cross-cultural communication. Based on the framework of Imagology theory, this study focuses on Eileen Cheng-yin Chow and Carlos Rojas joint translation, and in-depth investigations into how the translation reproduces and reconstructs the images in complex characters and aesthetic styles, aiming to systematically reveal the translator’s strategies of translation under the perspective of the ‘other’. The study finds that, driven by both the collective social imagination and the translator’s subjectivity, the translator, from the perspective of Imagology, has faithfully conveyed the original text’s intention and emotional tension while inevitably reconstructing the image of Brothers in the English translation, thus shaping the unique image of Brothers and China in the English-speaking world. This study provides concrete examples and theoretical reflections on the cross-cultural communication of Brothers.

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