英语世界中国文学史集中的《西游记》及其对翻译教学的启示

A Study of Journey to the West in Chinese Literary Textbooks Written in English and its Connection with Translation Teaching

英语世界汉学家编纂的中国文学史集对推动中国文学作品海外“经典化”有着重要的作用。文章选取中国古典小说《西游记》为案例,分析不同历史时期英语世界中国文学史集对该小说的评价,重点聚焦编著者对《西游记》主题、著作归属权等方面的探讨,以此考察《西游记》在史集中所呈现的面貌。研究发现,《西游记》在史集的历史演进呈现出三个阶段性特征:20世纪初,翟理斯在其《中国文学史》中对《西游记》做了初步探索,将其视作“迷信小说”;受胡适《<西游记>考证》一文的影响,20世纪60年代的编著者接受“吴承恩作者论”,小说也被定义为“幽默小说”;自20世纪90年代至今,受余国藩影响,中国文学史集的编纂者注重论述《西游记》中蕴含的佛教、道教元素。作为典籍翻译教学的重要组成部分,从他者视角考察史集中的《西游记》,可以映射出《西游记》在英语世界的接受情况,有助于学生了解该小说在不同历史时期所呈现的镜像,对提升学生跨文化能力具有重要的启示意义。

The compilation of history and anthology of Chinese literature by sinologists in English-speaking countries plays an important role in facilitating the canonization of Chinese literary works.Taking Journey to the West as an example,this paper tries to analyze the evaluation of this novel compiled by them in different periods,and focus on their discussion of the authorship and the theme of Journey to the West so as to examine the historical evolution of it.It is found that the evolution is vividly shown in three stages:in the early 20th century,Herbert Giles made a tentative evaluation and identified it as a“superstitious novel”;In the 1960s,influenced by Hu Shi’s famous paper A Textual Research on Journey to the West,the authorship by Wu Cheng’en and the humorous theme were accepted by the compilers to a great extent.From the 1990s to the present,influenced by Anthony C.Yu,the compilers began to pay attention to the elements of Buddhism and Taoism,and the religious components have been discussed.As an integral part of the teaching of translation of Chinese classics,the study on Journey to the West in the English world not only helps the students understand its interpretation in different historical periods,but also mirrors its reception in the English-speaking world,which is of great significance to enhance the awareness of inter-cultural communication.