Abstract:
The following thesis focuses on the translation of Zhang Ailing’s book “Dream of Red Mansions Nightmare”, published in 1991 by “Huangguan wenhua” 皇冠文化 publishing house. The book is a immeasurable study on one of the most famous Chinese novel of all time: Dream of Red Chamber.
This dissertation is divided in four parts: it will firstly underline Zhang Ailing’s biography, the works she published and their style, with a focal point on her influence when writing said books and articles. Since “Dream of Red Mansions Nightmare” is an analysis and commentary of nineteenth century’s “Dream of the Red Chamber”, it will then be discussed the importance of the novel in contemporary Chinese literature, and how it affected many Chinese authors, such as Zhang Ailing herself; to follow, this thesis will stress on the structure and the style of the presented book, providing a critical analysis too.
In the second chapter it will be presented a transaltion proposal of two out of eight part which “Dream of Red Mansions Nightmare” is divided into, which are “Hongloumeng chaqu zhiyi” 红楼梦插曲之一 (one of the interlude in Dream of Red Chamber) and “Chu xiang Hongloumeng” 初祥红楼梦 (basic knowledge of Dream of Red Chamber).
In the third chapter it will be discussed the process of translating the mentioned chapters, including a deep analysis on the target of the book, the language, register and genre in order to appeal the possible readers. The analysis will also focus on the problems which translating a text from Chinese to the Italian language may provide, and the strategies used in order to cope with “lost in translation” issues.
Finally, the dissertation will provide a conclusion part, in which it will be discussed a recap of the thesis main points and content.
