Fantasy in Translation: an Analysis and Comparison of the English Chapter The Council of Elrond from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and its Chinese Translation.

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the English chapter The Council of Elrond, the second chapter of Book II of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and its Chinese translation published in 2002, accompanied by an overview of fantasy literature and an analysis and comparison of the two texts.

The paper is divided into three sections. The first section consists of an introduction on the fantasy literary genre and its growing popularity in both the West and the East, as well as the influences that might have occurred between the two cultures. Following this part there will be a brief introduction on the author of the original text that was taken into account, J.R.R. Tolkien, to determine his background and in particular which elements brought him to write his bestselling fantasy work The Lord of the Rings and in which way these factors influenced his way of creating the story itself. This section aims at showing the relevance that fantasy has inside the literary world nowadays, as well as the importance that the aforementioned book gained in giving this type of literature a proper recognition and, consequently, the way it influenced the translation field.

The English chapter The Council of Elrond and its Chinese translation 林谷会议 are presented in the second section in their full-length form.

The third section consists on the analysis and comparison of both the source and target texts, to show and highlight their differences and similarities, examining the translation strategies that have been used and inspecting the difficulties that might have occurred during the process.

A bibliography can be found in the appendix at the end of the paper.