AUTHOR=Liang Zhao 

TITLE=The strategy, function, and efficacy of the peritexts in Giles’ and Minford’s English translations of Liaozhai Zhiyi

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Communication

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1419455

DOI=10.3389/fcomm.2024.1419455

ISSN=2297-900X

ABSTRACT=Among all English translations of Liaozhai Zhiyi, Giles' and Minford's translations received the most reviews from Western readers. Their translations are rich in peritexts which make a large proportion of the two translations. Based on Genette's Paratexts theory and Batchelor's latest research in this field, this article examines the two translations' peritexts strategy, main functions and their efficacy in the reception of Liaozhai Zhiyi with a view to see the roles two types of peritexts play in the dissenmination and reception of the book in English worrld. Looking closer to the two translations' peritexts strategy, including covers, acknowledgements, prefaces, introductions, notes, illustrations and appendices, the author summarize five main functions of the peritexts: to reveal to some extent the translator's translating aims, to show the commissioner's peritexts strategies, to spread Chinese culture, to consciously or unconsciously manifest socio-cultural context. In addition, the article, through contrastively analyzing readers' reviews on two translations' preritexts, concludes that the efficacy of the peritexts in Minford's translation is much better than that in Giles' translation, which means that the former may to a large degree help promote the reception of Liaozhai Zhiyi, the latter may not. It is also anticipated that the research pattern can be used in the study of the roles peritexts and epitexts play in the reception of wider genre of Chinese works so as to facilitate the going-global of Chinese works and culture.