Analysis of the Buddhist Conversion of Great Sage
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Feng (Robin) Wang
Feng (Robin) Wang (b. 1983) is a joint PhD student of Tongji University, China, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Brussels, Belgium, under the supervision of Professor Delu Zhang and Professor Philippe Humblé. He is also the editor of
Chinese Language, Literature & Culture . His recent research interests include corpus-based translation studies, functional stylistics, and translation stylistics. His publications have appeared inFunctions of Language, Australian Journal of Linguistics, Style andPerspectives .Philippe Humblé (b. 1955) is an associate professor at the department of applied linguistics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels. His research interests include interculturality, translation studies and migration literature, and his recent publications on these topics include
Éthique du multilinguisme (2018),The translation of multilingual literature in a migrant world: The case of Junot Diaz (2017),Towards transcultural awareness in translation pedagogy (2017),Bearing across: Translating literary narratives of migration (2016).
Abstract
As one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature, The Journey to the West narrates a legendary Buddhist pilgrimage. Until now, the religious conversion in the novel remains much less explored by academia. We propose an innovative approach to addressing this shortfall by conducting a corpus-based investigation into the characterization of the protagonist “Great Sage.” We use the corpus tools BFSU PowerConc 1.0 and LancsBox v.2.0.1 to calculate and visualize the collocation networks of Great Sage: for one thing, to contextualize the complex interactions between him and the external environment; for another, to define and compare different phases of the character’s evolution. The collocational networks are derived by means of a quantitative approach, i.e. a mutual information (MI) score with collocation cutoff values. This lays an objective foundation for a subsequent qualitative interpretation of how the protagonist’s identity is forged in his conversion. Further, some associated literary and theological scholarships are woven into our text-based analysis.
About the authors
Feng (Robin) Wang (b. 1983) is a joint PhD student of Tongji University, China, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Brussels, Belgium, under the supervision of Professor Delu Zhang and Professor Philippe Humblé. He is also the editor of Chinese Language, Literature & Culture. His recent research interests include corpus-based translation studies, functional stylistics, and translation stylistics. His publications have appeared in Functions of Language, Australian Journal of Linguistics, Style and Perspectives.
Philippe Humblé (b. 1955) is an associate professor at the department of applied linguistics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels. His research interests include interculturality, translation studies and migration literature, and his recent publications on these topics include Éthique du multilinguisme (2018), The translation of multilingual literature in a migrant world: The case of Junot Diaz (2017), Towards transcultural awareness in translation pedagogy (2017), Bearing across: Translating literary narratives of migration (2016).
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© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- In Memoriam: Eliseo Fernández
- Cultural Signs and Sign Theories
- A Semiotic Interpretation of Online Selfie Culture
- Japanese Semiotic Studies in China
- Semiosphere and Solitary World
- Creating Society in Orwell’s 1984
- Analysis of the Buddhist Conversion of Great Sage
- The Rise of Semio-Narratology
- Book Reviews
- Semiotics: Principles and problems
- Bir Yazınsal Göstergebilim Okuması: Kuyucaklı Yusuf
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- In Memoriam: Eliseo Fernández
- Cultural Signs and Sign Theories
- A Semiotic Interpretation of Online Selfie Culture
- Japanese Semiotic Studies in China
- Semiosphere and Solitary World
- Creating Society in Orwell’s 1984
- Analysis of the Buddhist Conversion of Great Sage
- The Rise of Semio-Narratology
- Book Reviews
- Semiotics: Principles and problems
- Bir Yazınsal Göstergebilim Okuması: Kuyucaklı Yusuf
