Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 554

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Humanities and

Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2021)

A Study of Textless Back Translation from the

Perspective of Intertextuality
——Taking the Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among
Ghosts as an example
Wei Cai1,a
1
Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875，China
a
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
Textless back translation is a new phenomenon of back translation, which refers to the process of translation of a text
describing the content of the national culture without a specific original or a process of translating the original text into
a foreign language. This study focuses on the study of this special type of translation and evaluates the translation
process from a theoretical perspective. Guided by the theory of intertextuality translation, this paper adopts the
categorization of explicit intertextuality (allusion, parody, hybridity and quotation) and structural intertextuality
proposed by Fairclough, and discusses the cases in the context of textless translation in two parts. From the perspective
of intertextuality and intercultuality, this paper tries to verify the theoretical conception of textless back translation,
including the standard of language, style standard and cultural standard, as well as the ultimate model of textless back
translation.

Keywords: textless back translation, intertextuality, translation

1. AN OVERVIEW OF TEXTLESS BACK with Chinese culture as its subject matter and content was
"cultural return", but there was no translation on the basis
TRANSLATION
of the original text, so it was not" language return ". He
Back translation generally refers to the process of re- called this phenomenon as "root-less back translation"
translating a text translated into a particular language which later was revised as "textless back translation".
back into the source language. Compared with the Although this kind of translation lacks" original works",
naming of forward translation, back translation is often it just lacks a specific text as a basis, and still has a cultural
used to test the quality of translation, to evaluate the foundation. Through the concept of "textless back
effect of translation teaching, and to assist translation translation", it includes a series of text types, including
studies, even language studies. Due to the development the works of Chinese-American writers, bilingual
of the study of bilingual writers, Chinese-American Chinese-translated works, and the Chinese translation
writers and sinologists abroad, the research related to works of Sinologists at home and abroad. It can be seen
back translation has become more and more popular. that the concept of textless back translation is on the
culture based, which aims to reveal some commonalities
Textless back translation refers to the process of in the translation process of works containing culture
translation of texts describing the cultural content of a based content. Therefore, the in-depth study of the
nation directly written in a foreign language without a phenomenon of textless back translation is helpful to
specific original text or original text translated into a guide the translation practice of such works.
foreign language. The conceptual understanding of
textless back translation originated from the discussion of
scholar Wang Hongyin. Lin Yutang wrote the English
novel "Moment in Peking" abroad, and when Wang
studied his Chinese version, he proposed that such a text

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2. THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK--- sense and reading experience in the process of text
THE PERSPECTIVE OF reading. Luo believes that the four main forms of the
INTERSEXUALITY manifest intertextuality are: quotation, allusion, parody
and hybridity. Quotation refers to a reference to the
Inspired and influenced by the theory of writings of other authors and other references. Parody, in
"intersubjectivity" and "intertextuality" in the West, the the Collins English Dictionary, has the following
study of "inter " has become a hot topic in the field of meaning: "to express a familiar situation or character in a
cultural research and its scope has been expanding and humorous or an exaggerated way, or to write, play, or
the phenomenon like interculturality also appears. The music by imitating the style of a well-known writer". The
intertextual perspective plays an important role in the feature of parody is that the reader can identify the
study of the referential relationship in textless back objects, of the parody in a certain way, either for
translation, so this study is mainly based on the amusement, out of negative mentality or appreciation. It
intertextual theory. can be seen that the parody intends to use classical texts
as a means to achieve satire or other artistic effects.
2.1 The content of intertextuality theory Allusion is to quote allusion. Allusion has its special
national or national literary background, which is
Intertextuality theory usually refers to the study of the generally a story or a historical fact. Therefore the
referential relationship between two or among more allusion's source is generally religion, folklore, famous
texts. Intertextuality includes the referential relationship historical event and some classical literature works and so
between two specific texts. The theory of intertextuality on. Allusion makes the text content concise and concrete,
is of great significance, which induces and emphasizes a the euphemistic and implicit. Hybridity refers to the three
universal literary phenomenon. relatively narrow forms of expression: mosaic, idiom and
The theory of intertextuality was first put forward by the proverb. Hybridity can cover a wide range of
Julia Kristeva, a French literary theorist. Based on the expression forms including poem, couplet, doggerel,
polyphonic novels and the carnival discourse of literature tongue twister, and various kinds of idioms and proverbs,
proposed by Bakhtin, Kristeva analysed in depth and which are directly embedded in literary texts and enhance
clarified the concept of intertextuality. She put forward the receptivity of literary works.
that when the relationship between "author and reader" Compared with manifest intertextuality, the
coincided with that between "text and context", one word expression of constructive intertextuality is more indirect,
or text was a reproduction of other words or texts. On this it is not the reference relation between the text and the
basis, Roland Barthes, a French literary theorist, further specific text or text, but the intertextual reference relation
elaborated and popularized the theory of intertextuality. between the text and the previous text in terms of genre,
Michael Riffaterre made intertextuality a theory based on type and even subject, which can be found by the reader
the interpretation of the recipient, and held that the in the course of reading. Because in literature, cultural
relationship between the reader and the work played a factors such as philosophy, customs and religious ideals
leading role in intertextuality. Gerard Genette completed are also an integral part, which makes the interpretation
the transition of the concept of "intertextuality" from a of literary works must be based on the complete cultural
broad to a narrow sense, thus transforming intertextuality context of an era. Extend the connotation of constructive
from a linguistic concept to a literary one. intertextuality, so that cultural texts can be included in it,
and the intertextuality reference in the phenomenon of
2.2 Expression forms and techniques of textless back translation has more abundant meaning and
intertextuality is more close to the purpose of this research.

In the study of intertextuality, scholar Luo Xuanmin 2.3 An intertextual study in translation
combed out the expression forms and techniques of
intertextuality, and thought that different categories of In China, the first paper to study translation from the
intertextuality should be fully described, and the perspective of intertextuality is "Intertextuality and
expression forms and techniques of intertextuality should Translation" published by Yang Yansong, which mainly
also be distinguished. From the perspective of discusses the guidance of intertextuality to translation
intertextual theory, Fairclough pointed out that the practice, and the choice of appropriate translation
expression forms of intertextuality can be divided into strategies according to the different intertextuality,
manifest intertextuality and constitutive intertextuality, namely, quotation, borrowing and enlightenment. On this
which manifested the intertextuality more intuitively. basis, Jiang Xiaohua discussed the meaning and origins
of some words with diachronic and aggregated concept of
Specifically, the manifest intertextuality refers to the
intertextuality in order to provide guidance for the choice
superficial features of a text and the traces of the
of translation strategies and perfect the translation. Both
intertextuality between the text and other texts or texts
of them paid attention to the role of intertextuality on
directly discovered by the reader according to common

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concrete translation practice, which made the Green Phoenix stories, “The Seven Strange Tales of the
intertextuality theory enter into the domestic translation Golden Bottle,” “What Confucius Did Not Talk About.”
field. On the basis of combing the intertextuality theory She could validate ghost sightings.”
of different western schools and sketching the evolution
Target text: “母亲就愿意讲这些吓人的故事。她起
intertextuality thought in China, Luo Xuanmin
summarized the three criteria of intertextual translation 名字很有两下子——墙头柜、蛙精（蛙被称为“天鸡”
relevance criterion, neutralization criterion and economy ）、饿死鬼。她确实能从古书中找出这类描写，例如
criterion, thus clarifying the requirements of intertextual 她能用《聊斋》里的《青凤传》和黄钧宰所撰写的作
on translation practice. 品《金壶七墨》以及袁枚的《子不语》等故事来证实
鬼的存在。”
In a word, the paradigm of applying intertextuality
theory to the paradigm of translation studies has its depth This passage is from the third chapter of the country
and systematicity after the frontier of intertextuality doctor (Shaman), mainly about that the mother Yonglan
translation studies has been excavated. It is a general believes in ghosts, but is not afraid of ghosts, and even
trend to introduce the perspective of intertextuality into helps students exorcise ghosts. The introduction of
the study of specific translation types in order to guide ancient whimsical novels to prove the existence of ghosts
specific translation practice. As a special type of shows that Yonglan firmly believes it. The result of the
translation, textless back translation has certain literal translation of Green Phoenix Story refers to the
representativeness. Qingfeng (which means "green phoenix" in Chinese), a
story from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. It tells
3. ANALYSIS FROM THE RESPECTIVE the love story of Geng Sheng and the fox spirit named
OF INTERTEXTUALITY Qingfeng. The literal meaning of "What Confucius Did
Not Talk About" means the content of Confucius' silence.
3.1 The analysis of manifest intertextuality It should be from the note-taking essay What Confucius
Did Not Talk About written by Yuan Mei in the Qing
According to the common forms and means of Dynasty, which means "Confucius does not speak of gods
expression of intertextuality, manifest intertextuality or ghosts" and the content is mainly about "some things
such as quotation, allusion, parody and hybridity is more exciting people to hear about". The literal meaning of
common in literary texts, so this paper mainly chooses "Seven Strange Tale of Golden Bottle" is the seven
the novel Woman Warrior as the focus of case analysis. oddities of a golden bottle. As a novel of note-taking
The Woman Warrior: Memories of a Girlhood among novel written by Huang Junzhai in the Qing Dynasty, The
Ghosts is the first work by the Chinese-American writer Golden Pot and the Seven Ink recorded what he saw and
Kingston, M H. This book is a must-read bibliography of heard during the tour, including some anecdotes, which is
contemporary American literature, which combines more contextual. As far as the context is concerned, it is a
personal life experience with a large number of Chinese very typical use of allusion to illustrate the existence of
myths, literary classics and folklore borrowed and ghosts by citing the literary works with strange stories.
rewritten in a way of storytelling, and combines tradition But the intertextual effect and translation of this text are
and reality to reflect the moral and material indignation, quite different when it comes to the readers, because there
confusion and struggle of Chinese Americans. As a is no green phoenix from beginning to end. And if it is
representative work of Chinese-American literature and translated as "Green Phoenix Story", it will make people
under the background of a large number of Chinese regard it as a story about a green phoenix. There are many
culture, The Woman Warrior is published in English and differences in the translation of "Confucius does not
translated into various countries in the world. In 1998, it speak of gods or ghosts" in many classical versions of The
was first translated into Chinese and published in China. Analects of Confucius, and we can see that there are many
The process of retranslating Woman Warrior into versions of The Analects of Confucius, and it is difficult
Chinese is a typical example of textless back translation. to form a fixed form of expression (idiom). Compared
with the Chinese readers, who only need to derive “What
3.1.1 Allusion Confucius Did Not Talk About” from the Analects of
Confucius to obtain the intertextual effect, the Western
Allusion, with the cultural accumulation and typical readers need to consider more than one version and spend
national cultural characteristic, is widely used in the more time and energy to get the same intertextual effect.
Chinese and Western literature works, and also appears The author uses a typical intertextual approach, but it is
in the textless back translation of literature class works. difficult to achieve results, and such an approach should
The allusions used in The Woman Warrior are as follows: be intended by the author. This gap from the use of
allusion is visible to the naked eye, but also exists for a
Original text: “My mother relished these scare orgies.
long time. In the translation of Strange Stories from a
She was good at naming—Wall Ghost, Frog Spirit (frogs
Chinese Studio, Giles encountered this conundrum that
are “heavenly chickens”), Eating Partner. She could find
these works contain "numerous allusions and adaptations
descriptions of phenomena in ancient writings—the

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of stories in previous literature"; "sometimes the story "ploughing and weaving" and "giving birth to children"
goes smoothly, but the next moment suddenly becomes are often used, but in reference to the original text, there
an incomprehensible text, whose meaning is connected are many differences. There are only "giving you more
with historical references and allusions that can only be sons", and there are no" childbearing girls". As the above
understood if they are industrious in the study of all kinds analysis shows, the original author consciously creates
of annotations or other reference books. But this is not an the heterogeneous text, which can also be seen in the
unsolved problem. In his notes, Giles devoted a great deal description of this paragraph. "Burning paper to burn
of effort to covering as many different areas of Chinese incense" is generally used for sacrifice, not cleaning
culture as possible, as well as trying to eliminate the houses; only mentioning "giving you more sons" is to
strangeness and estrangement of Chinese culture to emphasize the importance of women in the family
Western readers. succession; and "black embroidered wedding clothes"
changed into, according to verification, it was the
Here, the figurative metaphor "ghost" is used to
wedding dress shape which was more popular in the Zhou
describe the cultural identity dilemma of Chinese-
Dynasty. These transplants and deformation is just for the
Americans and women on the edge of society and culture.
purpose of parody heterogeneous context. From the
Because of this, Kingston, M H. in the use of the allusion,
perspective of relevance criterion, the intertextuality of
deliberately selected strange stories not known to
the original text is determined from the beginning of
Westerners, in order to create a sense of cultural
writing Chinese fairy tales to western readers; however,
separation. From the respective of maxim of relevance
the deletion of the translation reduces the effort in the
the context effect of the translation is much more
process of derivation, that is, the reader does not need to
effective than that of the original, because in the
think about why it is "red paper" nor does "living
translation of The Woman Warrior, the context effect is
children" need to be associated with the old tradition of
greatly enhanced, which hinders the original intention of
inheriting generations, thus enhancing the degree of
using allusion to create strange feeling and estrangement.
relevance and pushing the original author's intention to
Moreover, from the respective of economy criterion, too
the opposite.
much background information weakens the expression
intention and the language is not direct and accurate
enough. The sense of heterogeneous created at the
3.1.3 Hybridity
cultural level have disappeared to such a degree that it is Hybridity is to put the real text directly into the
difficult to reproduce the intertextual effects of the creation of the work without modification, so that the
original text. discourse in the text can be mutually different, but in
terms of the content of the work, it is more receptive. The
3.1.2. Parody hybridity discussed here is mainly the intertextuality
effects of some customs or used texts in literary works. In
In the use of parody, The Woman Warrior is draw
The Woman Warrior, there are many Chinese proverbs:
lessons from the image of "Hua Mulan" image. In
Chapter 2, "White Tiger", "I" heard my mother tell stories Original text: “Any merchant who advertises ‘Honest
and imagined myself as "Fa Mu Lan": Scales’ must have been thinking about weighting them,”
she says. Many sellers displayed the sign “Children and
Original text: “We’ll use this great hall for village
Old Men Not Cheated.”
meetings,” I announced. “Here we’ll put on operas; we’ll
sing together and talk-story.” We washed the courtyard; Target text: “任何吹嘘自己不’短斤少两’的生意人
we exorcised the house with smoke and red 都一定是想在秤上做手脚的人。”她说。不少生意人
paper…Wearing my black embroidered wedding coat, I 都挂着块牌子，上写“童叟无欺”。
knelt at my parents-in-law’s feet, as I would have done as
a bride. “Now my public duties are finished,” I said. “I According to the concrete performance of the
will stay with you, doing farmwork and housework, and hybridity technique, we can find that there is not much
giving you more sons.” change when we put the realistic things into the literary
works. However, the discourses appear to be
Target text: “这个大厅就用作村会堂吧。”我说，“唱 incomprehensible to the written words of the original
戏、唱歌、讲故事。”我们用水冲洗了院子，焚纸燃香， narration, which leads to the mutual difference and is
祛除屋里的邪气……（我）换上黑色刺绣的婚礼服， more likely to arouse the reader's association and resonate
我像新娘那样跪在公婆面前。“国事已毕，”我说“我要 with the readers from the view of the real life. The case
守在你们身边耕耘纺织，生儿育女。” also has the deeper enlightenment to the use of the
hybridity technique in the textless back translation, and its
This paragraph describes the glorious return of Hua "the unaltered reality" shows that the source of things
Mulan, her eradication of rural bullies, and her return to need to have evidence, or at least accord with the reader's
see her parents-in-law plot. In translation, four-word expectation of some kind of perspective, which will
phrases such as "burning paper to burn incense", attract the reader's sense of view. That is to say, for

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proverbs and so on, there are no objective conditions for The characteristics of textless back translation of
transplant and modification. And in the use of these real literature are mainly embodied in genre. In the novel
texts, there is generally no change, so the process of back genre, the narrative structure of many novels translated by
translation seems easier. means of textless back translation is in a sense the
inheritance of Chinese cultural elements---chapter novels.
3.1.4 Quotation The Woman Warrior is divided into five chapters, which
constitute a whole. Sections and chapters are independent,
In the process of textless back translation, the with a chapter as a complete story, including the story
quotation of foreign language works mostly involves the about "I", "mother", and also "little aunt", so just reading
history and culture of the country, which is applied to all a chapter you can still understand its content. But there is
types of texts, and the intertextual effect of the quoted a combination between the chapters, with the growth of a
works is most intuitive. Chinese-American girl as the main line, in line with the
Original text: They told the students that they would characteristics of the chapter body; moreover, the story in
begin with a text as old as the Han empire, when the each chapter is interspersed with small narratives, mixed
prescription for immortality had not yet been lost. Chang with Chinese mythology, history and imagination and in
Chung-ching, father of medicine, had told how the two the structure of the accumulation of characteristics. In
great winds, yang and yin, blew through the human body. addition, in each story, the narrator plays an important
role, telling the story and even describing the inner
Target text: 他们说我们要从汉朝的书读起，因为 activities of the characters, which is to retain the
那时长生不老之方还不曾失传。医学界的先驱张仲景 storyteller narrative remains. Therefore, there is no
提出阴阳辩证之说。 tendency to approach the form and characteristics of the
classical novel in the translation of The Woman Warrior.
This section depicts a mother going to a medical It is divided into five parts according to the structure of
school to study medicine. "Prescription for immortality" the original text, supplementing some chapter names,
means the recipe for immortality; "yang and yin" means
such as "White Tiger", which is translated into “白虎山
the theory of yin and yang.
寻 道 ”, and weakening religious contents, such as
In this kind of text writing, the original author does "Shaman", which is translated into “乡村医生 (Village
the same thing by himself when quoting material, or Doctor)”. In addition, there is not much structural change
borrowing someone else's translation. As James J. Y. Liu so the translation does not consciously imitate the
points out in the Chinese Theories of Literature, all characteristics of the Chinese classical novel. When
Chinese citations in this book are translated into English exploring the reasons, we cannot deny the limited features
by him, but ready-made translations are usually used of the text, which makes the translator difficult to grasp
when quoting works from other Western languages. and even to detect it in the process of translation. It can be
Moreover, the translations of these citations are all seen that, after the introduction of constructive
manifest translations, more intuitive and easily perceived intertextuality into translation, there is a higher
by the reader than such intertextual devices as allusion, requirement for grasping the genres, themes, types and
parody and hybridity. Most importantly, the use of cultural text contents of the original text.
citations makes the reappearance of the original text
interspersed in works by means of textless back 4. CONCLUSION
translation, aiming at serving the author's intention and
also making the reader have a sense of substitution, In the phenomenon of textless back translation, the
without erasing the original author's intention to write in original text has some relations with Chinese cultural
a foreign language. Therefore, although some citations classics, historical legends and so on by using the form
make the text mixed with the reproduction of the original and technique of manifest intertextuality such as allusion,
text, the nature of the text has not changed, the text is still parody, hybridity and quotation, and the original text also
textless back translated, otherwise it cannot be counted as has some relations with Chinese traditional literary forms
the original author's creation. in expression form of constructive intertextuality such as
genre. In order to achieve the same intertextuality effect
3.2 Constructive Intertextuality as the original text, we must adopt similar intertextuality
path, search the original reference from Chinese culture
Constructive intertextuality is different from manifest and ancient books, and then deal with it properly
intertextuality. As can be seen above, manifest according to the need of the original text. The
intertextuality is clearly marked in the reading text, and intertextuality effect of the translation is greatly
the reader can find the traces regarding text or discourse. influenced by the translator's grasp of the original author's
Compared with manifest intertextuality, constructive intention, which will affect the translator's reduction of
intertextuality is more recessive. language and culture.

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Intertextuality is universal in translation, and the [12] Yang Yansong. Intertextuality and Translation.
theoretical value of intertextuality in translation deserves Chinese Translators Journal, 1994, 4:10-13.
the attention of the academic circle. Moreover,
[13] Wang Yukuo. Appreciation of American Novels in
translation activities help the interaction of different
the 20th Century. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign
cultures, which is also beneficial to the local culture. This
phenomenon can reveal the process from cross-cultural Language Education Press, 2010.
communication to cultural integration, analyse and
restore native and foreign characteristics, and also reveal
the cause and process of cultural misreading. The study
of the phenomenon of textless back translation plays an
important role in cross-cultural communication.
Therefore, the study of the operation mechanism and the
evaluation standard, the consideration of the intercultural
and intertextual nature of the textless back translation,
and the investigation of the intercultural interaction in the
process of textless back translation should be further
studied.

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