Mood shifts and female representation: translating the locution of female demons in the Chinese canon The Journey to the West

Abstract

The Journey to the West , a canonical work of Chinese mythology, has garnered centuries-long popularity both domestically and internationally. However, the portrayal of female demons in English translations of this novel remains significantly underexplored in academia, despite the fact that this topic encompasses intercultural, gender-related, and ideological complexities. To address this research gap, a functional stylistic approach was employed to examine the linguistic expressions of three female spirits, namely, the White Bone Demon, the Scorpion Spirit, and the Princess Iron-Fan, in Julia Lovell’s 2021 translation, Monkey King: Journey to the West . Our findings indicate that the discrepancies in mood distribution between the source text and the target text can be attributed to the translator’s maneuvers. Such modifications may not only affect the characterization of the female spirits and disrupt the interaction dynamics between the demons and other characters but also, to a certain extent, lead to the loss of literary nuances embedded in the original text.