Manipulation And Construction: A Study Of Susan Bassnett's "Cultural Translation" Theories

Translations are never produced in a vacuum, and that they are also never received in a vacuum. The production and acceptance of translations happen in a context. One context is, of course, that of history. The other context is that of culture.The process of translating texts from one cultural system into another is not a neutral, innocent, transparent activity. Translation is instead a highly charged, transgressive activity. It rarely, if ever, involves a relationship of equality between texts, authors or cultures. Translations play key roles in the evolution of culture and are the shaping force of target culture. All these are the cores of Susan Bassnett's cultural translation theories, which can be simply classified into the "manipulation" theory and the "cultural construction" theory. It is these two theories that have made Bassnett become one of the representatives of cultural translation studies.The so-called "cultural translation" has double implications: one refers to the handling of cultural factors in the process of translation, and the other indicates the examination and explanation of translation from the broad perspective of culture. Bassnett's cultural translation theories cover both of them. The former is represented by the functional equivalence theory in the cultural context, and the latter includes the "manipulation" theory, the "cultural construction" theory and the post-colonial translation theory.The discussion of poetry translation and drama translation demonstrates the close relationship between Bassnett's cultural translation theories and practice. "Transplanting the seed" is the main focus of poetry and translation, while the keeping or abandoning of Performability is the key topic of translation and theatre.As a leading scholar of cultural translation studies, Bassnett's "manipulation" theory and "cultural construction" theory have exerted "revolutionary" and "subversive" impact on the contemporary international translation studies circles. This dissertation, based on the close reading of her numerous articles and books, is an attempt to outline the full picture of Bassnett's cultural translation theories while giving prominence to the cores. Meanwhile, Bassnett's cultural translation theories will be tested in the Chinese context. The research method of this dissertation is the combination of close reading of literature and generalization of theories.This dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter One starts with the introduction of Bassnett's broad academic perspectives and her major translation books, then it gives an analysis of the present study situation cercerning Bassnett's cutural translation theories. Finally, the innovation of this dissertation will be pointed out.Chapter Two discusses the various theoretical resources which have provided nutrition to the forming of Bassnett's cultural translation theories. They include: the discipline of comparative literature, the polysystem theory, the deconstruction theory and the cultural studies. The third chapter first tries to clarify the double meanings of "cultural translation" and argues that Bassnett's cultural translation theories have made an inclusion of both references. The major part of this chapter is the exploration of the cultural functional equivalence theory. In the course of discussion, Nida's dynamic/functional equivalence theory will be introduced for the purpose of comparison and criticism.The fourth chapter deals with the interaction between translation and culture. Bassnett holds the idea that, on the one hand, translations are manipulated by the target culture, this is called the "manipulation" theory; on the other hand, translations can also exert tremendous influence on the development of target culture, this is named the "cultural construction" theory. The two theories form the most important components of Bassnett's cultural translation thoughts. Since they have made great contributions in establishing Bassnett's acdemic status in the international translation studies field, they will be elucidated in detail.The fifth chapter is composed of three parts. Firstly, Bassnett's views on the relationship between translation and colonism/postcolonism will be summarized, and then Bassnett's response to Venuti's foreignization translation strategy will be discussed. The third part is about the serious misreading of Bassnett's position as to domestication and foreignization in China.Chapter Six deals with the specific problems of translating: poetry translation and drama translation.In the poetry and translation, we will mainly focus on Bassnett's "transplanting seed". In the drama and translation, the dramatic change of Bassnett's views towards Performability is the focus of our discussion.In the last part, the shortcomings of Bassnett's translation studies will be mentioned and the paradigm shift of translation studies will be summed up briefly.