Translator's Power Of Discourse

Postcolonial Theory, an important extension of postmodernism, innovative but controversial, has turned out to play a prominent role in research on translation in the past 20 years, particularly among Third World countries, such as India where much more focus on postcolonial translations could be found than in mainland China. Though China has never been thoroughly colonized in history, a continuous influx of Western value unveils the truth that we can never ignore the impact from West - a strong and dominant culture, controlling the power of discourse.This thesis discusses translator's power of discourse through a comparatively study of two English versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji from the perspective of postcolonialism, attempting to apply postcolonial theory in Chinese context. One English version is from Shirley M. Black, a British; the other is from Lin Yutang, a Chinese writer bom in late 19th century when China witnessed strong clash between indigenous culture and Western ideology. And Lin Yutang's Christian background implied a colonized situation.The thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter One is devoted to a brief introduction of postcolonial theory and main postcolonialists this thesis based on.Chapter Two traces a transfer of focus on discourse power with the development of postcolonial theories from Edward Said to G. C. Spivak and to Homi Bhabha.Chapter Three is to explicate translator's role in colonial and postconlonial period and what makes a discourse power via translation possible.Chapter Four expounds the different power of discourse and approaches between translators, West and East, strong and weak, dominant and dominated, analyzing how translators in a hegemonic culture follow their preconceived notions and whether there is any resistance from a weak culture.Chapter Five is the conclusion.