Gender And Translation--A Gender Perspective In Translating Vanity Fair

Since 1970s, the western feminist translation studies have changed the singularity of male dominance in traditional translation studies, which has brought the gender difference into the objects of modern translation researches. The gender perspective has not only increased the vitality and vigor of feminist translation theories, but also has provided the modern translation studies with brand-new insight and fresh sources for further researches.The western feminist translation theories originated from the feminist translation practices in the tide of feminist movement. Feminists regard language as a manipulative tool, which can be adopted to fight back the patriarchal ideology. Translation has become one of feminists' means to perform that manipulative function of language. Many western feminist scholars publicize the feminist ideology through translating the feminist works, rediscovering and retranslating women's literature masterpieces, and re-creating or altering the male-centered texts. Feminism has been brought into the academia of translation, and feminist translation theories came into being. At its very beginning, the feminist translation study has absorbed great concern in and out of feminists' circle, and this academic area has achieved great success in America and Canada. However, this topic has not been discussed nor applied in the academia until some scholars began to bring the feminist translation theories into China in 2000. In regard to this insufficiency of domestic studies, much space is left for the further exploration of this issue among the pluralistic studies on translation.Through the review of feminist translation studies abroad and in, the interest for gender studies is shown and presented as the theoretical framework for the case study of the great British realistic satirist William Thackeray's masterpiece Vanity Fair. Excerpts betraying the author's gender awareness are chosen as the materials for the case study and from the three different versions respectively translated by Yang Bi, Rong Rude and Xie Ling, comparison and contrast are made to explore the role of translators' gender identity and gender awareness in the translation process. The further discussion after the case study is based on the cultural similarities between British and Chinese patriarchal culture, endeavoring to show and defend the conclusion. In most cases, the writer of this thesis approves of Yang Bi and Xie Ling's minor changes of the original male standpoint to speak on behalf of women, which are the examples of positive application of the female translators' gender awareness and the natural disclosure of their women identity. Based on the case study of gender perspective, the author of thesis argues that as far as gender perspective is concerned, the androgyny is the ideal state of translation. By androgynous translation, we are of a opinion that a translator should apply consciously his gender awareness and shift between different gender identities required by the translation practice so as to reproduce truly the gender differences and gender ideology embedded in the original.