| Hong Lou Meng is regarded as the greatest of Chinese classics. Up to now, it has nine English versions, of which the most influential versions are the two complete ones, namely, The Story of the Stone by David Hawkes, and A Dream of Red Mansions by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. As a matter of fact, prior to them, Dream of the Red Chamber by Wang Chi-Chen was the most popular in the West. It is an abridged translation published in 1929 and 1958 in USA. The first edition contains 39 chapters and a preface by Arthur Waley; the revised one includes 60 chapters and a preface by Mark Van Doren. However, compared to the two complete versions, the abridged translation received much less attention from scholars. Therefore, we find it necessary to make an independent and systemic research on Wang's Dream of the Red Chamber.Based on the manipulation theory, domestication and foreignization, this thesis is to approach Wang's translation from cultural, historical and social perspectives, stressing the ideological factors that influence the selection of the source text, translation strategy, etc. The thesis first probes into the social-cultural constraints in Wang's translation strategy and then focuses on the manipulation of the source-text imposed by the patron's ideology and the translator's ideology. Under social-cultural constraints, American publishers demanded domestication as the basic translation strategy. Hence Wang Chi-Chen had to abridge Hong Lou Meng into a legendary love story and resorted to the strategy of domestication in his translation. However, out of respect for his own culture, he made every effort to preserve Chinese identity when translating cultural-specific items. |
PDF Full Text Request