On Zhou Shoujuan’s Translation Choices From The Perspective Of Field And Habitus

As one of the early literary schools in the history of modern Chinese literature,Mandarin Duck&Butterfly Faction has for a long time been marginalized in theresearch of modern Chinese literature. For this reason, their contributions totranslations also sank to oblivion, thus great space is left for further research. ZhouShoujuan, one of the representatives of this school and one of the major contributorsto its publication The Saturday, translated a large number of foreign literary works,especially the short stories. His translation anthology A Collection of Short Stories byRenowned European and American Writers, first published in1917, was not onlywell-received but also greatly hailed by Lu Xun as "a shining star of the translationsin recent years". Therefore, it is necessary and significant to study on this translationanthology.The French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu putforward the concepts of "field" and "habitus" in his cultural sociology, which havebeen gradually introduced into Translation Studies. Under the tentative theoreticalframework of "field" and "habitus", a case study of Zhou’s translation choices in OU(Abbreviation of A Collection of Short Stories by Renowned European and AmericanWriters) is conducted through an investigation into the "field" of Shanghai and thetranslation "field" in the1910s as well as the generalized translators’"habitus" whichis the product of the "field". In addition, Zhou’s personalized "habitus" is highlightedbecause it played the leading and primary role in Zhou’s translation choices.The thesis, therefore, draws the following conclusion: Zhou’s translationchoices displayed in Collection were not only influenced by the generalizedtranslators’"habitus" which was the direct result of the "field" of Shanghai and thetranslation "field" as well, but also were deeply influenced by his personalized"habitus" which was developed through his experience, education as well aspersonality. In a word, the translation choices made by the translators are the combined effect of "field"and "habitus”.