The Reconstruction Of Feminist Images Through Power And Discourse Theory

In1936, Lao She wrote his famous tragic novel Luotuo Xiangzi. There are manyresearches related to Lao She’s works; however, few of them are related to thewomen figures, especially the women figures in translated works.Translation does not take place in a vacuum, and it is the product of history,culture and society. Power discourse theory, which is advocated by Michel Foucault,a French post-structuralist, challenges western dualistic epistemological assumptionsand fundamental notions. Foucault claims that both the social system and powermechanism have remarkable influence on the discourse practice. According to him,social science is the manipulation of power and discourse of a certain time. Free andindependent human activities can not exist, and all human activities surrender to thepower, including translation.Based on the power and discourse theory, this theis first gives a comparativestudy between Hu Niu and Xiao Fuzi. Then, it analyzes the women figures in EvanKing’s translation and Howard Goldblatt’s version in a descriptive way. It is foundedthat that the translator has transformed the women figures in a way of changingcharacters, names, and words. At last, this theis assumes that the translator need toreconstruct the women figures due to historical background, ideological and politicalmanipulation, spirit of the age, ethnocentrism and androcentrism of the translator.Translation is inevitably being influenced by power and discourse of a certaintime. This study can not only help us get a better understanding of the differentEnglish versions of Luotuo Xiangzi, but also provides us a new research method.