An Exploration Of Decolonization Into The Literary Translation In China From Postcolonial Perspective

As translation theory develops, more and more people have realized that translation isnever a simple activity of transferring one language in the source text to another in the targettext. In the1980s translation studies took on a new leaf and the so-called “culture turn” cameinto being. Postcolonial theorists cast their eyes on the external factors around translationsuch as politics, nations, races, etc. The research of translation has also jumped out of theconfinement of language itself or cultural context.In recent years, scholars in the third world countries have already gained a generalawareness of decolonization in literary translation and Chinese scholars have made greatprogress in analyzing translation strategies and colonization, defining the identity oftranslators and trying to choose the most appropriate translation methodologies to retain asituation of cultural coexistence by applying post colonial translation theory into practice.This thesis is to make a research into the decolonization of literary translation byapplying the existent post-colonial theories into Chinese translation practice. Supported byproper literary translation examples, the thesis analyzes the relations between Chinese literarytranslation and decolonization and summarizes the way of attaining the goal ofdecolonization through literary translation. The thesis starts with an introduction of theexisted postcolonial theory, and goes on to discuss the limitations of traditional models androom for further study. The concept of decolonization and its relationship with literaturetranslation are introduced afterwards. From the analysis, it is not hard to draw the conclusionthat translation could be an effective and efficient channel of decolonization if it is underproper administration. Through the analysis of literature translation practice in China, thepaper reveals the fact that decolonizing consciousness has already come into being in chinabut there are still some limitations and deficiencies in the translation theory. On the basis ofthe analysis above, the paper discusses the aim, task, and strategies of how to achieve thefinal goal of decolonization in translation in China from the postcolonial perspective.The paper confirms the critical role of literary translation in decolonization and pinpoints the effective role literary translation plays in decolonization process. The study willshed light on the research of cultural hegemony and is of great value in helping the dominatedculture engage in a direct dialogue with the dominant culture.