A Translator’s Adaptation And Selection In The Translational Eco-environment

For quite a long period of time, translation studies mainly focused on the nature oftranslation, translation standards and translation skills. The translation process, as well as themost dynamic factor in the process of translation—the translator, failed to attract due attentionand systematic study. After the1970s, the “cultural turn” in western translation studiesbroadened the perspective of translation studies and drew open the curtain of the research ontranslator’s subjectivity. In the past decade, Hu Gengshen has put forward the approach totranslation as adaptation and selection. His proposition of translator-centeredness clearlyaffirmed the dominant position and leading role of the translator in the translation process.Approach to translation as adaptation and selection is a newly developed translationtheory with the concept of “adaptation and selection” of Darwin’s evolution theory as its core,probing into the relationship between translator’s adaptive and selective behaviors and thebasic characteristics and laws of translation in the “translational eco-environment”. Accordingto the essential concepts of “survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” of approach totranslation as adaptation and selection, in order to adapt his/her translation to the translationaleco-environment and survive the natural selection by the times and target readers, as aoperator of the translation, the translator must give full play to his/her subjectivity, makingadaptive selection and selective adaptation in embryonic stage and the process of translation.It is concluded through analysis that Dong Leshan’s translation of Nineteen Eighty-fouris his selection based on his own life experiences and the social environment of his days forthe pursuit of his belief in life and the spiritual needs of the people in China. His excellentbilingual and bicultural competence and his adaptation and selection to his translationaleco-environment made his translation the first choice of many readers and researches eventoday when several translations of Nineteen Eighty-four are in co-existence, half a centuryafter its first publication. Dong Leshan’s translation of Nineteen Eighty-four survives thenatural selection of the times and target readers as one of the classic works is a result of hisadaptation and selection in the translational eco-environment.The present thesis attempts to make a tentative study on Dong Leshan’s translation ofNineteen Eighty-four within the framework of approach to translation as adaptation and selection. It aims to illustrate the translator’s adaptation and selection prior to the translationprocess and during the translation process in the face of various needs, competence andtranslational eco-environment. Based on Hu Gengshen’s approach to translation as adaptationand selection, and with reference to the translational eco-environment in which Dongtranslated Nineteen Eighty-four, this thesis tries to take all the elements in the translationactivity into consideration, probing into how the translator’s selection and adaptation in theprocess of translating affected the production of the translated works. Meanwhile, it can be acase study to prove the feasibility of applying approach to translation as adaptation andselection to the process analysis of a translation activity.Through the comprehensive analysis, the author has realized on a deeper level thesignificance of approach to translation as adaptation and selection in guiding the translator’stranslation activities. The degree of holistic adaptation and selection of the target text will beimproved by translator’s taking the translational eco-environment into consideration andhis/her accurate grasp of the factors which might influence the outcome of the translation.Hopefully, the present study will offer valuable reference for assessing the exertion oftranslator’s subjectivity and the quality of his/her translation.