A Study On The Influence Of Dominant Ideology On The Selection Of Source Texts In Literary Translation

Foreign literary translations in the May Fourth period and the Cultural Revolution period are quitedifferent in almost all aspects. Nevertheless, at one point, they share similarity: both selections of thesource texts were greatly influenced by the dominant ideology. This thesis mainly compares the features inthe selection of the source texts in the two periods and then analyzes the changes of quantity of the selectedsource countries, source writers and the themes of the selected source texts. Based on the analysis, thethesis explores how the dominant ideology manipulates the selection of foreign literary works in thespecific sociocultural contexts in these two periods.Andre Lefevere’s rewriting theory is the theoretical foundation of this thesis. According to Lefevere,the patronage, ideology and poetics in the target culture are the three primary factors that manipulateliterary translation, of which the ideological constraints and influences on literary translation are moreprominent. Taking advantage of the theory, this thesis conducts a comprehensive study and analysis of theselections of literary translation in the two periods based on the collected data and materials. The findingsare as follows:(1) The selections of foreign literary works of the two periods was greatly influenced byideology. However, because of the different power discourses, the ideologies of the two periods weredifferent as well, which made the selections of foreign literary translation take on different characteristics:1)In terms of quantity, the amount of the selected foreign literary works in the May Fourth period is far morethan that in the Cultural Revolution Period.2) In terms of the source countries, literary works from theOccident were translated in a large number during the May Fourth period, and Britain accounts for most ofthe total, the translated Russian literary works ranking the second. At the same time, in the mid-to-late MayFourth period, the total number of Russian literary works was larger than that from Britain. Generallyspeaking, during this period, the translated works were basically is from the Occident except India, Japan,South Africa. However, during the Cultural Revolution Period, the openly published literary works weremostly from the Soviet Union and some fraternal countries, works from the Occident were rejected andexcluded, and the few works from the Occident were just with restricted circulation.3) In terms of thesource writers, the writers were mostly romantic writers from the Occident during the May Fourth period, the Russian realistic writers were in the majority in this period. While during the Cultural Revolutionperiod, the selected foreign literary writers were mostly proletarian revolutionary writers.4) From thethemes of selected source texts, literary works during the May Fourth period were more about individualityliberation and thought revolution while during the Cultural Revolution, the works were more about classstruggle, reflecting class contradictions of bourgeoisie and social problems.(2) Rewriting theory is a kindof descriptive research, which has certain feasibility and applicability, so it has explanatory power for studyon the selection of foreign literary translation in the two periods.