A Contrastive Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of Moment In Peking From The Perspective Of Lefevere’s Rewriting Theory

The1970s witnessed the "Cultural Turn" in the translation studies of literary field, which made translation no longer limit to the inside of the text and turn to pay much attention to the outside cultural background of translation. What’s more, the broad cultural background helped translation jump out of the micro linguistic level and attach great importance to the macro factors in the process of translation, such as politics, society, history and culture, etc.As the leading figure in the "Cultural Turn" movement, Andre Lefevere puts forward the famous Rewriting Theory and points out that rewriting not only reflects the ideology and poetics at different times but also manipulates literature specifically. Translation is regarded as a rewriting under the manipulation of ideology, poetics and patronage.As the first novel of Lin Yutang, Moment in Peking is the modern counterpart of A Dream of Red Mansions (Hong Lou Meng) and is popular for the rich Chinese culture at home and abroad. Based on Andre Lefevere’s Rewriting Theory, this thesis tries to make a contrastive study on the two Chinese versions of Moment in Peking, one version is translated by Yue Yi in the1930s and the other is Yu Fei’s version in the1990s both with the same name Shun Xi Jing Hua, and proves that ideology and poetics at different times will influence translator’s translation strategies as well as the translations. There are137examples collected from Moment in Peking, which are classified into several groups, such ethics, politics, legal systems, character’s names, culture-loaded words and poetical words, etc, and the thesis selects37examples from the whole examples to compare and analyze. Since the data on patronage is limited, the thesis will just analyze the two controlling factors, ideology and poetics. Though a qualitative and contrastive study, the thesis endeavors to find out the translation features of the two Chinese versions of Moment in Peking and the rewritings of the original novel by the two translators. Finally, the thesis endeavors to conclude the main translation strategies the two translators have adopted.The study shows that the translators are manipulated by the dominant ideology and poetics in order to be accepted well by the readers at different times. Limited to kinds of old bandages in the1930s, Yue Yi’s version is conservative, while Yu Fei’s version is relatively open in the modern1990s. Therefore, each version has its own rational existence and historical necessity from the readers’perspective. We can arrive at a conclusion that the times produce their translations.There are six chapters in this thesis. Chapter One talks about the general introduction of this thesis. Chapter Two deals with the literature review, mainly introduces the Rewriting Theory. Chapter Three gives a brief introduction of the research materials and methodology. Chapter Four is the main part of the thesis, which first discusses the ideological influence on the two translated versions. The examples are discussed in terms of ethics, politics and legal system. And then this part also explicates the influence of poetics to the two translated versions. The selected examples are analyzed in terms of lexical terms and language style. Chapter Five summarizes and compares different strategies both translators have adopted under the influence of ideology and poetics in the process of the rewriting. Chapter Six serves as a conclusion, summing up the major research findings and limitations.