A Study Of The Translations And Researches Of Vanity Fair In China

Vanity Fair is a masterpiece and representative of William Makepeace Thackeray, a famous British critical realist writer. It bombed the English literature as soon as it was published. As one of the western classic novels, Vanity Fair has been translated for about 90 years since it was first introduced into China in the 1920s, and later, various Chinese versions continuously emerged, which exerts a great influence on the circle of literary translation in China. This thesis attempts to comb and analyze the course of the Chinese translations and studies of Vanity Fair, and then based on this, explores factors influencing its translations in different historical periods and translators’ strategies through the application of Chesterman’s norm theory.The course of translating and researching Vanity Fair in China is divided into three periods:the first period (1926-1948), the second period (1949-1966) and the third period (1977-2014). From the perspective of Chesterman’s norm theory, the author analyzes how the Chinese versions of Vanity Fair in different historical periods conform to expectancy norms, accountability norms, communication norms and relation norms respectively. In expectancy norms, such factors as the prevailing translation traditions in the target language, ideological factors and readers’ expectations can affect translators and their translations alike. These also account for the different translations and researches of Vanity Fair in different historical periods. Then through analyzing the translation strategies adopted by translators, the author tries to probe into how translators conform to professional norms from the perspective of the choice on the original text and target language, the translation of the culturally-loaded terms and the realization of optimal communication and so on. After a careful study, a conclusion is drawn that the prevailing translation traditions in different historical periods, ideological factors and readers’expectations can exert a considerable influence on the translators’ selection of translation materials. Meanwhile, it can also be found that translation norms do have an effect on the Chinese versions of Vanity Fair in different periods, translators and their translation activities.Through the exploration of the translations and researches of Vanity Fair in China, the author hopes that it can help readers to have a better knowledge of its translation course in China. It is also hoped that such a case study can provide some references for the study in this field and lay a solid foundation for further translation studies, so as to promote the development of translated literature.