A Study On The Two Chinese Versions Of To The Lighthouse From The Perspective Of Feminist Translation Theory

Feminist translation theory emerged in the “cultural turn” of translation studies in the 1980 s.Initiated in Europe,the theory,however,was developed in Canada,with Sherry Simon and Luise von Flotow as representatives.The theory is the combination between feminism and translation,which advocates the intervention and manipulation to the original text for the purpose of displaying the translator’s and the character’s female consciousness.Also,they put an emphasis on the translator’s subjectivity by the adoption of translation strategies such as supplementing,prefacing and footnoting,and hijacking.To the Lighthouse is a novel written by Virginia Woolf,an important feminist representative who has firstly used the stream of consciousness and some innovative feminist theories like androgynism are proposed by her.The novel respectively describes three characters such as Mr.Ramsey,Mrs.Ramsey and Lily Briscoe and tells of a story happening on an island far from the Lighthouse where the Ramseys family is having a summer vacation with several guests.This thesis selects two Chinese versions respectively by male translator Qu Shijng and female translator Wang Jiaxiang to make a comparative analysis.Under the guidance of feminist translation theory,this thesis aims to explore the impact of gender consciousness on their translation process from the perspective of feminism.This thesis is constituted by six chapters.Chapter One is the introduction,which is made up of research background,research objectives and significance,as well as structure of the thesis.Chapter Two provides the theoretical foundation for thesis,namely the feminist translation theory.Chapter Three reviews the development history of Chinese feminist translation theory and domestic translators come up with some suspicions of the theory.Chapter Four is the brief introduction to Virginia Woolf and To the Lighthouse.Chapter Five serves as the main body of this thesis which is a case study on two Chinese versions of To the Lighthouse.The comparative study is made mainly from the aspects of translation strategies,linguistic level and appellation language,through which the author sums up Wang’s version displays stronger female consciousness than Qu’s one and her translation style is more faithful and more moderate.Also,the author analyses the factors contributing to such distinctions from social and cultural backgrounds.The slowdown of feminist translation theory in China proves that domestic female translators are difficult to get rid of traditional translation principle and they have too much constraint and consideration in displaying the woman consciousness.