Different Children Image In Two Chinese Versions Of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer Under The Manipulation Of Views On Children

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a world-famous children's literature written by Mark Twain.It has been a popular children's book since its first publication in 1876.As the hero of the book,Tom Sawyer impresses numerous readers with his smart,lively personality as well as his breathtaking adventures.The Chinese version of this novel was first published in 1932;since then this book has been translated into Chinese for at least 26 times in different periods of history.Based on André Lefevere's manipulation theory,this thesis chooses two classic translation texts of the novel,studies the differences of children image in these two texts and researches into manipulating factors.The introduction part clarifies the previous studies on this topic,research significance,main argument as well as the thesis structure.The body part is composed of three chapters.The first chapter will introduce the theoretical foundation of the study by reviewing Lefevere's manipulation theory and studies on the translation of children's literature.Lefevere's manipulation theory offers the theoretical guidance while O'Sullivan and Gillian Lathey's studies provide the thesis with a specific perspective to research into the translation of the novel.The second part will study the two Chinese translations of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,respectively translated by Zhang Yousong and Zhang Jianping.Then the author makes a detailed analysis of the adaptations adopted by the translators.Through textual analysis of two translation texts,the author summarizes the textual manipulation related to children image into three aspects,which are addition and omission of words,paraphrasing and substitution,and has a thorough discussion on how the textual manipulation on the translation texts leads to the subtle differences of children image,including differences in Tom Sawyer's language style,his childlike innocence as well as his rebellious spirit.The third chapter will examine the evolution of views on children in China and discuss the typical children images in the 1960 s and 2000 s separately,in order to probe into the inner relations between children image in the translation texts and the dominant children image of society at that time.The concluding part summarizes the major findings through comparison of two translation texts.By restoring the space and time of each translation,the author finds that views on children in the context of target language serve as an important ideological factor,which will influence the translator's handling of texts,thus resulting in differences in the image of Tom Sawyer.