A Case Study Of David Copperfield:From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

The traditional translation is based on the text.It aims at contrasting all kinds of texts and researching the standard of translation.Whether the translation keeps consistency with the text is the only standard for successful translation.With the emergence of description and systematic theory in the 1970s,the translators started to research the translation from the cultural viewpoints.The literature scholars expand the study of the scope of translation and offer the new method.Andre Levefere is the representative figure of Cultural manipulation school,whose rewriting theory is the main achievements in the study of translation theory.He points out that the society,culture and literature are contacted each other.The system of society is above the system of culture,and the system of literature is subsystem of that of culture.These systems are influenced each other,however,rewriting is one of methods for the exit of literature.This paper is based on Andre Levefere’s rewriting theory.In this paper,as a case,David Copperfield translated by Lin Shu in the late Qing dynasty,it gives evidence through the method of close reading,sorting the rewriting of translation and summarizes the reason and significance for Lin Shu’s rewriting.This paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter mainly contrasts and researches the Dickens’s original English "David Copperfield" and Lin Shu’s translation from the aspects of the plot,language,style and so on.The second chapter discusses the way of rewriting,analyzes the characteristics of Lin Shu’s translation and researches the translation strategies who adopts in Lin Shu’s translation through contrasting the translation of "David Copperfield" from Zhang Guruo.The third chapter mainly explores the reason for Lin Shu’ rewriting through rewriting theory.It reveals the reasonable and successful rewriting through analyzing the cultural factor which influences on his translation strategies from the cultural background,that is,the culture of late Qing dynasty.Through exploring Lin Shu social ideology at that time in China,the poetics of rewriting of western literature under the influence of factors such as the deep level reason,the author hope in translation studies,people can pay more attention to "culture" is an important element.The fourth chapter analyzes the significance and limitations of Lin Shu’s rewriting about David Copperfield.There are two sides for anything,so is literal translation.Therefore,this part is discussed from two aspects in details:positive aspect and negative aspect.