A Study On Anna Holmwood’s Translation Of Legends Of Condor Heroes From The Perspective Of Lefevere’s Rewriting Theory

She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan《射雕英雄传》)is one of the representative works of Jin Yong’s mid-term martial arts novels.This novel enjoys great popularity and remains a must-read for readers searching for adventure and fantasy in martial arts novel.However,the English translation of this novel did not come out until Anna Holmwood first brought it to the West.It can be seen that the transmission of Jin Yong’s novel to the western world is not as smooth as in China and Southeast Area.Anna Holmwood’s translation of She Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan—The Legends of the Condor Heroes—provides an opportunity for a case study on the English translation of martial arts novels,since it is the latest version among the existent English translation of Jin Yong’s novels.The thesis conducts a study under the guidance of Lefevere’s rewriting theory.Lefevere brought forth the two manipulative factors—ideology and poetics一influencing rewritings.It should be noticed that the absolute equivalence is not the only criterion to be pursued and evaluated in translation,and the rewriters,or in Lefevere’s words,translators,are inclined to adjust or adapt the original text so that the target text could correspond with the social and cultural environment that they live in.Through the case study,it can be summarized that the alterations made by Anna Holmwood can be categorized into seven types:1)Highlighting patriotism:the emphasis on patriots features the history background and caters to the needs of differentiating Jin Yong’s martial arts novel among western literature,but adding the title of"patriot" to more people than needed also oversimplifies the complexity of characters.2)Strengthening stereotype:the translator amplifies a certain stereotype of the characters,which results in the simplification of their characteristics.3)Cultural transplantation in appellations:this includes the transformation of the appellations in Buddhism and Taoism to western religions,and also the common appellation in ancient China to Shakespeare,s times.4)Rewriting the sexism:the translator deletes or adapts the derogatory remarks for females to conform to the dominant ideology.5)Cultural connotations of Kung Fu:the translator would adapt the Kung Fu move into a readable plot,and add the Chinese elements such as "qi" in Kung Fu to strengthen the poetics of original text.6)Reorganization of sentences and paragraphs:the translator adjusts the sentences and paragraphs into the reading habits of the target readers.7)Deletion of historical background and puns:the translator would remove the irrelevant history background and puns so as to foreground the main story line.In analyzing Anna Holmwood’s rewriting,we can see that in terms of ideology,the translator respects the historical background and cultural connotation of the original text,and strives to present the cultural characteristics of the original text.But the translator also shows an inclination to adjust the original text in the ideology of the target language.In terms of poetics,while retaining the characteristics of Chinese classical novels,the translator has made substantial adjustments to sentences and chapters,and deleted irrelevant storylines to make the writing smooth and consistent with the target language readers’ reading habits.