A Comparative Study On Complete Chinese Translations Of Ivanhoe From The Perspective Of Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory

Ivanhoe is one of the most well-known masterpieces of Walter Scott,which exerted a profound and extensive influence on many countries including China.Yet so far,researches about its Chinese translation at home are still limited,most centering on the work of the famous Chinese translators Lin Shu and Wei Yi in the late Qing Dynasty-Sa Ke Xun Jie Hou Ying Xiong Lue.And the cross-period comparison studies have rarely been carried out,especially the full Chinese versions of Ivanhoe that was published in the 21^stcentury.Hence,there exists a considerable room to expand the study on the Chinese translation of Ivanhoe.Therefore,this thesis uses quantitative and qualitative research methods to compare and analyze three Chinese versions of Ivanhoe from AndréLefebvre’s manipulation theory:（1）the first Chinese version of Ivanhoe that was co-translated by Lin Shu and Wei Yi,and published by the Commercial Press in 1905;（2）the first Chinese translation of Ivanhoe in vernacular that was co-translated by Liu Zunqi and Zhang Yi,and published by People’s Literature Publishing House in 1978;（3）the latest Chinese version of Ivanhoe that was translated by Xu Ju,and published by Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House in 2007.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how three influential factors of ideology,poetics and patronage manipulated the selection of translation materials and rewriting from the macro and micro levels.At the macro level,this thesis explores translation motivations of the same literary work in different times and validates the manipulations of the three influential factors on the selection of translation materials,grounded on a research of relevant historical records,a careful consideration of the social and cultural context,and written interviews with Professor Xu Ju,the translator of the latest complete Chinese translation of Ivanhoe.On the micro level,this paper expounds the manipulations of three influential factors on the rewriting,through discussing the deep reasons of rewriting and the changes of translating strategies of each version from words,sentences,rhetoric,narrative style,and the layout design.In sight of the research,here are some findings:First,translation by no means proceeds in a vacuum.The selection of translation materials and translation rewriting would ineluctably be subject to the manipulations of ideology,poetics and patronage in the cultural context of the target language and the degree of manipulation would also vary in different periods.Over time,the control of traditional Chinese ideologies such as politics,religion,morality and culture,has weakened on the translation,and that of poetics and patrons has become more prominent.Second,the translation targets and strategies of the three versions were different.The version of 1905 focused on the propaganda of political ideas,with the highest degree of rewriting in form and content and a domestication-oriented translation strategy.The version of 1978 was the first translation in vernacular Chinese.To help ordinary readers better understand Western culture,the translation adhered to the principle of faithfulness and retained the sentence structure and sentence elements of the original text,but the style and diction shared characteristics of classical Chinese.The version of 2007 paid attention to the reproduction of the literary value of the original work and its combined narrative style of both romanticism and realism for a better introduction of Western classics to young students,which adopted a smooth expression in modern language with detailed annotations to enhance the readability and promote cultural exchanges.Thirdly,the disparity of social ideology and poetics was related to the degree of translation rewriting.The translation tended to be more faithful to the original text and paid more attention to the equivalent communication under different cultural backgrounds when the differences of social ideology and poetics were reduced in the context of the source language and the target language.Through a comparison among three Chinese translation of Ivanhoe,this thesis discusses the reasons why the same text would be introduced into China repeatedly based on the manipulation theory,demonstrating the manipulations of three influential factors on the literary translation.And it’s designed to help enhance readers’comprehension about changes in Chinese translations of foreign historical novels,and provide certain inspirations and references for translation studies and translation criticism.