A Study Of The Translation And Dissemination Of Keynes’s Economic Works In China From The Perspective Of Socio-translation Studies

John Maynard Keynes is one of the most celebrated economists in the 20 th century throughout the world.His economic thoughts have largely influenced Western economic policies and are also the main references for the development of Chinese economic ideas.It is found that researches on Keynes in academia mainly focus on his economic thoughts and influence,whereas the research on the translated works is almost blank.Keynes’ s economic ideas and theories spread in China mainly through the Chinese translation of his works.Therefore,it is necessary to study the translated works concerned.This thesis probes into the study of translation,dissemination and evaluation in general with a case study of The General Theory of Employment,Interest and Money when the issues of translation strategies and techniques are in question,trying to answer the questions of(1)the translation condition of the Keynes’ s economic works,including the choice of the source text,constitution of translators,translation strategies and techniques as well as patronage system;(2)the social factors which affect the translation process;(3)the acceptance and influence of the translated works.After the cultural turn,there appears the sociological turn in translation studies,which is called socio-translation studies.Taking the concepts and viewpoints of sociology as the main tool,socio-translation studies explores not only the impacts of various social factors on translation at the macro level,such as the social environment and social changes,but also the changes made by each actor of translation activities at the micro-level,which provides a comprehensive and multi-dimensional analysis approach for translation studies.Among present sociological theories,Pierre Bourdieu’s and Anthony Giddens’ s theories occupy high positions respectively.Their philosophical foundation and methodological perspectives are similar but have distinct characteristics,which provides a broader theoretical vision and method for translation studies.Based on the basic concepts and principles of Pierre Bourdieu’s and Anthony Giddens’ sociology and the primary knowledge of translation-studies,this thesis establishes an integrated analysis model of socio-translation studies.With such a model as vehicle,this thesis combs through all the translated works of Keynes to explore translation condition as well as evaluation and influence of the translated work in China.It is found that Keynes’ s main economic works have been translated in China,and the translators are mainly scholars in the field of economics.The choice of source text relies on the relative social structure and the quality of translated works mainly depends on different translators’ cultural capital,the changes in form of the political and economic structure of Chinese society affect and even determine the discourse structure of the text and para-texts of Keynes’ s economic works.Publishing companies are the main source of patronage.On the one hand,their action are structured by different social events,and on the other hand,they largely help structuring the translation,dissemination and acceptance of the works translated.In terms of translation strategies and techniques,taking The General Theory of Employment,Interest and Money as an example,the most noted representative translators Xu Yunzhan and Gao Hongye take different translation techniques owing to the various social structures they live in.As for the acceptance and influence,there are mixed reviews in translated works,while the overall influence of the works are huge,with attention from many fields of China.This study can not only contribute to the construction of the history of Chinese economic translation,but also provide a reference for the study of translation of other social sciences in the same period.