Emerging From The Horizon Of Translation History

Thanks to a gender perspective, gender, which has played an active role in translation history and which has long been ignored, has been emerging from the horizon of the translation history. In the west, many researches have been conducted in this area, while in China relevant researches are still limited.By following a gender perspective, this research focuses on the translation of the British and American women's literature in Mainland China from 1978 to 2008 and locates the translation within its social, historical and especially its gender context. A descriptive and qualitative approach is used to present a full picture of the translation and to explore the gender consciousness in the practice.The preface goes through the rich findings of the researches on translation history from a gender perspective in the west,reveals the limits of the relevant researches in China and reviews the researches on the translation of the British and American women's literature in China. The research hypotheses, the research questions, the research objects, the research methods and the significance of the research are then illustrated.The first chapter investigates the translation of the British and American women's literature from the late 1970's to the early 1980's. It finds that generally speaking, the translation of the women's literature increased compared to that from 1949 to 1978, but the translators, publishers and editors were still prudent in the translation. Affected by the gender discourse, in which the masculinist perspective predominated and a slight sign of gender awareness just emerged, the translation showed a prevailing masculinist perspective—not only the number of women's works translated was much smaller than that of men, but also the criterion of choosing which women writers and works to translate were masculinist. What's more, the gender issues in the women's works were generally ignored in the meta-texts of the translations. However, in a few occasions translators showed dim gender awareness—they sang high of the women's fight for equal rights and mentioned some gender issues in women's works.The second chapter observes the translation of the British and American women's literature in the mid and late 1980's. It shows that the translation got quite active and the works translated became diversified. With feminism in the west introduced into China and people's gender awareness raised, the translation also reflected an increasing gender consciousness. More attention was directed to the works of the British and American women writers, including those with feminist ideas. More introductions and discussions were provided in the meta-texts on the influence of the writers'gender identity on their writings, the women characters in their works, the feminist background of the authors and the feminist ideology in their works. This period also witnessed the publication of three collections and several special issues and columns on the translations of the women's literature. Case studies are provided in this chapter in order to better present the gender awareness in the translation.Chapter 3 analyzes the prosperity of the translation of the British and American women's literature from the early 1990's to the early 2000's, and explores the gender issues in the translation against the feminist wave in the background. It reveals that influenced by the feminist wave, the translation showed a growing gender awareness with more feminist works translated and presented in a collected way, closer attention paid to the connection between the authors'gender identity and their texts, better application of the feminist theories made in the exploration of their works in the meta-texts. What's more, this period boasted four translation series of the women's literature and a handful of special issues and columns of the translations of the women's literature together with a new collection on it. However, in certain occasions, affected by comsumerism, some translations rewrote women's works in order to meet the public's voyeuristic desire, showing a patriarchal ideology.Chapter 4 illustrates the stable development of the translation of the British and American women's literature from the early 2000's to the present and explores the gender awareness in the translation against the low-key development of feminism in the context. It declares that in this period, the gender awareness is less noticeable in the translation due to the lack of the concentrated display of the translations of the British and American women's literature and the weakening of gender consciousness in the meta-texts.The conclusion summarizes the accomplishments of the translation of the British and American women's literature in the past 30 years and looks forward to its future development. The importance of the study lies in the following aspects. Firstly, it reviews the translation of the British and American women's literature from 1978 to the present for the first time and thus can provide new data to the translation history studies. Secondly, it reveals the gender awareness in the translation, which has been totally ignored, and thus can contribute to a deeper understanding about the gender issues in translation. Thirdly, the research takes a gender perspective in the study of translation history in the Chinese context and may provide an example for future researches in this aspect in China. Finally, more illuminations may derive from this study for the translation and publication of the British and American women's literature in the future.