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A Study Of Lin Shu's Translation Of Novels

Posted on:2011-07-17Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:H Z LiuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115360305498731Subject:English Language and Literature
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This dissertation is a study of Lin Shu's translation of novels. It briefly reviews the study of Lin Shu in the past century at home and abroad, especially the academic achievements made in the study of Lin Shu's translation of novels, and makes an exploration of his translation thought, translation strategies, the factors manipulating his translation of novels, the causes of his great success, his contribution, and the shortcomings of his translated novels. In this dissertation, the factors manipulating Lin Shu's translation of novels are approached by the application of Andre Lefevere's theory of manipulation, while the faithfulness of his translated novels to the original texts is dealt with from the perspective of language. In the thesis, an investigation is made mainly of "The Ten Famous Novels Translated by Lin Shu", which were republished by The Commercial Press in 1981, as well as some other novels translated by him. It tries to make a relatively systematic study of Lin Shu's translation of novels, revealing his translation thought, translation strategies, the historical causes of the appearance of his translated novels, as well as the causes of his success and shortcomings.This dissertation consists of nine chapters. In the Introduction, a brief account is made of the translated works by Lin Shu, the purposes and main contents of the research, the rationale of the research, the research method, the traditional translation theories of Etienne Dolet, Alexander Fraser Tytler, Dao'an, Xuanzang, Xu Guangqi and Yan Fu, the definition of translation by Roman Jakobson, John Catford, Eugene A. Nida, the polysystem theory founded by Itamar Even-Zohar and Gideon Toury, and the theory of manipulation advocated by Andre Lefevere. If simply considered from the perspective of faithfulness in the traditional translation theories advanced by translators and translation scholars at home and abroad, there exist a great number of problems in Lin Shu's translations; however, if analyzed by the application of Lefevere's theory of manipulation, quite a few cultural issues in his translations can be easily solved, though there are still some linguistic problems left unsolved. Therefore, this thesis makes use of the method of synthesis-the combination of the manipulation and faithfulness, neither neglecting the analysis of Lin Shu's translations on the cultural level, nor ignoring the exploration of his translations on the linguistic level. In the past, a lot of research has been conducted on Lin Shu's translations by many scholars, but some academic papers limited their scope of research to only one or two of his translated novels; even though there are some monographs on the study of Lin Shu, his translation of novels is discussed in only one or two chapters. Some researches of Lin Shu's translation of novels are only based on the Chinese translations, without referring to the original. Research of his translations could not be conducted with a word-for-word correspondence to the original, nor could it be done without making any reference to the original. Accordingly, it is necessary to research Lin Shu's translations based on the original or on the original of the original, because some of his translated novels were indirect translations.In Chapter II, a brief summary is made of the study of Lin Shu in the past one hundred years and more. During the period from the late Qing dynasty to the early Republican China, research on Lin Shu's translations was conducted by such scholars as Qiu Weixuan, Yin Bansheng, Zheng Zhenduo, Hanguang, and Zhu Xizhou. Nevertheless, generally speaking, of their criticisms of Lin Shu, some are relatively one-sided, others seem to be unfair to him, but some are very objective. From the founding of the P. R. China to the reform and opening to the outside world, mainland China scholars had not paid enough attention to Lin Shu's translated novels except Ah Ying, Kong Li, and Qian Zhongshu. Ah Ying did not do much research work, yet he compiled a great number of Lin Shu's prefaces and postscripts in his monograph. Kong Li's opinion of Lin Shu is to a great extent similar to that of Zheng Zhenduo. Qian Zhongshu made some original research on Lin Shu's translations, representing the highest academic achievements in the field in this period. And there existed some minor errors in the booklist of Lin Shu's translated novels, which was compiled by Zeng Jinzhang, a scholar of Hong Kong. From the reform and opening to the outside world to the new millennium, China has witnessed a gradual rise in the research on Lin Shu. Great efforts have been made by such scholars as Xue Suizhi, Zhang Juncai, Zeng Xianhui, Kong Qingmao, Han Hongju, and others., which has greatly promoted the research on Lin Shu, yet there is still something left to be desired, mainly because their focus is on Lin Shu, not on his translations. Outside China, there are also some foreign scholars, who are interested in Lin Shu, including Arthur Waley, Uchida Michio, Robert William Compton and Tarumoto Teruo. Among all the foreign scholars, Tarumoto Teruo, a Japanese scholar, has made the greatest contribution to Lin Shu's translation of novels, whose research has removed some misunderstandings of Lin Shu, even some wrongs done to the great translator during the past century. There are also some overseas Chinese scholars, who have done research on Lin Shu's translated novels, mainly including Leo Ou-fan Lee, Tai-loi Ma, Henry Y. H. Zhao, Hu Ying, Wanlong Gao and Lu Li. The overseas Chinese scholars have made great contribution in their research on Lin Shu's translated novels, especially by making use of foreign translation theories.The third chapter is mainly about Lin Shu's translation thought, including his opinions of and attitude towards translation, and the functions and purposes of his translation. Lin Shu's opinions of translation cannot be understood as translation theory; it can only be generalized as translation thought. His translation thought can be found mainly in his essays such as Preface to Yilin (1901) and Sighs over Translation (1913), his more than 100 prefaces and postscripts to his translated novels, and some of his letters. In these documents, Lin Shu adverted to the functions and aims of his translation of novels, which can be summarized as translating to save the nation, to enlighten the intelligence of the people, to encourage learning and differentiate honor and shame, to prosper western learning, to get informed of foreign conditions, and to learn what the "foreign robbers" have learned. In a word, Lin Shu translated foreign novels with an obvious aim and purpose in his mind, i.e. a strong social aim and function. Lin Shu's translation thought, though a little self-contradictory sometimes, is basically constant. Almost at the very beginning of his literary translation, he was already fully aware of the difficulty in translation, and he knew that some western monographs were too difficult to be completely translated at that time. Rewriting of the original was one of the means he often resorted to when translating into Chinese. In his translations, Lin Shu sometimes rewrote foreign culture in the novels so as to adapt it to Chinese readers, and he even went so far as to add the cultural concepts which are inherent in China such as "loyalty" and "filial piety" to his translated novels. Although there is some amplification and deletion in his translations, his translated novels are basically faithful to the original texts. Lin Shu were fully aware of the difference between translation and creation; however, sometimes he seemed to forget it. As far as the translation of foreign terminologies and nouns was concerned, he suggested in 1925 that a special institution be established to have them translated into Chinese, standardized and unified by experts.Chapterâ…£deals with the translation strategies Lin Shu used in his translations, including language strategy, domesticating strategy, foreignizing strategy and note-making strategy. The language he used in his translations is classical Chinese, not vernacular Chinese, because the use of classical Chinese in translated novels was the prevailing practice of the time, the classical language was the official language of the country, and the overwhelming majority of the readers then were readers of traditional Chinese literature. Besides, the classical Chinese Lin Shu used in his translations was different from that he used in his essays written in classical Chinese, and the language he applied in his translations was not exactly the same as what he used in the novels written by himself. In all his translations, Lin Shu mainly adopted the domesticating strategy, so the language in his translated novels was highly domesticated. Moreover, the titles of his translated novels are similar to those of traditional Chinese novels, so some of his titles imitated and were borrowed from those of some traditional Chinese novels. Lin Shu domesticated foreign culture in his translations to some extent. Meanwhile, the great translator adopted the foreignizing strategy to a certain degree, foreignizing all the personal names and place names. He even transliterated some foreign appellations or titles, maintained a few Europeanized structures and sentences, and kept some foreign cultural phenomena in his translated novels, thus preserving some foreign flavor in his translations. Furthermore, Lin Shu also applied the note-making strategy to his translations, including note-making in brackets, original-turned notes, note-turned translations, and the translator's personal intrusion.Chapterâ…¤examines the factors that manipulate Lin Shu's translation of novels from the perspective of Lefevere's theory of manipulation. The first factor manipulating his translation of novels is the dominant ideology of his time, which has something to do with political factors and social factors. The second factor manipulating Lin Shu's translation of novels is poetics. The ethics and culture of the target language and the then prevailing translation strategy manipulated his novel-translation. Patronage is a third factor that manipulated his novel-translation, which means the manipulation of his novel-translation by the publisher and the reader. Besides, in the process of novel-translation, Lin Shu was manipulated and also conducted manipulation; and he, as a novel translator, manipulated the deliberate mistranslation, abridgement and deletion of the original, amplification of the original, cultural misinterpretation, choice of the novels to be translated, and the change of the narrative point of view. A lot of phenomena in Lin Shu's translations were brought about by him on purpose so as to cater to the tastes of the reader.The sixth chapter analyzes the causes of the popularity of Lin Shu's translated novels in the late Qing dynasty and early Republican China, and draws the conclusion that the great success of Lin Shu's translation of novels benefits greatly from his mastery of Chinese traditional learning, his correct translation strategies and his catering to the needs of his day. Thus, a translator who knows no foreign language gains an advantage over those who have mastered one or two foreign languages, because he or she can cast off the control and manipulation of the original. Some literati are very talented writers, but when they do translation, they cannot cast off the control and manipulation of the original and are manipulated by the original as if they were controlled by the gravitational pull of the earth, which makes their translation not as fluent as it should be. In this sense, Lin Shu's disadvantage as a translator is converted into an advantage, which helps him cast off the manipulation of the original.Chapter VII is mainly about the influence of Lin Shu's translation of novels upon Chinese literature and Chinese society. Firstly, the contribution of his translation of novels lies in the fact that his translations changed the inferior position of translated novels and Chinese novels in the system of Chinese literature, turning novels into the mainstream of Chinese literature. Secondly, Lin Shu's translation of novels gave impetus to the innovation of the Chinese novel as a literary genre, and greatly helped bring into being a new type of novel and modern fiction. His translation of foreign novels influenced people of one or several generations, and even the May 4th Movement had a lot to do with Lin Shu's translation of novels. Thirdly, Lin Shu's translation of foreign novels introduced into China the western concepts of liberty, equality and democracy, which pounded at the feudal ideas and had a great influence upon the ideas of freedom of marriage of the Chinese people, bringing into China a fresh wind from the West, and actuating the changes in the Chinese society. Furthermore, Lin Shu was one of the earliest scholars who made a comparison between Chinese literature and Western literature. He made a comparison not only between Chinese writers and Western writers, between the literary works of China and those of the West, but also between the Chinese literary characters and the Western literary ones. In this sense, Lin Shu can be regarded as a forerunner of comparative literature in China.In Chapterâ…§, the defects and shortcomings of Lin Shu's translation of novels are discussed. In spite of the fact that Lin Shu made unprecedented achievements in novel translation, it is obvious that his translations have some defects and shortcomings. The shortcomings in his translation of novels are mainly brought about by his ignorance of any foreign language, so we can see the advantage as well as the disadvantage of a translator who knows no foreign language. In this dissertation, some examples are cited to show that it was not Lin Shu who made the many mistakes in his translated novels, and that it was his interpreters who made most of the mistakes, which had nothing to do with Lin Shu. In additon, some of the notes made in his translated novels are not correct enough, and there are even some errors in his note-making. In his translated works, some words that should have been given notes to are left without a note, and some notes are rather too brief or sketchy. Of course, some of the mistakes in the note-making are not made by Lin Shu. What's more, when used to translate the foreign literary works of the 18th and the 19th centuries, classical Chinese has its own limitations, because it is mainly monosyllabic, and its vocabulary is more limited. Accordingly, when used to express modern-Western objects, ideas and mental activities, it has its insurmountable defects and shortcomings.In the ninth chapter, a summary is made of the main idea, research method and achievements of the dissertation. Meanwhile, the shortcomings and defects in this research are summarized, and brief prospects for future research are elucidated.
Keywords/Search Tags:Lin Shu, translation of novels, translation thought, translation strategies, manipulation, rewriting, Lin Shu's translated novels
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