New Development Of Western Feminist Translation Theory And Practice In The Chinese Context

As the offspring of the latest development in translation studies and modern feminist movement, Western feminist translation theory has an obvious political flavor of deconstructing the hegemonic position held by both men and the original texts. Accentuating the purpose of translation, feminist translation theory foregrounds the status of translators and overthrows several conventionally-held translation notions such as the criterion of "fidelity", the relationship between the original and the translated texts, between the author and the translator, and so forth, thus providing a brand-new perspective for translation studies in the West.Chapter One of this thesis firstly gives a historical review of the emergence of feminist translation theory in the West, including the historical association between women and translation, the influence of deconstruction, the feminist movement as powerful momentum as well as the gender heat in culture studies and the "Cultural Turn" in translation studies. Secondly, this thesis tentatively applies Skopos theory of German functionalist school to analyze feminist translation theory. Such a combination of two theories is an attempt to provide a new scope to translation studies, so that the particularity, rationality and significance of feminist translation theory in overthrowing certain concepts in traditional translation theories can be better understood.In Chapter Two, the author of this thesis gives a brief review of the introduction of Western feminist translation theory into China and the current domestic research on this emerging theory. Additionally, the limitations of feminist translation theory in its early phrase have been summarized in this thesis, and the concept of "androgyny" is also expounded on in this thesis. (This concept was later put forward by feminist scholars to modify the limitations of their early theories and to seek a much more tolerant and harmonious relationship between men and women) After summarizing the achievements our Chinese scholars have already made in feminist translation studies, certain limitations in this respect are also pointed out in this part, indicating the influence of Western feminist translation theory upon translation studies in the Chinese context.In Chapter Three, through the analysis of Eva Huang's translation of Wang Anyi's two novelettes Love in a Small Town and Love on a Barren Mountain, this thesis aims to summarize the distinctive characteristics of Chinese female translators and their specific translation strategies compared with Western feminist translators. Moreover, this thesis also further analyzes the reasons behind the milder Chinese female translators. This case study will give us a better understanding of the influence of Western feminist translation theory upon Chinese translation practice, and thus can give us some enlightenment on its further development in the Chinese context. Then the author of this thesis concludes that our Chinese scholars and translators should not blindly copy the whole Western feminist translation theory and practice, instead, we ought to be more cautious and selective in drawing upon the beneficial elements in this imported theory with a view to better promoting translation studies in the Chinese context.Last but not the least, in the conclusion part of this thesis, after giving a brief review of this research, the author also summarizes certain limitations of this research, and suggestions for further research on feminist translation theory and practice are also made in this thesis.