Lu Xun's novella Ah Q Zheng Zhuan was a classic of Chinese literature, and many translators have translated it into English. The year of 2011 is the 90th anniversary of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan. For the past 90 years, billions of people all over the world have read this novella and been touched by it. The American translator William A. Lyell published his new English translation of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan in 1990, which is a success in both language and style, and was well received by readers home and broad.The quality of English version of modern Chinese literature works is not satisfactory nowadays. Chinese translators seem to fail to express the literary charm of the most brilliant modern Chinese works in English. Except language competence, there are other reasons for this problem. Among western translation theories, Gideon Toury's translational norms theory can help us find out the secrets of what a "good" translation is and why it should be translated in this way. Lyell's translation of Lu Xun's novella Ah Q Zheng Zhuan is a good example to study. Not only because it is well translated and well accepted in the American culture, but also because it reflects the translator's subjectivity which is another important factor in the translation process and should be taken into consideration within the DTS theoretical framework. Lyell applied several translation methods in communicating and transmitting Chinese cultural messages for American readers. One of the most effective one is to add footnotes to explain the implications of Chinese culture and Lu Xun's distinctive writing arts. Therefore the interaction between the target norms and the translator's subjectivity together decide the translator's decisions in the translation process and the final profile of the translation. This conclusion is very important in inspiring Chinese translators to improve the quality of C-E literature translations.The application of the translational norm theory and the translator's subjectivity for Lyell's translation of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan is the main body part of this thesis. Since Lu Xun' works have been translated by many translators and for many years, a variety of English translations of his works along with the literary tradition and translated works of the American culture as the polysystem of the target culture will be briefly introduced as the study background. Then Lyell's translation will be analyzed in order to find out the translator's clear consciousness of conforming to the target norms and the norms that he was following. His subjectivity was also reflected in his methods of transmitting cultural messages, namely, adding footnotes for cultural information. Chapter 4 demonstrates that the translator's subjectivity must be included in the DTS.Just as Lu Xun's wife Xu Guangping said. Ah Q will not die easily, because he not only represents the common national deficiencies and weakness of Chinese people, but also those of other peoples in the world. The achievements of studying Ah Q Zheng Zhuan are encouraging but further studies need to be done in the future.
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