A Process-oriented Approach To Translation Studies——with A Process-oriented Study Of The Chinese Versions Of Gone With The Wind

Translation?is an ambiguous term. It contains at the same time the meaning of translation product and translation process. Therefore, comprehensive translation studies must embrace the study of product and process at the same time. On one hand, product is the basis and starting point of translation studies; on the other, it is in the process that the product is created. As the determining stage of product, process should also be an indispensable object of translation studies if we acknowledge the importance of exploring the social nature of translation. Because of the ambiguity of the term ranslation? we may be oriented towards the product or the process in translation studies. The traditional translation studies is largely oriented by product and this is perhaps one of the major causes of the stagnation in which translation studies has found itself for a substantial period. Setting Out from a model of translation process Original ProductlText=the TranslatorTranslation Product! Text, the thesis examines the potential problems in a product-oriented approach to translation studies and elaborates the practical benefits we ma gain from a process-oriented one. The problems lie in scope of study and research methodology. In scope of study. a product-oriented translation study is limited within a study of product because the model simply becomes the Original Product~the Translation Product in the eye of the product-oriented translation scholars. As a result, they don't take process and the variables influencing the process into account. A process-oriented study thus can help remedy the deficiency of a product-oriented study in embracing those topics. which may lead us to a full understanding of translation as a social phenomenon. In methodology, product-oriented translation studies is likely to be prescriptive. Because product-oriented translation scholars don't pay proper attention to the extratextual factors influencing the process of translation, they are inclined to draw normative judgments about the orrectness?or -oodness?of a translation product according to their own measuring standard. While in a process-oriented study, the variables present themselves in such an obvious way that one may avoid drawing judgments and try to describe the process and provide explanations for it. It is through the description---explanation?methodology that we hope to reach the ultimate goal of translation studies as a discipline---to understand and explain the translation phenomena. Translation studies underwent a rapid development in the closing decades of the 20th century. The representative schools are: the polysystem theory represented by Even-Zohar, the manipulation theory represented by Andre Lefevere(the school of Translation Studies) and the skopos theory represented by Hans Vermeer and Christiane Nord. Despite the fact that each of the schools has its own emphasis and special discoveries, there is a common feature shared by them: they all regard translation as a dynamic process which takes place in a particular context(a historical, cultural or social context). This is why translation studies has achieved a breakthrough in the last two decades. Based on the illuminating findings of all the schools, the thesis suggests a tentative model of a Process-oriented approach to translation studies. Starting from answering the questions of hatow hen? here? why?and ho? the model conducts a study of product followed by a study of process. We hope that the model will contribute to further advances in translation studies.