On Modern Chinese Translation Of Foreign Fiction And Its Literary Significance

Modern period, approximately from 1895 to 1919, has been the most vigorous phase of introducing foreign literature into China in history. During the period, foreign literature, represented by translated fiction, made its unprecedented achievement, which exerted great influence on the May-Fourth New Culture Movement, and even provided profound enlightenment for the modernity of the whole Chinese literature. A large number of translated fictions brought fresh air to common people and the Chinese intellectuals who sought to learn from the West. Those translated fictions also brought about a strong shock and conflict for the transforming Chinese literature. During the process of shocking, melting and transforming, the translated fiction played a decisive role as an external factor which advanced Chinese fiction's modernity.The thesis discusses the following aspects of influence on Chinese literature exerted by the translated fiction and its literary significance.The introduction points out reasons for studying translation from the perspective of relationship between translation and literature. And the thesis chooses modern translated fiction as the subject and analyzes the general backgrounds of the translated fiction and the significance of the study.The first chapter introduces the historical background of the booming of translated fiction and main translators and their works.The second chapter discusses the influence of translated literature on Chinese literary language. The Baihua(白话) Movement calls for literary language to be popular and the deep and difficult Wenyan(@文言) became a tremendous obstacle to the popularization of fiction. Translators took different approaches to bridging the gap between two cultural systems so that many new words streamed into Chinese, which enriched and developedChinese literary language.The third chapter deals with the influence of translated fictions on narration. Narration is the focus of a fiction. The translated fiction not only imported fresh literary language, it also imported new way of narration. The widely used first person narration, the different narrative order and the breakthrough in traditional narrative plot offered domestic writers rich nutrients and live examples.The fourth chapter is mainly concerned with the subject matters. Unlike traditional subject matters about the noble and high officials, wars, legends, bel-esprits and beauties, the subject matters of translated fiction include politics, science, detective and love stories, which are quite popular and the popularity of subject matters also stepped up the evolution of modern Chinese literature, enriched the original subject matters and made the content of fiction more diverse.The fifth chapter illustrates the change of fiction notion and the significance of translated fiction in Chinese literary history. The status promotion brought about a deeper understanding of fiction and at the same time exposes the important role that translated fiction played during the development of Chinese fiction's modernity and translated fiction is one of the important sources of Chinese modern literature.The conclusion restates the significance of modern translated fiction in the development of Chinese literature so that we not only understand the close relationship between translated fiction and domestic literary creation but also fully understand the function that the translated fiction performed in modern period so as to guide our translation study.