On Chinese Translation Of Foreign Literature In New Culture Movement Context

The major question of this paper is inspecting the development of the Chinese literature translation and some of its key characteristics in the New Culture Movement.Before and after May 4th Movement, Chinese translation of foreign literature made brilliant achievements. Compared with that at the beginning of the 20th century, the translation from foreign language to Chinese in the New Culture Movement experienced an important change. Firstly, it happened to the selection of subject matters-from political novels of enlightenment and utility and science novels to literature which had more artistic values. More pure literature had been introduced into china. Secondly, the change happened to the language used in the Chinese version, i.e. the modern Chinese language took place of the classical or semi-classical Chinese language. Making optional change in the original, so called "Hao Jie Yi"(random translation) was rejected and "direct translation" respecting the original became a basic translation method. At the same time, the translators realized gradually the differences between a translation and a writer.The second small respective viewpoint, deal with the two main characteristics of the selection of subject matters. In the first place, the author traces the change in the schools of ideological trend of literature and source language countries of the subject matter. In general, at the initial stage of the New Culture Movement, the translators favored literature of romanticism. But along with the development of the Movement, realistic literature was praised highly, and became the mainstream gradually. The reason lied in the double extrusions of the concrete demands of the New Culture Movement context and the traditional culture. The second characteristic is the phenomenon of "partiality for a particular kind of food", namely, some important foreign writers' works had not received due attention. The reasons and negative results are also presented.The third small respective viewpoint is about the development of the translation language and its value to the New Culture Movement. The language used in Chinese version changed from classical Chinese language to modem Chinese language, which aroused very great dispute. It was the "direct translation" which helped establish the position of modern Chinese.There is still lot to explore about the translation of foreign literature in the New Culture Movement. It is necessary that the study should be more enhanced than ever.Name: Li yueru ( Chinese Contemporary Literature) Directed by Professor Zhou Haibo...