Target Cultural Context And Fictional Translation Strategy

Translation strategy has long been the focus of translation studies. According to the polysystem theory proposed by Even-Zohar, the strong position of target culture tends to relegate the translated literature in a secondary position in its literary polysystem, consequently translators tend to adopt a domesticating strategy and thus produce translations characterized by superficial fluency, while within weaker cultural position, translated literature always assumes a primary position in the polysystem and thus foreignizing strategy or resistant translation prevails. Therefore, the cultural position of a nation and that of translated literature in a given literary polysystem may exert influence on the translator's selection of strategy. The thesis, based on Even-Zohar's polysystem theory and comparisons among the four Chinese translation versions in the similar and dissimilar cultural contexts, aims to analyze the translation strategies employed in the four versions and to explore the relationship between the positions of target culture and translated literature and the production of translation strategy.The four Chinese translation versions chosen in the study are Lin Shu's kuai rou yu sheng shu (1908), Zhuang Yichuan's da wei ke bo fei er (2000), Lu Xun & Zhou Zuoren's yu waixiao shuoji (1909) and Zhu Qingying's jian ai (1987). The thesis made a descriptive and comparative study of the four versions to examine translation features in strategic selection from two aspects-content and form. The results of the study are the following:1) By comparing two Chinese translations in the similar cultural contexts, i.e., one between Lin Shu's kuai rou yu sheng shu and Lu Xun & Zhou Zuoren's yu wai xia shuo ji at the beginning of the 20th century and the other between Zhuang Yichuan's da wei ke bo fei er and Zhu Qingying's jian ai at the end of the 20th century, the result showed that the coexistence of domestication and foreignization in the same target socio-cultural context, i.e., at the beginning of the 20th century, Lin Shu used domestication-oriented strategy and Lu Xun & Zhou Zuoren employed foreignization-oriented strategy; at the end of the 20th century, Zhuang Yichuan applied foreignization-oriented strategy and Zhu Qingying adopted domestication-oriented strategy.2) By comparing two Chinese translation versions of David Copperfield in the dissimilar cultural contexts, i.e., one by Lin Shu and the other by Zhuang Yichuan, the result showed that in different target socio-cultural contexts, translators adopted different translation strategies. Zhuang Yichuan employedforeignization-oriented translation strategy and Lin Shu applied domestication as the dominant translation strategy.Based on the analysis of the cultural contexts in which the versions were produced, the thesis analyzed the strategies employed in the versions and has come to the following conclusions: the influence of target cultural context on translation strategy is mainly due to translator's individual cultural attitude. Whether the cultural position of a nation and that of translated literature in a given literary polysystem can influence translators' strategic selection is largely due to the translators' subjective attitudes toward the objective cultural position of a nation and that of translated literature in a given literary polysystem. Therefore, the influence of target cultural context on translation strategy is not a direct, but an indirect process because of potentiality and penetration of translators' subjective consciousness.The paper consists of six main parts. The first part mainly introduces research background, structure of the research, aims and significance of the research, definition of translation strategy, etc. In the second part, based on the review of the previous relevant studies, necessity of the research is stated. The third part is the theoretical foundation involved in the study including the Even-Zohar's polysystem theory. The fourth part makes a comparative study of translation strategies reflected in the four Chinese translation...