A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Fu Sheng Liu Ji

As an independent interdisciplinary branch of science, translation has been a focus of the academic world since the beginning of the 1950s. It has been studied not only from the linguistic standpoint, but also from other different kinds of cultural perspectives. Some of these cultural perspectives are psychological and anthropological, some sociological, cross-cultural and feminist, and the others deconstructionist and postcolonialist. All of them are very colorful and eye-catching, like spring flowers contending in beauty and having helped formulate a splendid theoretical system of translation studies. Moreover, they have greatly promoted translation studies as an independent in terms of theoretical research. Of all these multi-cultural orientations, the postcolonialist translation theory, a theory which addresses translation from the perspective of postcolonialism, is a very important theoretical one in today's field of translation studies.Postcolonialism is a term generally concerned with multi-cultural political theory and critical methodology. It tries to develop itself from resistance to dialogue into a new form of relationship between Eastern and Western countries so as to destroy the Authority or Center through deconstructionism, feminism, post-modernism, etc. Postcolonial translation theory, born in the mid- to late 1980s, is the application of this theory in the translation field. After examining translation activities in various historical conditions and the struggles between powers hidden behind target texts, theorists of postcolonial translation studies argue that there does exist difference between "strong cultures" and "weak cultures" and translation activities rarely involve a relationship of equality between texts, authors or cultures. Viewing translation as a transfer between two languages, traditional translation theories inspect translation from a micro-angle and regard translation as a dialogue conducted on the platform of equality, totally ignoring the relationship of power behind it. Differently, postcolonial translation theorists put translation activity in a certain historical, cultural and political context, and probe the close relationships between translation and cultural hegemony, translation and ideology, translation and translators' cultural identity. Their research challenged the traditional Utopia hypothesis of cultural equality and language equality and hence denied thefoundation of complete equivalence in translation.In the course of cultural colonization, translation has been serving as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it has been used negatively in all kinds of ways to confirm cultural and economic hegemony of Europe, to establish and perpetuate the asymmetry and inequality of relations between peoples, races, languages and cultures. On the other hand, it has been used and will be used positively to resist colonial and postcolonial powers. Based on the postcolonial translation theory, and through the case analysis of two English versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji, this thesis aims to display western translator's prejudice and despisement toward weaker cultures including the Chinese culture, and eastern translator's attempts and efforts to preserve their national cultures. This case analysis well proves the correctness of postcolonial translation theory at practical level.The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter serves as a brief introduction to the theoretical development of translation studies and the background of postcolonial studies. The second chapter addresses first the fact that postcolonization is by nature cultural colonization and cultural hegemony through explaining the postcolonial theory itself. Then it attempt to illustrate the durability of translation in the postcolonial context after observing the inequality existing in translation activities. And finally, it deals with such questions as the aim, task and strategies of the third world translators.The third chapter presents a profile of Shen Fu and his Fu Sheng Liu Juy Lin Yutang and his Six Chapters of A Floating Life, and Shirley Black and his Chapters from A Floating Life.The fourth chapter is the major part of this thesis. In this section a detailed and objective comparative study is conducted on the two versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji from the prospective of the postcolonial translation theory. The research will focus on two aspects: reproducing of cultural connotation and reproducing of style. Lin Yutang, as a representative of Chinese culture, faithfully displayed the features of the original as far as culture terms and style are concerned. His version can be regarded as a real and objective transfer of the ST. On the contrary, Black, appearing as a speaker of strong cultures, failed to convey the cultural implication in many places and rearranged the story and deleted some vivid sketches of scenery and literary and art criticism arbitrarily because they are not important in his opinion. By doing so he turned an autographical story into apure love story with a sad ending. His manipulation over ST is actually a reflection of cultural hegemony. 'The last chapter is a conclusion based on the analysis in the previous chapters which covers two points. One is that, in order to correct this inequality and have the voice from the third world heard on the international stage, more STs from the third world should be translated. And the other is that translators from the third world should shoulder the historical mission because their cultural identity can best ensure the reproducing of cultures reflected in STs.