On The Chinese Translation Of Children's Literature In The Late Qing

This thesis makes its study on the Chinese translation of children's literature in the late Qing from the perspective of Lefevere's rewriting theory. It thinks that the translation of children's literature in the late Qing is a kind of adultlized rewriting.In translating children's literature in the late Qing, there exist unique features in terms of the text selection, translation strategy and literary devices used. The texts of children's literature selected in the late Qing mainly consist of fairy tale, fable, adventure and didactic novel, and science fiction. Among them, novel is the main genre. The translation strategies mainly include Yiyi (translating the gist) and Yishu (translating and narrating), characterized with arbitrary adaptation and creation. In addition, most of the works are translated in Wenyan (literary Chinese) or Gubaihua (old vernacular Chinese), applying China's traditional novel structure.In the book Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame, Lefevere proposes an important concept: rewriting. It refers to the adaptation and manipulation to the literary originals, including translation, historiography, anthology, criticism and editing. Under different historical conditions, rewriting is mainly restrained from two aspects: ideology and poetics. According to Lefevere, translation is not only the transfer at the language level, but also the rewriting at the cultural level because of some ideological and poetological elements.Applying Lefevere's rewriting theory to the study of translating children's literature in the late Qing, this paper finds that the translation is deeply influenced by the dominant ideology and poetics at that time. In the late Qing, China was facing the national crisis. Therefore, social innovation became the major concern. The subjects such as national salvation, western learning and children's education came into the consideration of translators. Accordingly, texts on fairy tale, fable, didactic and adventure novel, and science fiction were selected in translating children's literature. Under the influence of the honored maxim in the Chinese traditional literature theories—Wenyi zaidao (writing/literature is a vehicle to convey the Dao), Liang Qichao (梁启超) initiated the...