On The Traces Of Rewriting In Lin Shu's Hei Nu Yu Tian Lu: A Cultural Perspective

Hei Nu Yu Tian Lu is the second translation fiction of Lin Shu. As Lin Shu had no firsthand knowledge of any foreign language and had never traveled abroad, he had to rely heavily on his collaborators, who orally relayed the meaning of the original to him, in the progress of translation. Being the first Chinese version of Uncle Tom' s Cabin, it was full of traces of rewriting. This was labeled as "not being faithful" within the framework of traditional translation theories. However, it was very popular with the Chinese readers and exerted great impact on the Chinese society at that time. The traditional translation theories cannot give a satisfactory explanation to this situation.The traditional study of translation focuses its attention on the relationship between the original and the translated text, which tends to compare these two kinds of writings on the linguistic levels to draw the conclusion whether the translated text is faithful to the original or not. Since the 1970s, translation study has been in its diversity, which breaks through the constraints of both traditional aesthetic and modern linguistic models, and takes a cultural turn. The emphasis of translation studies is shifting from linguistic studies to extralinguistic studies, which indicates that translation is far from a practice of bilingual transfer, and many other factors are involved in the process of translation such as culture history, aesthetic value as well as ideology in the target language context. Translation is rewriting, as Andre Lefevere refers. Many factors are crucial to the process of translating such as ideology poetics and patronage. Based on the theories of Translation Studies, the thesis will carry out a case study on Lin Shu's Hei Nu Yu Tian Lu from the cultural perspectives, expound the ideology, patronage, and poetics exerted on translation.This thesis adopts the following organization in its main body:The first chapter serves as introduction, describing briefly the traditional approaches towards Lin Shu's Hei Nu Yu Tian Lu. This chapter also illustrates the methodology and the purpose of this thesis.Chapter 2 will review the Chinese versions of Uncle Tom's Cabin that published in China in the chronological sequences, talk about the social-cultural contexts in which the Chinese versions are produced. At the end of this chapter, the thesis will summarize the features of each version, in the hope of drawing some general impressions on the significance of each version.From Chapter 3 to Chapter 5, the thesis is devoted to case study. Though the detailed analysis of samples from the version, this thesis describes and analyzes the traces of rewriting in Hei Nu Yu Tian Lu from the perspectives of characterization, themes and points of view, in the light of contemporary translation theories.Chapter 6 makes a conclusion. It will talk about the summary and the limitations of this thesis, and then give some advice of the questions to be further researched.In the light of the "Manipulation School", translation product has been formed by the impact of a large number of factors besides the source text, such as ideology, patronage, and poetics. This thesis will discuss how these factors impact Hei Nu Yu Tian Lu.