On The Factor Of Ideology In Translation

Despite the long history of ideological influence, ideological approach to translation is a rather new one in the study of translation. Traditional study on translation has focused on the comparison between the source text and the target text and translation criteria. Since the early 1990s, the study of translation has made a historic turn to a more grandeur sphere-culture. With the rise of the Cultural School, researchers began to study such broader issues as history, culture, convention and power. The relation between text production and the external world has engaged more and more attention. Many scholars have advocated that translation studies should turn to the relationship between translations, society and culture. They hold that a translator will definitely be influenced by the ideological factor of his time. As a result his translation will inevitably demonstrate the characteristics of that specific era. That is to say, translation is rewriting in the socio-cultural context and each translation belongs to its particular context.Enlightened by such a cultural perspective of translation studies, the present thesis views translation as a historical, social and intercultural rewriting activity. It will discuss the factor of ideology in translation and the discussion will take the translation behaviors in the Late Qing Period as an Example.The thesis consists of four chapters.In the introductory part, the research question and the background and significance of the study are stated. Chapter One is Theoretical basis. In this chapter, the author reviews the source-oriented theory paradigm, the "cultural turn" in translation studies and the previous research on the question raised in the present thesis. Andre Lefevere's theory of translation as a rewriting and his concepts of ideology, patronage and poetics are introduced as part of the theoretical frame for the present thesis.Chapter Two points out the significance and limitations of Lefevere's theory, and defines ideology—the key term in the present thesis.Chapter Three analyzes the influence of ideology on translation, including the influence on the translation strategies, selection of texts, and translation motives.Chapter Four focuses on the influence of ideology on translation.Last comes Conclusion and Recommendation.The significance of the study can be shown in both the theoretical and the practical aspects.(1)The paper is designed to explore the question whether the role of ideology influences the literary translations, which is posed by Andre Lefevere. If it does, how it works. Therefore, the emphasis of the study is put not on the process of translating, but on the product, that is, the translated text itself, which will to some extent, mirror the translator's ideology. It helps us to realize that translation cannot be conducted in a vacuum, which is affected by the historical, political and cultural factors. The cultural approach to translation studies produces a new dimension and the horizon of traditional research is widened.(2) The specific period under study in this dissertation is Late Qing. A climax of translation activities appeared during this period, but translations of this period are often accused of being inadequate, with deletions, additions and mistranslations. While it is true that a large part of the translations of the late Qing Dynasty are not faithful reproductions of the original, we should distinguish between obvious errors from the deliberate manipulations due to the conscious or unconscious cultural intervention. This thesis intends to investigate the relationship between translation and the social-cultural environment of the late Qing. That is to say, in studying and assessing translations and translators in the late Qing Dynasty, we cannot merely indulge ourselves in evaluating the faithfulness of the target text as well as individual merits and faults of the translators, but we should take historical and cultural context into consideration and pay attention to the effects of the interference of social-cultural factors on the translation activities. Due to the interference of the social-cultural factors, translators under different conditions often adopt different strategies, and ultimately come up with markedly different products. This is significant for contemporary Translation Studies. We need to reconsider the traditional criticism, which has taken the original as the ultimate criteria. It is hoped that some of the ideas in this paper could be of some practical significance for translation studies, especially the translation criticism.The study mainly employs the methodology of case studies. It collects plenty of information about a dozen of important Chinese translators from the late Qing Dynasty, and tries to find the factors influencing their choices of translations. Besides this, the study also utilizes the methodology of historical research. It shows the readers a large number of records on literary translation and ideological and political evolution of this period. By analyzing these records, the study presents the readers the correlations between politics, ideology and literary translation in China in the first half of the last century.