Manipulation In Translation Of Foreign Children's Literature Into Chinese

In the light of Lefevere's Manipulation Theory, the present thesis intends to probe into the manipulation in translation of foreign children's literature into Chinese, and Zhao Yuanren's Chinese version of Alice's Adventure in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland, for short), particularly his translation of various kinds of wordplay, is analyzed as a major case to illustrate the existence of manipulation in translation of foreign children's literature into Chinese.Translation always takes place in a situation and a translator is the subject who transfers message in conformity to the demands of the society. AndréLefevere declares that translation is rewriting of an original text, and all rewritings reflect certain ideology and poetics which manipulate literature to function in a given society in a given way. In other words, translation is manipulation.Manipulation involves both the case in which the translator is forced to manipulate his translating and the case in which the translator actively manipulates his translating. That is, manipulation includes both passive manipulation and active manipulation. The former results from translator's exterior identity: he is a social member and his practice is under some social constraints. The latter is linked with his interior identity: he is a man of personality and subjectability.Translation of children's literature, as a part of literary translation, is also manipulated by some extra-literary factors. When the adult translators render for children, they bring to translation the socially prevalent or their own views on children and views on children's literature, the counterparts of ideology and poetics in the field of children's literature. Besides, part of the manipulation in translation reflects some particular translating poetics, certain specific translating Skopos and even the translator's style. The history of translating foreign children's literature into Chinese in about a hundred years saw the manipulation out of some extra-literary factors.This thesis employs Zhao Yuanren's Chinese version of Alice in Wonderland as a major case study to exemplify the manipulation in the translation of foreign children's literature. Lewis Caroll's Alice Books abound in the so-called untranslatable wordplays such as pun, poem parody, malapropism, acrostic, visual poem and the like. This thesis describes some typical translating approaches selected by Zhao Yuanren to tackle these wordplays in the ST and tentatively figures out some extra-literary factors manipulating Zhao's selection of those approaches.In conclusion, this thesis, based on Lefevere's Manipulation Theory, finds out that manipulation in literary translation contains two interwoven sides—passive manipulation and active manipulation; manipulation out of extra-literary factors exists in the translation of children's literature as well; the views on children and the views on children's literature are among the major extra-literary factors that shape and manipulate the translation of foreign children's literature into Chinese; Zhao Yuanren's Chinese version Alice in Wonderland, particularly his translation of various kinds of wordplay, in a way reminds us of the concepts of"child-orientation"and"playfulness of children's literature", the view on children and the view on children's literature which enjoyed popularity among the pioneers of that time; simultaneously, Zhao Yuanren had his own particular translating Skopos that his translation could be used to testify the success of the vernacular Chinese.