On Lu Xun's "Literal Translation"

Lu Xun's translation activities hold a very important position in the history of translation in China; however, there are many controversies on his"literal translation". Therefore, with the help of the theories of"domestication"and"foreignization", the polysystem and the skopos theory, the author will unveil the deep social reasons for and the inner motives of Lu Xun's"literal translation"and"rigid translation"by thorough analysis of them in this thesis, so that we can make a just and impartial appraisal of his translation, that is, the inevitability of Lu Xun's"literal translation"under that social condition. And further, with the revelation obtained from the analyses of Lu Xun's"literal translation", the author intends to expound the social and dynamic characters of translation criteria with a view of providing an illumination on the establishment of translation criteria.In the introduction of this thesis, the author gives a brief presentation of the social circumstances under which Lu Xun's"literal translation"took place and his grand purposes in doing that, and thus, starts the discussion of translation criteria from different aspects.The body of the thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter One is the main part of this thesis which expounds the translation theory of Lu Xun. First, the author presents the historical background and the development of Lu Xun's"literal translation","rigid translation"and their demonstrations in translation activities. Then, the author gives an anatomy of the ideological roots and purposes of his"literal translation". And finally, the author discourses upon the profound influence of Lu Xun's"literal translation".Chapters Two to Four are the analyses of"literal translation"from different angles. In Chapter Two the author illuminates that it is inevitable for Lu Xun to adopt"foreignization", i.e.,"literal translation"to achieve his goals, through the comparison between"domestication"and"foreignization".In Chapter Three the author analyzes the environmental influences on Lu Xun's"literal translation"with the theory of the polysystem, and demonstrates the social factors in choosing translation criteria. In Chapter Four the author displays the inner motive of Lu Xun's"literal translation"with the theory of skopos.In Chapter Five the author discusses the social and dynamic characters of translation criteria and, further, the multiplicity of translation criteria, which is exactly the revelation that the author obtains from the analysis of Lu Xun's translation activities from different angles.The last part is the conclusion of the whole thesis. Through the analyses in the previous five chapters, the author acquires the following two conclusions: one is the inevitability of Lu Xun's"literal translation"; the other is the necessity of the multiplicity of translation criteria.