Manipulation And Translation

Traditional translation theory has emphasized particularly on transferring the meanings precisely between two languages. Translation phenomena were often studied in a dualistic and static system. With the rise of the Cultural School since the 1970s, researcher began to take extra-textual factors into consideration and put translation into historical, political, social and cultural context. The relation between literary translation and the external world has engaged more and more attention. Any translation by any translator could not escape from the influence of social and cultural milieu at any time.Based on the theory of Manipulation School, the thesis analyses literary translation in China in the 20th century with descriptive approach from a historical and cultural perspective. The manipulating constraints, especially ideology and poetics are historical variables. The influence of those elements changes as well. Therefore, translation appears in boom or in decline in different stages, and the selection of original text and adoption of translation strategies are affected obviously.At the beginning, the thesis retrospects the shift of the study focuses from the linguistic perspective to the cultural perspective, introduces the background and development of the"cultural turn". Then Andre Lefevere and his manipulation theory are reviewed in detail. In his idea, translation is a rewriting of an original work, and rewriting is manipulation of the historical and cultural situation. His concepts of ideology and poetics are introduced as part of the theoretical frame. These two factors influence the entire translation process, from selecting the original material to choosing translation method."On every level of the translation process, it can be shown that, if linguistic consideration conflict with considerations of an ideological and/ or poetological nature, the latter considerations tend to win out."Then the author divides the last century roughly into three stages. By exploring the social and historical situation in each stage, the thesis tries to reveal what ideological and poetological constraints are involved in the translation and how these constraints influence translation practices, including selection of texts to be translated and translating strategies adopted by translators, which are further illustrated by typical cases study. At last, the thesis points out that ideology and poetics do exert great influence on translator and translation to a large scale, but not absolutely. There are some other manipulating elements. It is stated that to give an accurate and objective evaluation of translation phenomena, a broader view should be taken besides social and cultural background.Introducing cultural approach to translation studies is of great significance both to the theoretical research and translation practices. Due to the author's poor academic competence, there must be many problems in the thesis and thus it is open to criticism.