The Translation Of Detective Stories (1896-1919) And Its Influence On Chinese Detective Story Creation

In recent years, the general trend of arts study has turned to focus on the culture. Translation study is also no exception, turning from simple linguistic research to the culture research. Such a shift expands the vision of translation study scholars from the text to the vast space beyond the text. Many controversial issues in translation, that were hard to settle from a single static linguistic aspect, could be solved when brought into a cultural context. Some misunderstandings about translation could be cleared up in the vision of culture. It is safe to say that the cultural turning of translation study has contributed a lot to enhancing Translation Study and expanded its study field on a large scale.Due to the complexity and diversity of the culture itself, different culture theories appear. Israel scholar Even-Zohar's Polysystem Theory is one of them. This theory especially pays attention to the culture production. But the translation also receives much attention for its active behavior in the production and influence of different cultures. Polysystem theory views a variety of semiotic phenomena as systems. Translated literary system is regarded as an element of cultural polysystem in this theory. Its behavior modes are sometimes affected by what position it occupies in cultural polysystem. When it is in the center, it will take part in creating "primary type", and break the traditional norms in the target-oriented culture. When it is in the position of periphery, it will be applicable to the conservative "secondary type".Fiction translation in the late Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China has a remarkable position in the translation history, even in Chinese literary history. Detective stories, as a new popular fiction model, was translated and introduced into China, and soon accepted by Chinese readers. In the following twenty years detective story translation was characterized by its huge amount—making up one fifths of the total fiction translations, wide coverage—covering the works of most famous European and American detective novelists, and rapid translating speed—the translations of detective stories almost synchronizing with their creations. Detective story translation opened a new window to know and learn from the west, enrich Chinese literature and stimulate the modernization of Chinese fiction.Based on the Even-Zohar's Polysystem Theory, the dissertation firstly makes a brief introduction of Chinese traditional legal case fiction and a comparison between Chinese legal case fiction and western ones, secondly makes a analysis of detective story translation in the late Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China, thirdly probes its influence on Chinese native detective story and lastly makes an objective and fair judgment on the boom of detective story translation.