Feminist Translation Studies With A Case Study Of The Chinese Version Of Jane Eyre By Zhu Qingying

Since the 1980s, translation studies have witnessed the "cultural turn". As a highly practical activity, translation is subject to a multitude of factors over an amazing scope, among which feminist translation stands out to be a very important part of such studies and receives extensive attention in the west. Actually translation studies and feminism have been closely connected with each other in the history because they both had low identities and social status in the past but try to break away from the subordinate social status to obtain equality with either the other disciplines or men. The combination of translation studies with feminism leads to the emergence of the western feminist translation theories."Cultural turn" in the translation studies results in the emphasis on cultural factors such as politics, society, history and so on. With the heat discussion on cultural identity, gender, as an important part in the identity researches emerges and opens a new perspective for translation studies. Feminist translators put emphasis on the subjective and dominant role of translators and think that it is better to translate women's texts only by women translators than by men because they can completely reproduce women's characteristics in original text.The task of the feminist translation studies is to overthrow the traditional philosophy which put women in the social bottom and conclude the translation studies into the literature. Therefore, the feminism aims at exploring how the translation is feminized, deconstructing the traditional translation theories based on Structuralism and gender logic serving as its philosophical basis. Moreover, more questions are put forward such as gender of translation, conventionalized ethic of "fidelity" and functions of language.The western feminist translation theories have aroused tremendous reflections since it was introduced to China. Theorists have published quite a lot of essays to publicize its translation concepts, which urges us to think over the inadequacies in the traditional translation theories and initiates a revolution in translation concepts and thoughts.Jane Eyre has been seen as "the representation of the early female works in 19th century English literature". The author Charlotte Bronte, profoundly depicts the embodiment of a new female character -- Jane Eyre who is endowed with the strong rebellious consciousness and struggling spirit. Through this character, the author gives her voice to awareness of female subjectivity, approves the view of gender equity in love and marriage, and proposes that female should struggle to win independence by themselves, maintain their self-esteem, and show their concern on women's liberation. Among all the Chinese versions of Jane Eyre, the one by Zhu Qingying in 1980 is regarded as the most popular one and has been issued for more than 3,000,000 volumes.This thesis gives a systematic summary of feminist translation theories including its recent findings and discussion on the influence of feminist translators' ideology over translation, and discusses how women translators with gender awareness embody their initiative and subjectivity in the process of translation based on Zhu Qingying's version of Jane Eyre. On such bases, the features of the Chinese female translation (English to Chinese) will be summed up.