A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of Gone With The Wind From The Perspective Of Polysystem Theory

This thesis attempts to carry out a comparative study of two Chinese versions of Gone with the Wind from the perspective of Polysystem Theory.The traditional translation theories conceive of the system as a synchronic net of relation but neglect its diachronic factors. Even-Zohar's Polysystem Theory has ushered in the historical horizon. It is regarded in this theory that semiotic phenomena such as the language, literature, economics, politics and so on should be considered as heterogeneous but interdependent components in a system. It is also believed in Polysystem Theory that different translation strategies only reflect the different translation norms in the different cultural contexts, which are not distinguished by their correctnesses or mistakes but whether approved by the official culture or not. Polysystem Theory has expanded the fields of literature translation studies and broadened the vision of translation studies and provided effective research methods and new perspectives (伊塔马·埃文—佐哈尔,张南峰译, 2002:20). In China, scholars in translation circles have made some comparisons and analyses of the translation phenomena and Chinese translations of many literature works with Polysystem Theory.Gone with the Wind is American novelist Margaret Mitchell's only novel published during her lifetime. It is the fruit of Margaret Mitchell's ten years'hard work. Ever since the book was published in 1936, Gone with the Wind has gained a universal popularity and great success. It has been translated in many versions and read by a great many people all around the world. In China, a lot of scholars have applied different translation theories to analyze the different Chinese translations of it from different angles.By making some comparative analyses between Fu Donghua's Piao and Dai Kan, Li Yeguang and Zhuang Yichuan's Piao, this thesis is meant to find out the reasons why Gone with the Wind is translated by different people in different periods of times and their different translation strategies in the background of literary polysystem.Chapter 1 is an overview of the thesis, giving an account of the background and objective of the research, significance of the study and the organization of the thesis. Chapter 2 deals with the literature review of the study on the Chinese versions of Gone with the Wind. Chapter 3 gives an introduction to Polysystem Theory including two parts: The first part introduces the main contents of it, which is mainly about the origin of Polysystem Theory, the definition of Polysystem Theory, the procession of Polysystem, factors in the Polysystem Theory and their relationship, intra-and inter-relationship, the volume and stability. The second part is about the significance of Polysystem Theory to translation. Chapter 4 is the main part of the thesis. It falls into two sections: One is about the introduction to Gone with the Wind and two of its versions. The other makes a comparison of the two translations in the aspects of their historical background, ideology and poetics of the times, purposes, translators'evaluations of the novel, translators'attitudes towards the protagonists, readers'expectations, and translation strategies. As for the comparison of the different translation strategies, the author analyzes it from the five angles below: the names of people and places; the languages in the two versions; the words, expressions and sentence patterns in the two versions; the omissions and additions of Fu's version and the integrity of Li's version; the treatment of similes and metaphors of the two versions. Chapter 5 draws a conclusion of the whole thesis and presents the limitations of the study at last.