On Gender Difference In The Chinese Versions Of Vanity Fair: A Comparative Study Of The Translatress Yang Bi's And The Translator Peng Changjiang's Chinese Versions

Western feminist translation theory is a product of the alliance between feminism and translation studies. As a branch of it, gender difference has been played out not only in the metaphors describing translation, but in actual practices of translation, in the specific social and historical forms through which women have understood and exacted their writing activities (Simon, 1996: 2).Vanity Fair is a masterpiece of William Makepeace Thackeray. Although subtitled "A Novel without a Hero", Vanity Fair follows the fortunes of two contrasting but inter-linked lives: Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. Thackeray examines the position of women in an intensely exploitative male world. Women's living situation, the prejudice and discrimination against women from the Victorian society invited his sympathy, which lied not only in his great concern about the existing state of his female characters, but also in his attitude toward their traits. As one of the first scholars who introduced Thackeray to our country after liberation, Lady Yang Bi translated Vanity Fair in 1957. In her version, she gives us a vivid representation of the original and her language is as humorous and smooth and natural as Thackeray's. When it comes to 1990, many translators began to retranslate Vanity Fair. Just from 1990 to 2004, there are 20 different versions. Among them, Mr. Peng Changjiang's version is of greater influence which first published in 1996 by Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House and in then in 2006 by China Book Press. This M.A. thesis will use these two versions as a case study to carry out the research to find the gender difference's influence towards translation and the ways the feminist translator shows her gender consciousness by using feminist translation strategies.Focusing on the gender difference, the research is done in the following parts. In chapter one, the literature review is about feminist translation theory, the influence of gender upon translation, Vanity Fair and its translation will be introduced. The translation of the plot is compared in chapter two about exposition and denouncement .In chapter three, the investigation is about the translation on the level of characterization in two versions to see how gender difference affects the translating process when dealing with a male writer's work focusing on females by using specific feminist translation strategies. Through comparison, the reasons for the difference are illustrated. Also Lady Yang's version's influence is explained. Chapter four is about the translation of setting which includes time and place. In order to make the gender difference hidden in the translation more visible, the author makes a detailed analysis on the translation of figurative language, including irony, satirical name, humor and allegory. When translating a work centered on the female characters or a work of feminist consciousness, the translator can use feminist translation strategies. By doing so, the translator identity is shown and the source text's intention is also observed. Just as Sherry Simon says "women can successfully translate texts by men (许宝强, 2003: 353)."This thesis can be helpful to the research on feminist translation studies. A great deal of detailed textual analyses was carried out based on feminist translation in this research. Few essays in China involved the gender difference in feminist translation. Hence it is a detailed research in the framework of feminist translation and a supplement to the study of feminist translation in China. Besides, it is the first time that the comparative study of Vanity Fair is carried out from the framework of feminist translation. Lastly, this thesis also carries out the comparison from the narrative patterns, which is a new perspective for the study of Vanity Fair.