A Study On Sidney Shapiro's Translation Of Shui Hu Zhuan-From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

Shui Hu Zhuan(《水浒传》) as one of the Chinese traditional literary treasures,has been praised high since the Ming and Qing Dynasties.The success of Shui Hu Zhuan as a novel lies in the fact that it describes the adventures of the Liangshan outlaws in a uniquely true-to-life way.Its fresh and vivid portrayal of many types of characters made those names such as Sagacious Lu,Lin Chong,Wu Song,Song Jiang household names in China.The influence of Shui Hu Zhuan has been extremely far-reaching.It provides a wealth of artistic experience for the creation of novels by later generations as well as material sources for the later literary scholars.As one of the "four classics",it has been translated into all the main languages all over the world. People of other languages have the chance to share this novel with Chinese through translations.However,translation doesn't occur in a vacuum.Rather,it is a social activity that initiated by social forces and as a result it reflects the social and historical demands. AndréLefevere's rewriting theory studies literary translation froth the angle of the systems in which a translation exacts.And also,it takes the translated text itself as a system and surveys the final appearance of a source text in a target language as a rewriting.It is a theory which advocates that all translations,whatever their intention, reflect a certain ideology and a poetics and as such manipulate literature to function in a given society in a given way.Thus,ideology,poetics and patronage are three key notions in Lefevere's rewriting theory.This thesis partially focuses on the validity of the rewriting theory by applying it to analyze the translated Chinese traditional novel.Shui Hu Zhuan and Sidney Shapiro's translation—Outlaws of the Marsh.Examples are selected from both of the original and the translated texts.In doing so,the seven chapters of this thesis are divided naturally into four parts. The first chapter as one part is an introduction in which the background and significance of the study is stated.Research questions and layout of the thesis are presented.Chapter two and three form the second part which summarizes the features of Shui Hu Zhuan as a novel at one hand and its foreign translations at the other.Also,an introduction to AndréLefevere's rewriting theory is included in this part.The third part is from chapter four to chapter six.It is the most important part of the whole thesis.Ideology,poetics and patronage and their influences on Sidney Shapiro's translation of Shui Hu Zhuan, namely,Outlaws of the Marsh are analyzed respectively.Examples are cited and theories are employed wherever necessary.The last part serves as a conclusion.It summarizes the findings and implications.Also it points out the limitations of the rewriting theory as well as that of this thesisAll in all,the purpose,of this thesis is not only to prove the validity of this theory; rather,it aims to appreciate Shui Hu Zhuan from a broader view,namely,culturally and historically.Fortunately,the aim may be achieved,in way of rewriting theory.