A Study On The Translation Of Orlando Into Chinese

Virginia Woolf was first translated into China in the early 1930s, yet"Orlando: A Biography", one of her most applauded novels, did not have a Chinese version until the middle 1990s. Based on the rewriting theory of AndréLefevere as the theoretical framework, this thesis analyzes the ideological evolution, feminist literary criticism development, academic interest, impact of"Orlando"the movie, and the publisher's role as the social and cultural factors that have come to play in the translation of this novel into Chinese, aiming to unveil why the translation of this novel was delayed to the 1990s and how the original is rewritten into two distinct versions.In the 1990s, with the implementation of China's reform and opening-up policy and the development of the market economy, politics loosed its control over literature which went through a profound differentiation, and the government stopped giving administrative orders to publishing houses which were in turn left with more freedom to stand on their own in the market economy; meanwhile, here came the rising of feminist literary criticism in China and the revival of Woolf study throughout the world, which jointly contributed to the discovery of"Orlando"by the Chinese academia, for its artistic value and revolutionary conception of androgyny; in addition, Sally Potter's cinematic adaptation of this novel in 1992 prepared a large potential readership for the original work: all have contributed to paving the way for the translation of this novel into Chinese. Finally, in 1994 Harbin Publishing House (HPH) introduced to the Chinese readership for the first time a version of"Orlando", as part of its effort to revive a collection of foreign literary works of which the aesthetic value had been underestimated or gone totally unnoticed.In China, the publishing house is in charge of the process of translating foreign literary works, all from the selection of works to be translated and appropriate translators to the editing and publication of the final version. Given such an operation mechanism, the publishing house stands out as a prominent representative of the final compromise reached by various manipulative forces. In the case of"Orlando", the difference in its Chinese versions is also attributable to the intention of the two publishers. The 1994 translation of"Orlando"is more of an endeavor of enlightenment undertaken by HPH who intended for, besides financial profits through catering for the rising feminist sentiments, dissemination of Woolf's artistic and linguistic accomplishments to the Chinese general public. Thus this version foregrounds the unique ideological and linguistic traits of the original as homage to the writer. On the other hand, the People's Literature Publishing House (PLPH), as a state publication agency, is an authoritative publisher of high literature committed to the mainstream interest of literature. As a result, its 2003 version reads smooth and refined in full compliance with the mainstream aesthetic interest.Analyzed in relation to the interplay between the Chinese and English literary systems, the first version may be considered as an effort to import new literary devices and poetics from outside and enrich the Chinese literary system, while the second version serves as the recognition and integration of the western text into the local literary codification. Therefore, the first version stands out sharply against typical Chinese literature, while the second version melts naturally into idiomatic Chinese, and bespeaks the status of its writer as a serious writer of high literature as she is being defined through this very translation.The rewriting theory of Lefevere proves true in the case of the translation of"Orlando"and it provides an insightful perspective in approaching translation phenomenon. The translation of"Orlando"into Chinese, through two rewriting processes, has created two images of the original work in the Chinese culture, first as an"unnoticed great"work of a great writer and then as a classic work of a canonized writer. Translation is indeed a process of rewriting.