A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Shui Hu Zhuan From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

As one of the four classic Chinese works,Shui Hu Zhuan enjoys a great reputation at home and abroad.It is considered to be a live dictionary displaying the overall characteristics of the humanity in the feudal society.It has been translated into many languages and exerts a significant influence in the field of world literature.The translated texts by Pearl S.Buck and Sidney Shapiro are the two most popular ones among all versions concerned.According to the rewriting theory put forward by Andre Lefevere,translation is the rewriting of the source text by the translator.Translation can not take place in a vacuum.Inevitably it will be influenced by many factors such as ideology,poetics and patronage,etc.Based on Andre Lefevere's theory of ideology and poetics,this thesis gives a detailed analysis about the ideology and poetics concerned,including individual ones of the two translators and social ones when they translate Shui Hu Zhuan,so as to analyze their influence upon the translators' text selection and translation activity.In doing so,the author probes into the reasons why the two translators have adopted different translation strategies.Finally,the author gives a comprehensive comparison of the two English versions with an all-round perspective.Examples related to addressing terms,numbers,culture-loaded expressions,sentences and legal documents from the two versions are compared to demonstrate the two translators' different translation strategies,which further testifies the influence of ideology and poetics upon translators.