On Lin Shu's Rewriting Of Western Literature And Its Influences

Despite of his ignorance of any foreign language, Lin Shu had translated more than 180 works written by 98 authors from 11 countries based on the dictation of his collaborators. Some of his translations had been widely read by readers from various backgrounds at the end of the 19th century, and were highly spoken of by some modern writers. However, in a period when translation was judged excessively based on the Source Text, Lin Shu received much criticism for his translation. The traditional study of translation focuses on the relationship between the original and the translated text and tends to compare these two kinds of writings mostly on the linguistic levels, and accordingly, to draw the conclusion whether the translated text is faithful to the original or not. Since the 1970s, translation studies have diversified in different ways, many of which shift away form the constraints of modern linguistic models and take a "cultural turn". The focus of translation studies is shifting from linguistic studies to extra-linguistic studies, which indicates that the process of translation is not only a practice of bilingual transfer, but also involves many other factors such as politics, cultural history, aesthetic value as well as ideology in the target language context. According to AndréLefevere, translation is a rewriting of the Source Text. Many factors may influence the process of translation such as ideology, poetics and patronage. Based on Lefevere's rewriting theory and combined with the special social-cultural background, the thesis will carry out a case study of mistranslations in Lin Shu's Hei Nu Yu Tian Lu, and will explore various extra-linguistic factors that lead to the occurrence of mistranslations, such as ideology, poetics, aesthetic value etc. in the target language society. Based on the analysis above, the author finally came to such a conclusion that most mistranslations in Lin Shu's fiction translation are the intentional manipulation or rewriting of the original text. Meanwhile, the thesis will also attempt to analyze the great influence of Lin Shu's rewriting exerting on China's social-history environment. Some of his translated works not only produced a kind of new ideology, but also enriched the literary elements in Chinese poetics. Moreover, Lin Shu's case study enables us to evaluate the position of the translated texts in the cultural communication from a new perspective.