Study On Zhang Ailing's Translation Work From The Perspective Of Feminist Translation Theory

Zhang Ailing (also Eileen Chang) is one of the most famous female writers in Chinese literature history. However, few people know today that she was also a translator who translated The Old Man and the Sea and many of her own literature work. Though abundant researches have been done on Zhang Ailing's writings, such as novels and essays, from different perspectives, little has been done on her translations. In some extent, Zhang Ailing is a typical translator in Chinese translation field, for her translation involved not only inter-lingual but also intra-lingual translation and self-translation. Thus, the research of Zhang Ailing as a translator is necessary. This thesis is devoted to a tentative exploration of Zhang Ailing's feminist thought in translation by applying the feminist translation theory.Though born into a rich family, Zhang Ailing didn't have a happy childhood. Most of her literary writings tell sad stories of women's miserable life. The style of one's works cannot be separated from the writer's life experiences. The same is true with translators Hence, Zhang Ailing's life experiences are firstly investigated in the thesis so as to account for the possible origin of her potential feminism thought.According to Flotow, the strategies usually used by feminist translators are prefacing and footnoting, supplementing and "hijacking". So, in the thesis, Zhang Ailing's translation works, The Old Man and the Sea and The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow are analyzed to examine whether she used these strategies in the translation process to express her feminism thought or not. Besides, though Zhang Ailing has translated works of many writers, few of them were her own choices. Her feminism thought in translation can also be shown by exploring which kind of works was selected by her own will. Furthermore, being a bilingual writer, Zhang Ailing has translated many of her works by herself. So, an analysis of her self-translated works is made to examine the "writing project" in which she participated.According to the analysis in this thesis, Zhang Ailing indeed uses some strategies to intervene into the text to deal with words related with women. Besides, the texts she selects were all related to women themes. Thus, the conclusion is drawn that Zhang Ailing bears feminism thought in translation.The thesis aims to apply the feminist translation theory to the analysis of translation practice in China. By uniting feminist translation theory and Zhang Ailing's translation works, the analysis in the thesis not only deepens the research on feminist translation theory but also enriches the research on Zhang Ailing's translation.