A Study On Zhao Susu's Chinese Version Of Lady Chatterley's Lover-From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

D. H. Lawrence is a great British modernist writer but most of his works are controversial. This paper studies Lawrence's last novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, which is the most controversial one. Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned immediately when it was published in Britain and other countries; the process of its translation in China was also full of ups and downs. So not until the 21st century did Lady Chatterley's Lover gets the official recognition. The version discussed in this thesis was translated by Zhao Susu and published by The People's Literature Publishing House. The book has sold considerable copies since it was released in 2004. It is a very popular literary work. But why the full translated version of this work has not been available until 2004? That is mainly because of the sexual descriptions in it. Although Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned for its frank sexual description, yet its social themes are actually very serious and profound, and its psychological description is delicate and profound that it eventually becomes a classic, and has great impact on the development of the Western literature.Zhao Susu's translated version of Lady Chatterley's Lover can be studied from Andrew Lefevere's rewriting theory. When we are judging a translated literary works, we should not merely concentrate on the "loyalty" or "disloyalty" of the conversion between languages, but put translation in a large historical background, analyze it from the ideology and poetics of a specific period. In this paper, the three factors—ideology, poetics and patronage and their respective influence on the translation of Lady Chatterley's Lover is mainly studied. This paper uses the "rewriting theory" as its theoretical basis and Zhao Susu's Lady Chatterley's Lover as a case study. The final aim is to clarify that when evaluating the translated literary works, we should put them under the great cultural and social background, so that we can make objective and fair judgments towards the translators and translations and then enhance our understanding of translation behavior and literary translation.This paper falls into 5 chapters. Chapter one gives a general idea of the research subject, the background, research methodology and a framework of the thesis. Chapter two is a general introduction to Lady Chatterley's Lover. First there is an overall account of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, from such perspectives as the main idea, the theme and the social context. Then a general introduction is given of the novel's translation in China from a historical view and especially of the version by Zhao Susu. Chapter three gives an introduction to the Rewriting theory, including the main contents of the theory and its evaluations. Chapter four is the main part of this thesis, mainly a study on the three outside factors in Rewriting theory and their influence on the translation of Lady Chatterley's Lover. Chapter five gives an overall conclusion to the whole thesis, where the translation process is reviewed, and translation principles and strategies under discussion in all the previous chapters are briefly summarized. A prospect into future studies of the subject matter gives an end to this chapter as well as to the entire thesis.