A Study Of The Feminist Features In Eileen Chang's Translations

Eileen Chang is an outstanding female writer in Chinese literature, who has built up her special status in the literary world and attracted much attention from the readers. However, Eileen Chang is not only a famous writer but also a remarkable translator. Few scholars have paid attention to her contributions to the translation field. What more important is that Eileen Chang, as a female translator revealed obvious feminist tendency, which is seldom discussed. In hope of providing a platform about this researching area, I write this paper.Western feminist translation theory is based on feminist position and advocates using language as a tool to positively intervene in the creation of meaning to make females seen and heard in the language. The representative figure Luise Von Flotow summarized three commonly used methods of western feminist translation:supplementing, prefacing and footnoting, and hijaking.Four of Eileen Chang's translation works, namely The Rouge of the North, The Rice-sprout Song, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Old Man and the Sea will be analyzed in this thesis on the basis of the western feminist translation theory. Through comparisons between the original work and the translations, Eileen Chang's feminist thoughts and her applied interventionist feminist strategies are revealed in the thesis. Futhermore, the unique oriental feminist features of Eileen Chang's translations are summarized.Firstly, this paper summarized and commented on the general situation at home and abroad of the study on Eileen Chang's translation in order to emphasize its necessity and importance. The writer introduced related illustrations, the western feminist translation theory, the assumptions and contributions. In ch loyal to her feminist thoughts whether in her writings or translations. In Chapter two, concrete examples from Eileen Chang's four translations will be analyzed from three aspects:prefacing, supplementing and hijaking. Chapter three is the creative chapter of this thesis. On the basis of comparisons between the western feminist translation theory and Eileen Chang's feminist translation features, the oriental feminist features of Eileen Chang were summarized from three main aspects:metaphor in words, the contrast of males and females, and the communication with the male discourse. The last part concluded that Eileen Chang is an excellent female translator and her feminist thoughts certainly merit our attention and study.