Norms In Translation

In the rich field of Chinese classical literature, Hao Qiu Zhuan (《好逑传》) may not be considered as one of the glorious works. However, being the first Chinese novel translated into European languages, it is highly appreciated by the Westerners as an excellent ethical novel. During the 18th century, Hao Qiu Zhuan has been the most well-known work of Chinese classical literature in the European literary circle, and its translated versions have been considered as the main reference to Chinese literature and culture. Thus it is necessary to conduct a study on its translation and propagation in the Western society. Hao Qiu Zhuan has been translated into several languages and therefore has various versions. Among them, the earliest English version edited and translated by Thomas Percy in 1761 enjoys great popularity. On the basis of the above facts, the author of this thesis aims to give an account of the early translations of Hao Qiu Zhuan from a descriptive translation perspective. Dominated by the theory of translational norms, this thesis takes Percy's version as a case study, and is intended to explore the translational strategies adopted by Percy and the underlying norms for his choices.The overall movement of this study goes from theory to practice. This thesis consists of six parts. The first part is an introduction to the background, motivation, scope, methodology, and expected findings of the research project. Chapter One summarizes the development of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), focusing on the introduction of norm theory. The emphasis of this thesis is the application of DTS and the description of translational norms, which is the task of the following three chapters. Chapter Two revisits Hao Qiu Zhuan and its early translation history in the Western society, and provides a brief introduction to Percy's version including its significance and distinctive features. Chapter Three analyzes in detail Percy's conforming to the expectancy norms, and Chapter Four discusses his conformity to the professional norms. In these two chapters, the author not only illustrates with concrete examples how the norms are conformed to by the translator, but also explores four major strategies adopted in the translation process, that is, deletion, adaptation, amplification and annotation, and their effects. The last part is the conclusion where the content and significance of the research work are evaluated.