Ideological Manipulation In English Translation Of Shui Hu Zhuan

The linguistics school, once dominant in translation studies in the West, ran into difficulties in the 1970s. Their static and prescriptive study on translation was questioned because of their rigid way in dealing with words and ignorance of the cultural attribute in translation. More and more scholars of translation studies began to realize that the complexity of translation had been downplayed by the prescriptive studies. In fact, the translation studies should be carried out in the context of political system, ideological concept and cultural background. Compromise has to be made in face of the contradiction between language and ideology. Linguistic rules have to be changed sometimes to serve the major ideology in the translator's world. Ever since the cultural turn in the 1990s, which has been accepted by many translators, the studies on translation have taken on a new look. So many changes have taken place in terms of the scopes, the study methods, the objective and the nature in translation studies. It's generally acknowledged that cultural turn is one of the major subjects in today's translation studies. So many studies are centered on some special terms in the "Cultural Turn", such as the "manipulation", "rewriting", "ideology", etc.Andre Lefevere, one of the major representatives in Cultural Turn, once pointed out: "Translation is, of course, a rewriting of an original text. All rewritings, whatever their intention, reflect a certain ideology and a poetics and as such manipulate literature to function in a given society in a given way". (Lefevere,2004:vii)Shui Hu Zhuan is one of the four masterpieces in the history of Chinese literature. Its popularity kept growing ever since its introduction to the public. It has been translated into more than fifteen languages so far, among which four are translated in English. It is known that each of them received some criticism from the linguist even though they were quite popular with their target readers. Studies into the ideological causes behind the rewriting of Shui Hu Zhuan have been carried out as of the introduction of the theory of rewriting, and several findings have been made, which is of great significance for the promotion of Shui Hu Zhuan worldwide. However, the other two translations still remain relatively untouched upon while a series of studies have been made into the All Men Are Brothers and Outlaws of the Marsh.Based on Lefevere's theory of rewriting, this thesis is to make a tentative research on the ideological influences on the four English translations of Shui Hu Zhuan with a descriptive approach. Presenting the major ideology in each translator's world, this study is to find out the reasons why the text is chosen and the strategy is adopted. Moreover, this study will add weight to the theory of rewriting to prove again that translation can't be finished in a vacuum, and the reader's ideology will never fail to render its influence on it. Even though China has enjoyed the surplus in international trade in the past years, it still suffers severe deficit in the trade of culture. It has been considered as one of the major barriers that keeps China from standing out as a strong power of culture. The study into the factors that account for the rewriting of the Chinese masterpieces is of great significance. It will bring life to the so-called mistranslation labeled by linguists, which will in turn encourage more people to join in the course of translating the East into the West.