Two Translation Upsurges Of Western Detective Stories In China And Their Influences From The Perspective Of Polysystem Theory

The translation of detective stories has experienced two translation upsurges: one is during Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republican China, the other is after Reform and Opening-up. It has a great and profound influence on the literature and ideology of modern China. However, there is no agreement about two translation upsurges of domestic detective stories in causes, translation characteristics, their positions and functions of the translated literature of detective stories in Chinese culture system, and their influences on the production of detective stories in China. Polysystem theory, which advocates that research on translation or accomplished translated works should be combined with the factors such as social and cultural context in which the translated works are produced and read, is a good perspective to analyze above-mentioned problems.The thesis takes a mass of Chinese versions of western detective stories from England, America and France during two translation upsurges as research object. To better illustrate the problems, it has chosen the translations of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle for case study. The thesis, on the theoretical basis of polysystem theory, has comparatively analyzed the causes, translation characteristics, their positions and functions of the translated literature of detective stories in Chinese culture system, and their influences on the production of detective stories in China during the two translation upsurges. The author finds that the translation of western detective stories in China during the two upsurges relates closely to Chinese socio-literary conditions and ideologies of those times. Each translated literature has its own historical mission in each period, especially in revolutionary periods. Therefore, its translation has an obvious characteristic of times. Simultaneously, the translated literature may bring a certain influence on the society and culture in the target country. But the degree of its influence may be constrained by the social and cultural context of that time in the target country.