A Study Of Yang Xianyi's Ideas On Translation And His Translation Methods

Yang Xianyi is one of the most famous contemporary literary translators in China. He has devoted his whole life to the translation career. Cooperated with his wife, Gladys, he translated a lot of classical Chinese literature into English, contributing greatly to the spreading of Chinese literature and culture overseas. After his death, it has become more urgent and important to wrap up his translation ideas and methods, which is of great significance to the theoretical and practical development of translation studies.However, current domestic translation studies on Yang Xianyi are restricted to the introduction of his personal life and translation activities, as well as the discussion of his translation works, and there are few systematic studies on his translation ideas and methods. Thus, this thesis intends to clarify Yang's translation ideas based on his life experiences and the methods he uses to materialize his ideas. In addition, it will also offer reconsideration on Yang's translation ideas, under the new social and translation contexts, especially from the perspective of cultural dissemination, in an effort to make the study fuller and more conducive to readers.This thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, introducing the research background, research significance and the thesis structure. The second chapter is the literature review. The third chapter gives a brief introduction to Yang Xianyi's life experiences, translation activities, and the main achievements of his translation. The reasons why he can become a successful translator are also discussed in this chapter. The fourth chapter mainly discusses Yang Xianyi's ideas on translation and his translation methods. This chapter firstly introduces his ideas on translatability, history gap in translation, faithfulness in translation, and the translation of poetry, and then analyzes the translation methods he uses to materialize his translation ideas, such as literal translation, transliteration, adding footnotes, adaptation, and paraphrasing. The fifth chapter is a revisit of Yang Xianyi's translation ideas, especially his literal translation, from the perspective of cultural dissemination. The author holds that literal translation or foreignizing can not be overused in literary translation with the aim of disseminating Chinese culture, for literal translation may turn potential readers of a stronger culture away and the translation may lose its function of cultural dissemination. The sixth chapter is the conclusion, concluding the main content of this study, pointing out the major findings and also its limitations.