A Research On The Psychology Of Eileen Chang In Transcreation

Eileen Chang (1920-1995), a female writer and translator, is relatively specialin the history of modern Chinese literature. Her translation is almost in step with herwriting, and stays with it. The research on Eileen Chang has achieved substantialresults in various respects, and the depth and breadth of her literary studies havereached a rather high level. In comparison with the attention paid to her writings, herachievements in translation are largely neglected. At the present time, researches onher translations mainly consist of three aspects: firstly, discussion of the overall statusof Chang’s translation (including self-translation and conventional translation) with anature of the history of her translation; secondly, research on her English translationof a single text or comparative study of a single text; thirdly, analysis of hertranslation activities in respect of the influence of external factors in ecologicalenvironment of translation, such as natural environment, social environment etc.The limitations of these studies lie in excessive researches on her works, a fewresearches on the translator or writer as well as translator and few researches on thefactors of translator’s personality and psychology. Although translating whose subjectis the translator is a dynamic and complex process, questions could not be figured outunless they are observed and researched from the psychological point of view. Theresearch on Eileen Chang’s translations could not set aside the research on herpsychology likewise.The research takes the special phenomenon in Eileen Chang’s diversetranslation activities—transcreation, as the object of study, intending to analyze herindividual psychological characteristics and special psychological factors in literarytranslation in order to reveal the psychology of Eileen Chang in transcreation. In thefirst place, this thesis discovers the distinctive phenomenon of transcreation accordingto the analysis of categories and characteristics of Chang’s translations. In the nextplace, it interprets the transcreation in respect of creativity and subversion, and then itresearches her psychological characteristics in transcreation from the perspective ofpersonality psychology. In the last place, the thesis explains Chang’s psychology in transcreation from the aspects of rebellion against social morality and conventionsand self-achievements through the language conversion. The research on thepsychology of Eileen Chang in transcreation is expected to provide a new angle and iscomplementary to the study of Eileen Chang. In addition, it also offers empiricalgrounds for the research on translator’s psychology for the purpose of broadening theresearch horizon of translation studies.