Hybirdity In Lin Shu’s Translation Of Robinson Crusoe From The Perspective Of Power Relations

Since the “power turn” in translation studies, an increasing number of scholars haverealized that translation is not so simple as language activities that are from onelanguage to another. However, there is manipulation of power relations in differentdegrees behind translation. Questions like what should be translated, how it should betranslated, and how deeply translation would influence their own cultures are allclosely related to power relations. On one hand, powers can manipulate translation to agreat extent, thus make translated works to become the tool for the implementation ofpower relations. On the other hand, translation can also serve as a mighty force toconstruct powers involved, thus make translated works to become weapons and themeans to resist the power relations. In the above process, translators are entangled in aweb of power relations all the time, therefore, both their choice of original texts andtranslation strategies along with the impact of the translated works are the results ofthe conspiration of power relations in the particular times.Based on Andre Lefevere’s theory of rewriting and Michel Foucault’s theory ofdiscourse and power, the thesis analyzes the main components of the power relationsclosely related to translation activity: ideology and poetics, meanwhile, it introducesthe notion of hybridity to take Lin Shu’s translation of Robinson Crusoe as the casestudy, thus reveals the impact of translation activities under the manipulation of powerrelations which hide behind the translation behaviour. It is found that Lin Shu’stranslation incorporated the nature of the Chinese characteristics and exotic flavorwhich led to a hybrid text. The thesis claims that the hybridity in Lin’s translation isthe outcome of the manipulation under the ideology and poetics in power relations.The ideological hybridity is mainly reflected in three aspects of religions, customs andmoralities, and the poetical hybridity is mainly reflected in the other three aspects oflinguistic expressions, narrative styles and descriptions. Meanwhile, Lin Shu’s hybridtranslated text has had a positive and extensive impact on modern Chinese socialideology and poetics. On one hand, it promoted the development of the enlightenmentmovement and the communication between Chinese and Western culture, andstrengthened people’s sense of salvation at that time. On the other hand, it producedpositive effect on the dominant poetics, and promoted the innovation of Chinese novelin form and technique.