On The Chinese Translations Of Jude The Obscure:from The Perspective Of Toury’s Translation Norm Theory

Jude the Obscure is one of Hardy’s most famous novels, having experienced ups and downs ever since it was published, but the novel turned out to be popular at the end. Zhang Guruo’s translation of Jude the Obscure has taken the fancy of readers and it is praised by scholars and reprinted many times after its publication, as early as in the1950s. There have been more than six Chinese versions of this novel, among which the text translated by Geng Zhi and Xiao Liming, published in November,2010, is the latest rendition of it. It has been half a century after Zhang’s first publication.With the theoretical foundation of Toury’s Norms, two different versions of Jude the Obscure are brought into comparison to discuss their features. The thesis is made up of five parts including the introduction, in which the author has given the research questions, literature review and theoretic basis. In the first two chapters, starting first with the respective social and cultural environments of the two versions, this thesis intends to conduct a comparison in a certain period against certain social and cultural background to explore the translator’s choice of different strategies under the guidance of translation norms. The exploration mentioned is a macroscopic description of the translation activity on the basis of Toury’s preliminary norms and initial norms. According to Toury’s description of operational norms, a microscopic analysis is conducted at the next stage, with the style, annotations and word choices being included.After the study on two versions of Jude the Obscure, the conclusion can be safely drawn as follows:Zhang Guruo and Geng Zhi&Xiao Liming in different periods often choose different strategies to produce totally different translated works. Different periods often have various kinds of norms due to the instability of norms. The evaluation of a text should depend on the social environment and expectation of readership at that time. And Zhang’s and Geng&Xiao’s style can be retained if it is not in contradiction with special norms. When they make their own choice between adequacy and acceptability to follow their translation philosophy, they have to comply with special norms.