A Study On Giles’ Translation Of Liaozhaizhiyi: From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

In the1980s, translation studies broke through the barrier of pure linguistics andmoved into a macroscopical context of culture, society and history. Thereby the scopeof translation studies has been extended. As a representative of researchers who studytranslation from a culture perspective, Andre Lefevere(1992) pointed out thattranslators of different social-historical backgrounds, manipulated by differentideologies and poetics, rewrote the original work to different degrees to meet the targetreaders’ demands in different times. His Manipulation Theory gives great prominenceto cultural elements and translator’s subjectivity in translation, thus promoting the“culture turn” in translation studies. This thesis probes into how ideology and poeticsmanipulated Giles’ selection of the translated works and the translation strategies headopted in a particular social-historical context.In the Victorian epoch, a period marked by the overflowing of various trends ofthoughts, people lost their traditional faith and felt confused in spirit. With thepopulation of Taoism and Buddhism in Britain at that time, China, an old, remote andmysterious empire in most westerners’ mind in last century, attracted the attention ofthe Victorians. As a British diplomat in China and an English sinologist, Herbert AllenGiles was endowed by the times with the mission of disseminating ancient Chineseculture to western readers while catering to the taste of the target audience at the sametime. Objectively speaking, Giles’ translation of Liaozhaizhiyi went a little far awayfrom the original text in some places. In view of this, based on Andrew Lefevere’sManipulation Theory, this thesis attempts to examine Giles’ translation ofLiaozhaizhiyi from the perspective of manipulation exerted by ideology and poetics.The discussion is carried out mainly from the following two aspects:1) Giles’selection of the translated works. It’s the popularity of Taoism and Buddhism inBritain at that time that made Giles choose Liaozhaizhiyi that reflects Taoist andBuddhist thoughts, which is a form of ideological manipulation on Giles’ translation ofLiaozhaizhiyi. Under the influence of poetics, Giles only translated the164stories inLiaozhaizhiyi that feature high morality moral, brief language and simple plot;2)Giles’ translation strategies. The manipulation of ideology over the strategies is mainlyreflected first in the omission of Yi Shi Shi Yue in translation to transformLiaozhaizhiyi from a satirical work into a story book, second in the addition offootnotes that conjure up a feast of Chinese culture, and third in the change of plot topresent a literature work of chastity to Britain people. The manipulation of poeticsover the strategies is mainly reflected in two aspects: firstly, Giles adopted oral English expression to render those selected stories because the given contextadvocated simpler language and fewer poetical restrictions; secondly, Giles rearrangedsentences in translation to get smooth and concise sentences because concise languageand structure in novel was advocated at that time.The findings suggest that Giles’ translation exhibits discernible “traces” ofrewriting, presenting a typical case of rewriting. The author believes that Giles’rewriting of the original text is due to the manipulation of ideology and poetics. Gilesrewrote the original text by either conforming to or away from the dominant ideologyand poetics of his time in order to achieve certain purpose, displaying thoroughlymanipulation of his personal ideology and poetics in translation. Therefore, this thesisdraws the conclusion that translation products are, in essence, the results of negotiationbetween the dominant ideology and poetics and the personal ideology and poetics.