Manipulation Of Target Culture And Vicissitudes Of Literary Fames Of Foreign Works

D·H· Lawrence is a renowned writer in the twentieth century. Though he is wellknown for a considerable number of novels such as Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow,Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, controversial descriptions in his workshave brought about harsh assailment against him. He had to spend most of his lifetravelling in exile and led a rough and rugged life. His works also suffer similar fateas that of himself. Lady Chatterley’s Lover is his last novel. Since its publication in1928, the novel has been exhibiting the union of soul and body and stronglycriticizing the English society which advocates rigid capitalism. Though the novel hasbeen widely-read, descriptions of sex in the novel have led it to a prohibition period ofseveral decades.The Introduction of the thesis briefly gives the research background of LadyChatterley’s Lover, makes a review of criticisms on Lawrence and the novel inwestern countries and introduces related domestic researches to expound the researchobjectives as well as to lay a solid theoretical basis for the research. Considering thestatus quo and features of the translation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in China, thethesis holds that Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory can give effective and reasonableexplanations to phenomena arising from the translation process and the translationchanges of the novel in China.The first chapter analyzes Lawrence’s position in world literary history andreviews criticisms on Lady Chatterley’s Lover in western countries. From the mererejection and assailment at the very beginning to the recovery of its fame ushered bythe debate and judgment in the1960s, the novel has seen its own ups and downs.From then on, the literary and artistic value has been recognized and multiple theorieshave been adopted to analyze and criticize Lawrence and his works.Chapter Two is devoted to the investigation of the process of translation andintroduction of Lady Chatterley’s Lover into China in the Twentieth century. Suchprocess of translation and introduction can be divided into three periods: the1930s,1950s to1970s and the latest period, with each period analyzed on the basis of the situation of the translation and its corresponding reasons. The earliest introduction andpositive comments on the novel has been collected and anatomized since thepublication of the novel in the Twentieth century. The first Chinese translation of thenovel by Rao Shuyi was published in the year1936. In the early years of the period1950s to1970s, China was pervaded with the ideology of the Soviet Union whichputs an emphasis on the translation of classic English literature and pays no attentionon the translation of Lawrence’s works. In the Cultural Revolution from1966to1976,Lawrence was even criticized as one of the “decadent writers” and capitalist writers.And the descriptions of sex in his works were considered as pornography. Thus thetranslation and introduction of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in China has undergonenumerous difficulties.The third chapter compares three Chinese translations respectively by Rao Shuyiin1936, Zhao Susu in2004and Hei Ma in2010in terms of word adding, workweakening, changes of commendatory and derogatory connotations and adoptions offormal and oral descriptions. The comparison analyzes the manipulations on the textby the translators in the first place. Then comments and criticisms from influentialinstitutions, organizations and individuals are analyzed to check their influences onthe distribution of the novel. The manipulations made by publishing houses are alsoincluded in the analysis. Criticisms of different periods on the novel in China aresurveyed to make clear their influences on the literary positioning of the novel andtheir manipulations on literary concepts. Last but not the least, manipulationsdisplayed by changes in translation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover are analyzed.It is concluded that manipulations on the process of translation by multiplefactors have not only imposed great influence on the changes in the translating LadyChatterley’s Lover into Chinese, but they also influence readers’ recognition of thenovel’s literary value. The translation of a specific literary work is the synthetic resultof multiple manipulative factors. The investigation and analysis of the manipulativefactors can help to recover the original value of literary works and assist readers togain better appreciation of artistic beauty of literary works.