A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Versions Of The Catcher In The Rye Under The Manipulation Theory

The Catcher in the Rye ranks as one of the most significant contemporary literaryworks in the20thcentury. The protagonist Holden, a cynical, sensitive yet innocentyoungster who often used foul language, echoed with many people in American during theCold War. Reading this novel was once a kind of initiation ceremony among Americanyoung people. This book still exerts great influence today with remarkable circulation of250,000per year in America and its global circulation has recorded60,000,000since itsdebut in1952. In1963, Shi Xianrong translated it into Chinese for the first time, althoughit was only available to a small circle of Chinese readers in the form of "internalpublication". The translated work brought life to Chinese readers who were repressedunder the coercive political ideology around the Cultural Revolution. Furthermore in the1970s, it was circulated among "educated youths" as hand-written copies. A dozen ofnew-generation Chinese writers were influenced by this book at that time, like Wang Shuo,Su Tong, and pan-literature writers such as Lu Chuan. Shi’s version was not officiallypublished until1983and it was reissued as limited edition shortly after Salinger’s death onJanuary27,2010. In1999, Sun Zhongxu, an amateur translator, started to create a newtranslated version and his work was published in2007after many years’ waiting.Discrepancy exists in more than translation strategies. The two versions are divergentin translation purpose, way of publication, literary influence, etc. Guided by AndréLefevere’s "manipulation theory", author of this thesis conducted a comparison betweenthe two versions in order to delve into how the three manipulative factors, namely ideology,poetics and patronage, play roles dynamically against different social backgrounds.