A Manipulative Perspective Of Gong Zhicheng’s Chinese Translation Of Lord Of The Flies

André Lefevere, a significant figure in the field of cross-cultural translationstudies, came up with his manipulation theory in1982. According to his manipulationtheory, translation never takes place in a vacuum, but rather under the manipulationof ideology, patronage and poetics. Ideology, including the ideology of a social groupand the individual ideology of the translator(s), is the dominant concept of whatsociety should be, or can be allowed to be. Patronage refers to the powers which canfurther or hinder the reading, writing and rewriting of literature. Patronage can beindividuals, institutions, a religious body, a social class, a political party, a royal court,publishers, the media, etc. Poetics， including an inventory component and afunctional component，is the dominant concept of what literature should be, or can beallowed to be, in a given society. The inventory component includes literary devices,genres, motifs, prototypical characters and situations, and symbols while thefunctional component is a concept of what the role of literature is, or should be, in thesocial system as a whole.With the perspective of the manipulation theory, this thesis attempts toinvestigate one Chinese translation of William Golding, an English writer who wasawarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in1983. Lord of the Flies, published in1954,is the most famous and representative work of Golding. In China, there are manyChinese versions of it, among which Gong Zhicheng’s Yingwang published byShanghai Translation Publishing House seems to be the most popular one, for Gong’sYingwang has been reprinted4times so far.On the whole, Gong’s translation is quite faithful to the source language text.The political climate for literature turned much better in the1980s in China, but still,the manipulation exerted by the social and cultural factors under which Gong did thetranslation can be traced. Those social and cultural factors include ideology,patronage and poetics. The manipulation of ideology is embodied in the selection ofLord of the Flies as the source text. As an intellectual, Gong agreed with Nietzschethat God is dead. By choosing to translate Lord of the Flies, a work full of sarcastic allusions of the Christian culture, Gong reiterated his opinion that God is dead. Themanipulation of patronage in Gong’s Yingwang is embodied in the selection of thesource text and the strategy Gong employed in his translating. Considering that Lordof the Flies is the most representative work of Golding the1983Nobel Prize winnerfor Literature, it is not surprising that it was chosen as the source text. In order to gethis translation accepted and published, Gong had to follow the strategy dictated bythe patrons. The manipulation of poetics is embodied in the structure and style ofGong’s Yingwang. By consciously further dividing some original chapters into smallerchapters in the translated text, Gong made his translation clearer and easier for theChinese readers. By using children’s language, dialectic words and expressions, andby omitting Piggy’s cockney, Gong made his translation more attractive to theChinese readers, including both children and adults.