On Pseudotranslation In The Literary Translation Of Late Qing Dynasty

For a long time, translation studies had been approached mainly in terms of the comparison between language structures in an ontological way. But when translation researchers came to realize that such a prescriptive and linguistic approach was inadequate to explain a human activity as complex as translation, they set to examine translation in a broader socio-cultural context.Pseudotranslation, lying at a gray zone between translation studies and creative writing studies, is usually ignored and forgotten by scholars and researchers. However, pseudotranslation is not rare to see, and often shows its appearance in the translation history of both China and foreign countries. Pseudotranslation plays an important cultural role the same as genuine translation before its veil is removed. In the long course of Chinese translation history, it is believed that there are three translation culminations before the May4th Movement which exerted a far-reaching influence on China’s economy, politics, ideology and culture. Undoubtedly, the late Qing Dynasty is one of the most important periods, in which the unique translation environment gave rise to the unique translation mode, i.e. pseudotranslation, which deserves further research. Therefore, pseudotranslation in the literary translation of late Qing Dynasty is the subject of this study.Based on the most widely accepted definitions of pseudotranslation by Toury and Rado, this paper puts forward the working definition of pseudotranslation, from which pseudotranslation in the literary translation of late Qing Dynasty is analyzed. Major findings of this study are:1. There are works of pseudotranslation in the literary translation of late Qing dynasty.2. Some assumed translations in late Qing dynasty are found no source texts or original authors. But more commonly, pseudotranslations are found as passages or parts in the translation texts, instead of as the complete work.3. Because of the special cultural and socio-political environment of late Qing Dynasty, translation of foreign fictions was not for literature’s sake and literati of that period used translation to express their political ideas and enlighten the people, which is exactly the cause of pseudotranslation in late Qing Dynasty.