A Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of David Copperifeld: A Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

David Copperfield, an English realistic novel written by Charles Dickens, enjoys agreat literary value in research. It has been translated into many languages and exerted aremarkable influence in the development of world literature. The translated text by LinShu and Zhang Guruo are the significant ones to analyze among Chinese versions.This thesis attempts to compare the two Chinese versions respectively by Lin Shuand Zhang Guruo from the perspective of Andre Lefevere s manipulation theory. It definestranslation as a process of rewriting where cultural-social elements in certain periodmanipulate the output. Being the translators, Lin Shu and Zhang Guruo adopted differenttranslation strategies, and finally led to the great distinctions of the images of the twoChinese versions, which are of great popularity among different target readers.The thesis endeavors to provide a comprehensive analysis on the two versions aboutthe ideology, poetics and patronage concerned. The first chapter introduces thebackground of Charles Dickens and his novel David Copperfield. A brief review of theresearch results on the translation of this novel is mentioned too. The second chapterinvolves the introduction of Lefevere s three main constraints of manipulation theory andthe relations between these constraints and the translation of literature.It is comparativeanalysis of the constraints of different dominant ideologies and individual ideologies inchapter three. It states the manipulation of ideology from the aspects of political ideology,social culture and ethnics and religious factors. These ideological factors in differenthistorical periods lead Lin Shu and Zhang Guruo with different aims in translation to takedifferent translated methods. It also demonstrates the manipulation of individualideologies from the aspect of choices about translated material. The chapter four inquiresabout the poetological elements in the two versions. It attempts to demonstratemanipulation of poetics from the aspects of choice of words, sentence structure, translation description in genre, etc. through the comparative analysis of the different mainpoetics. In chapter five, it tries to analyze the elements of patronage. It can be seen that thepublishing agency and censorships of publication would influence the literary translationtoo. There are main findings and limitations of research in chapter six.Through the research from three perspectives of manipulation theory, themanipulation of ideology, poetics and patronage is present in the two versions in certainextents. The thesis effectively proves the wide existence of manipulated elements and italso has few directives for appreciation of literary translation.