Translation Of A Letter To Chiang Ching-Kuo From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

The present thesis is undertaken to make a comparative study of the two English versions of A Letter to Chiang Ching-Kuo (Xinhua News Agency’s version published in1982and Professor Zhang Peiji’s version released by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press in2007) within the theoretical framework of Andre Lefevere’s manipulation theory, and explore the ideological, poetological and patronage manipulation upon translator behavior in the translation process.Traditional translation theories oriented mainly to the source text and claimed fidelity as the prime criteria. However, the "cultural turn" occurred in the1970s brings about new perspectives and approaches to explain various translation phenomena, and translation studies since then have been carried out in a broader context taking such outside factors as history, society, politics and culture etc. into consideration.As one of the most renowned theories in translation studies, manipulation theory put forward by Andre Lefevere holds that translation is manipulated by three constraints, i.e. ideology, poetics and patronage:ideology exerts great influences on the selection of source text and translation strategies; poetics which is said to be what literature should be like influences the use of language in translation; patronage decides the publication and distribution of translation versions under the influence of ideology. Different translators under different social-cultural circumstances more often than not adapt and manipulate the originals to some extent for the purpose of reaching more readers.With a brief introduction of the present research, the thesis begins with the "cultural turn" and expounds manipulation theory as well as its three factors and translator behavior. Then it introduces A Letter to Chiang Ching-Kuo and the two English versions in question. In Chapter Four, it carries out a comparative study of the two versions by exemplifying source text selection, translation strategies, diction, style and the like, and analyzes the ideological, poetological and patronage manipulation upon translator behavior in the translation process. Finally, it concludes that manipulation does exist in the two English versions of A Letter to Chiang Ching-Kuo:Xinhua News Agency’s version, translated into a news bulletin, is plain but faithful in content, concise and succinct in wording, and as similar in style as a news report which reads more official and news-like; Professor Zhang Peiji’s version, rendered into a prose, is beautiful and rhythmical in language, diversified in rhetorical devices and sentence patterns, and shows the translator’s feelings clearly in wording and manner. The comparative analysis fully reveals that ideology and poetics via patronage exert notable impacts upon the translators, and thereby achieve the purpose of manipulating the translation versions.Based on the present thesis, the study has yielded the following major findings: translation is the manipulation of the original for certain purpose, which leads translation studies from prescriptive to descriptive, from static to dynamic and from intra-translation to extra-translation; the existence of different versions is acceptable so long as they can fulfill the requirements of their times, which also explains the phenomenon of retranslation of classical works. Furthermore, as a social being, the translator is inevitably affected and manipulated by the social environments like social ideology, dominant poetics and patronage, and accordingly the translator is characterized by socialization; as a subjective living being, the translator may use his own initiative in the translation process and achieve the purpose of serving the society via translation activities, which manifests the sociality of a translator. Hence, it can be summarized that translator behavior is the co-effect of socialization and sociality.