A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Versions Of Gone With The Wind From The Gender Perspective

"Cultural turn" appears in Western translation studies in the1980s, and feminist translation theory that gains wide attention in translation field emerges at a historic moment in this tide. It precipitates the integration of the gender perspective with translation studies, challenges traditional translation theory and practice, and exerts an important influence on Chinese translation field.Although feminist translation studies in China’s context starts rather late, feminist approach in translation has drawn more and more researchers’eyes definitely. Chinese female translators can not be called feminist translators to some extent, yet their gender consciousness and unique female perspective are fully shown in their translations. This thesis selects two Chinese versions of Gone with the Wind including Li Meihua’s and Chen Liangting’s, aiming at discussing how female utterance embodies feminist thoughts of the source text and the effect of translators’ gender awareness on the translated texts.Language is a tool for power struggle so that feminists always keep watchful eyes on gender issues in language, dig out the features and causes of women’s language, and positively construct female discourse which is somewhat different from male voice. Women’s language has distinctive characteristics in prononciation, intonation, sentence structure as well as choice of words. Feminists take language as a political means by which they manifest female identity, and thus heighten translators’ status. They employ a series of radical translation strategies to structure their own voice.By a comparative analysis of the different versions, the thesis concludes that gender awareness is reflected in both versions. The female translator’s version richly reveals the features of women’s language, reappear the original’s feminist feelings via vivid language style. Compared with radical feminist translation strategies in the West, this female translator exerts mild rewriting, choice of words and adjustment of sentence structure to highlight her identity as a woman. The male translator’s language is plain. If his translation had been done under the guidance of feminist translation theory, it would have better conveyed feminist intent in the original and achieved better translation effect.