Complexity Research On The Retranslation Of Literary Classics

The first Chinese person to translate the foreign literary classics into Chinese is Lin Shu.The translated works of Lin Shu played an important role in the maturing of lots of modernChinese writers. However, a wave——the retranslation of foreign literary classicsoverwhelmed Chinese translation studies field from the middle1980s. There was a sharpincrease in the number of retranslated works. Many researchers in the literary field andtranslation studies field began to focus on the phenomenon.As is known to all, translation is a kind of complicated communicative activity which iscross-cultural and cross-language. Thus retranslation, as a common translation phenomenon,is of complexity nature. The retranslation of foreign literary classics is not only the transitionof different languages, but also relates to many other factors, such as translators, readers,press, regions，social politics and cultures of different countries. However, people lacksystematic recognitions to the complexity features of retranslation of foreign literary classics.Complexity researches which began to become popular from the1980s, provides a newmethodology and a new way of thinking.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one is introduction. The main body is dividedinto four chapters. Chapter two is a brief introduction of complexity researches. In chapterthree and chapter four, the author analyses the relevant factors of retranslation of classicworks——translators, readers, press, regions, social politics and cultures by using complexityway of thinking, and explodes the complexity features of retranslation of foreign literaryclassics. There exist complicated relationships between these factors which connect with eachother, have mutual influences and restrictions. The retranslated works are the integration ofdiachronic and synchronic factors. For example, retranslation of literary classics in differentperiods is the integration of translators’ times and individual styles from the diachronicperspective; multi-translations of literary classics by many translators in the same period isthe integration of translators’ individual styles and diversity from the synchronic perspective.Readers’ influences to the retranslation of literary classics reflect the integration of common demands of times and diverse individual differences. Furthermore, it is worthwhile to notethat all the factors are not static, but are always with dynamic changes, which evencomplicate the retranslation phenomenon. In chapter five, the author take the retranslation ofPride and Prejudice as an example, analyzes the retranslation phenomenon of Pride andPrejudice——the emerge of more than40retranslated editions from the perspectives oftranslators, readers, press, regions, social politics and cultures, and makes verification to theanalysis and conclusions of chapter three and four. Chapter six is the conclusion of this thesis.The author makes a conclusion of the study fruits and deficiencies, and thinks deeply to thefurther researches of this field.