Translation As Translator’s Adaptation And Selection

The prescriptive model of translation studies, which has represented the mainstream academic paradigm for several centuries, focuses mainly on the nature of translation, translation criteria and translation methods while to a large extent ignores translation process and the translator himself, who is the most dynamic factor involved in translation process. In1990s, the "cultural turn" movement in translation studies shifted the focus of translation studies to the translator and brought about new perspectives for translation research, one of which is the subjectivity of the translator. The translator’s subjectivity in China’s however had not received due academic attention until a "translator-centered" translation concept was introduced by Hu Gengshen (2004:227). In this concept of translation, translation is defined as a translator’s adaptation and selection in a translational eco-environment, which refers to the worlds of the source text and the source/target languages comprising linguistic, communicative, cultural and social aspects of translating, as well as the author, the client, and the readers. According to this definition of translation, adaptation and selection made by the translator in the translation process plays one indispensable and focal part. The translator’s adaptation is selective, and the selection is also adaptive at the same time. Translator’s adaptation and selection can be divided into three categories, namely, adaptation/selection to his needs, adaptation/selection to his competence and adaptation/selection to the translational eco-environment.This thesis, taking as its theoretical framework Translation as Adaptation and Selection, makes a tentative study of Jiang Tianzuo’s Chinese version of The Call of the Wild. It is to prove that Jiang’s choice of the source text The Call of the Wild and translation strategies are due to his own adaptation and selection to the above-mentioned three factors, in which subjectivity plays a crucial role. This thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter One is an introduction to the thesis which presents a general description and significance of the study and provides an overall structure of the thesis.Chapter Two is a literature review which provides a general account of the theoretical perspective, namely, translation as translator’s adaptation/selection, and research results and academic contributions made by other scholars both at home and abroad on this subject. In addition, this chapter presents an overview of Jiang Tianzuo’s translation of The Call of the Wild and academic studies on it by various researchers.Chapter Three discusses Jiang Tianzuo’s adaptation and selection to needs and competence as evidenced by examples chosen from his Chinese version. Here needs include internal needs and external needs. Competence means bilingual competence and the competence of impressing original language style.Chapter Four explores Jiang Tianzuo’s adaptation and selection to translational eco-environment. The translational eco-environment covers source text and the source-language and target-language systems, each of which can be viewed in various dimensions, such as linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions. In the translation process, the translator adapts to various dimensions and then selects translation methods adaptively. However, it’s impossible for the translator to adapt to all the dimensions due to the differences between two languages and cultures. Moreover, due to the different text types and textual functions of the source texts, the dimensions cannot always be treated equally. In this chapter, the author chooses linguistic and communicative dimensions for analysis.The Last Chapter is a conclusion of the thesis, in which the limitations and significance of this study are discussed. In addition, some tentative idea pertaining to the directions of translation study in the future are presented. On one hand, it provides an overall picture of Jiang’s Chinese version of The Call of the Wild and brings about the answers to some questions which might be deemed as relevant to the study of translation as the translator’s selection and adaptation. These questions may include:1) why did Jiang Tianzuo choose to translate The Call of the Wild?. And2) how did he translate it? On the other hand, it can be treated as a case study to prove the feasibility of approach to translation as adaptation and selection proposed by Hu Gengshen.