| The Hobbit is one of the two masterpieces of J.R.R Tolkien’s fantasy works. As itreceived lots of praises from literary critics upon publication in1937, publishers urged himfor a sequel, and then The Lord of the Rings was born in1954. It is safe to say that withoutThe Hobbit, there would be no The Lord of the Rings. Up until now, the western academiahas studied the Hobbit from various perspectives. Research fruits are not only presented inpapers but also in books. Yet Chinese scholars have conducted few studies on it before.The release of the first of the trilogy of the Hobbit films in2012has drawn attention fromthe public and also the academia and the related research has increased. The showing of thelatter two in the next two years will attract more attention and the related studies willdefinitely grow.The existing two papers on the book from translation studies are all conductedsynchronically. They choose two translations and then judge the merits and demerits ordiscuss the manifestation of translator’s subjectivity through comparative analysis ofselected translated texts. This thesis attempts to study the Chinese translations of theHobbit diachronically from the perspective of media-translatology. It first discusses thepublication and reception of the Chinese translations from1993to2013, pointing out thatthe later versions were better received than the earlier ones. Then it exams the role ofchanging receiving environment, different translated works, and the patronage have playedin the process. At last the thesis arrives at a conclusion: the three factors, receivingenvironment, translated works and patronage, determine the success of the translation andreception of the Hobbit together, which is supposed to provide reference for the translationand reception of similar texts. |
PDF Full Text Request