Translator’s Adaptive Role In The Translation Of Children’s Literature

Children‘s literature is a special kind of literary theme. It is dedicated to children andmeanwhile suitable for them to read. The development of translation of children‘s literature inChina can be roughly divided into3stages: the first period is during The May4thMovementand early days of new China, the research achievements during this period are mostlyexperiences from translation practice by translators; after the Reform and Opening-up, itprogressed into the developing stage, when special articles in translation of children‘sliterature studies had been published; the21st century is the booming stage, when researchfindings became rich and deep.Peter pan, a British children‘s literature works published in1904, has been widelyknown by children all around the world after repeated edition. In1929, its first Chineseversion was published, which is translated by Mr. Liang Shiqiu. Till now, there have beenmore than30different Chinese versions (including fully translated edition, compiled versionsand versions in both English and Chinese). Among which Liang‘s version was produced afterthe May4thMovement, while Mr. Ren Rongrong‘s version is generated in the21st century,both are at the climax period of translation of children‘s literature, in contrast, their socialbackgrounds are totally different. It is because of the particularity to the two versions that theyare chosen as the research object of this paper.Based on Professor Hu Gengshen‘s Approach to Translation as Selection and Adaptation,this paper made a comparative study on two Chinese versions o f Peter Pan, the twotranslators‘translational eco-environments and their adaptation to them will be discussed indetail, as well, translator ‘s adaptive selection to the original text will be explored from3aspects: linguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension. One of theobjectives of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of the Approach to Translation asSelection and Adaptation in the translation of children‘s literature; Second, through acomparative case study of the two Chinese versions of Peter Pan, this paper attempts to findout how the translators adapt to their translational eco-environments, and then make adaptivetransformation on the linguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension.The last objective of this paper is to find out how the translators choose the most suitable translation strategy and method according to the translational eco-environment, includingchildren‘s interests, mental characteristics, the receptivity and understandability to languageand the ability to appreciate literature.