A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of The Wind In The Willows-from The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

According to Lefevere (1992), translation is not made in a vacuum and it isinfluenced by patronage, dominant ideology and dominant poetics in a particular time.Since children’s literature has been at the peripheral position in literature system for along time, it is more likely to be manipulated by translators to comply with theparticular ideology and poetics in a certain period. Translated children’s literatureplays an important role in children’s literature in China and the quality of the Chineseversions will greatly influence the development of children’s literature and children’seducation in China. This thesis takes two Chinese versions of the world-knownchildren’s novel The Wind in the Willows written by Kenneth Grahame as the studyobjects. By comparing these two versions mainly from phonological level, lexicallevel, syntactic level and stylistic level, the author tries to identify how the threemanipulation factors (patronage, ideology and poetics) influence translators’translating activities. At last, this thesis reaches the conclusion that translators’translation activities are usually controlled by the particular ideology and poetics in aparticular time. In order to be published and win popularity, a translator must yield tothe dominant ideology and poetics. Since ideology and poetics will change with thedevelopment of history, it is necessary for translators in different periods to retranslatethe original text to meet new expectations in a new period.