A Comparative Study On Two Chinese Versions Of To The Lighthouse

The paper analyses the two Chinese translation versions of Woolf s typical stream of consciousness novel To the Lighthouse in order to testify that translator is influenced by ideology and poeticsTo the Lighthouse attracts many translators and schools of novel’s attention for its special technique. Schools of novel have imitated and adopted the novel’s techniques of internal monologue, free association and poetry for Chinese literature. But for readers, this novel is quite difficult to understand.Among the translation versions, Qu Shijing’s translation is highly appreciated by readers and it gives the coming translators a good deal of enlightenment.His translation is featured by the large number of the four-character idioms. Wang Jiaxiang’s version is also well received. Her translation is rich in feminine. Most of the previous research focused on only one translation work or the translation of stream of consciousness."Translation is a kind of rewriting", Lefevere demonstrates the Rewriting theory clearly in his book Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame in1992. In different periods, rewriting is mainly controlled by two factors:ideology and poetics. The ideology that controls and leads rewriter’s (translator’s) creation represents at the social, political, and economic aspects; and the poetics is an important part of culture for rewriter’s (translator’s) creation. To make their translation acceptable among readers as much as possible, rewriter (translator) rewrites the original text in a certain extent, namely, the translation conforms to the ideology and poetics of the rewriter’s (translation’s) society.The thesis focuses on the study of translators’individual ideology, the social ideology and the poetics, and compares the two translation works by combining the three factors on the basis of Lefereve’s Rewriting Theory. It is found that both the translation works are affected by ideology and poetics.