A Study Of Two English Translations Of Xiaoxiao-A Norm Theory Perspective

Under the theoretical framework of Gideon Toury’s translation norm theory, thisthesis is designed to explore the norms governing translations of the two Englishversions of Shen Congwen’s short story Xiaoxiao.Since1970s, translation studies have changed from a prescriptive approach to adescriptive one. Influenced by Itamar Even Zohar’s polysystem theory and James S.Holmes’ seminal paper on translation studies, Toury developed the translation normtheory. Instead of setting rules, the approach intends to provide a way to construct thetheoretical system of translation studies by exploring norms governing translationactivities. He classifies translation norms into three categories, namely, initial norms,preliminary norms and operational norms. Initial norms govern the overall choice ofthe subjection to the norms of the source text or to that of the target text. Preliminarynorms, including translation policy and the directness of translation, refer to the macrofactors that determine the translation before the actual process of translating.Operational norms, which include matricial norms and textual-linguistic norms, arenorms influencing translation at micro-levels.By analyzing Gladys Yang’s and Lee Yi-hsieh’s English versions of Xiaoxiaofrom the perspective of translation norms, the thesis strives to explore what kinds ofnorms in the source language and target language affect the two translators and howthe translation norms influence their translation processes both at the micro level andat the macro level. It is found that governed by different norms, the two translatorsadopt different strategies. In general, Lee Yi-hsieh employs the target-orientatedstrategy in order to make the translation better accepted by target language readerswhile Gladys Yang combines the two poles of source-orientated and target-orientatedstrategies, with the former to preserve the “foreign” flavor of the source text and thelatter to render a fluent and concise target text. Gladys Yang’s combination of the twotranslation strategies can account for her dual cultural identity and her status as a prominent translator in China in1980s. This present study aims at providing a newperspective for future researches on the translations of Xiaoxiao, even on translationsof modern Chinese literature.