On Yang Xianyi’s Translation Choices Concerning Lao Can You Ji From The Perspective Of Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory Of Practice

Following the flourishing of "cultural turn" in Translation Studies, recent years have witnessed a "social/sociological turn" in this field. The basic terminology and theoretical mode of Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, especially the core terms-"field","habitus" and "capital" have been gradually borrowed and transformed in translation researches, furnishing Translation Studies with a new perspective. According to Bourdieu,"the practice" is a product from the coactions between the agent and the society, who exerts influence on the other party and meanwhile constrained by each other. The object increasingly being studied from this perspective is the human agent-the translator, but deep-going case studies focusing on the translator are few and far between.Yang Xianyi is one of the most productive Chinese-English translators in China whose contributions in translation field are incomparable. Current studies on him mainly include autobiographies and biographies, translation outlooks and translated works, but translation studies on his subjective translation choices are on the rise.Lao Can You Ji is a late Qing-Dynasty chapter-novel involving variable social matters and it has been enjoying a high position in academia both at home and abroad for over a century. Studies on this novel are large in number but translation studies on it can be counted with one hand. Yang Xianyi’s translation of the novel is one of the most popular among English readers; moreover, the translator Yang Xianyi and the author Liu E shared similar life experiences and dispositions and were located in similar social situations. Hence a study on Yang’s translation of this social novel from the perspective of "field","habitus" and "capital" would contribute immensely to sociological research on translators.Therefore, the present thesis concentrates on Yang Xianyi’s translation choices relating to Lao Can You Ji drawing support from Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts-"field","habitus" and "capital" so as to discover the in-depth sociological causes for Yang Xianyi’s translation choices of the source text and translation strategies by means of ethnographic analysis of Yang Xianyi, data analysis of his translated works and case studies on his translation products through comparison and deduction. It is found that Yang Xianyi’s choices are produced by the coactions among the three forces, whose impact become stronger or weaker in different situations. Additionally, the applicability of Bourdieu’s sociological notions in translation studies is further attested.