A Comparative Study On The Chinese Versions Of The Catcher In The Rye From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

The Catcher in the Rye is the representative work of J. D. Salinger, one of themost important contemporary novelists in the20thcentury. This thesis is devoted to acomparative study between two Chinese translation versions of The Catcher in theRyeon the basis of Lefevere’s manipulation theory, which exemplifies theeffectiveness of manipulation on translation and the importance of retranslation.The publication of the novel hascaused a big stir in the world. The language styleand character depiction of the novel are unique and distinctive. The Chinesetranslation versionfirstly came out in1963, translated by Shi Xianrong. In the newcentury, a new translation version of the novel by Sun Zhongxu was published in2007. The interval between the two different versions is more than four decades, andthere exists much difference between them, which can be explained and analyzed byLefevere’s manipulation theory.The1980s saw the cultural turning in translation study, and the focus oftranslation studies shifted from linguistic perspective towards cultural dimension. In1990, some forerunners in translation studies led by Lefevere and Bassnett formallyposed the cultural turning in translation studies. Lefevere pointed out the influence ofideology, poetics and patronage on translator’s selection of source text and translationstrategies in his book Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame.Living in separate historical backgrounds and cultural environments, translators areinclined to be manipulated by different dominant ideology, poetics and patronage.Thethesis----a comparative study of two Chinese translation versions of The Catcher inthe Rye from the perspective of manipulation theory, explains both the importance ofretranslation and the practical significance of analyzing literary translation under theframework of manipulation theory.The research reviews theoretical viewpoints of manipulation theory, and brieflyintroduces the contents of the noveland the author. By analyzing different historical backdrops of Shi Xianrong and Sun Zhongxufrom the perspective of manipulationtheory,the comparative study implies that with different historical periods, dominantideology, poetics, and patronage will change as well, and these elements manipulatetranslator’s translation activities and the publication of translation works.