A Study On Cultural Mistranslation In Lin Shu’s Fiction Translation From The Manipulation Theory

"Faithfulness" or "Equivalence" has ever been regarded as the only and supreme criterion in judging the quality of a certain translation. For the past few years, with the development of western translation theories, literary translation is no loner restricted to the traditional equivalence theory, but expands to study of factors beyond the text. Therefore, cultural mistranslation, as a typical characteristic of literary translation, gains unprecedented attention and more reasonable interpretation rather than invariable negation.Under the specific historical and cultural background of late Qing Dynasty, the translations of foreign fictions emerged in large numbers. Lin Shu, who was outstanding among contemporary translators, had been battered by critics as well. Though his translated works promoted the intercultural communication objectively, it had suffered suspicion and criticism due to its unfaithfulness to both the content and structure of the original works. However, as an inevitable phenomenon in literary translation, cultural mistranslation should be treated correctly. Meanwhile, more attention should be paid to it in the translation circles since cultural mistranslation is of significance in the study of literary translation as well as translation criticism. Based on the above reasons, the thesis takes cultural mistranslations in Lin Shu’s fiction translation as research object and tries to figure out the reasons and significances of his cultural mistranslation by analyzing the specific examples in his translated works.Due to cultural diversity, restrictions of features of literary texts, differences of translators’personal quality and the manipulation of patrons, the translator cannot produce absolutely faithful translations. This thesis is devoted to a tentative exploration of Lin Shu’s cultural mistranslation by applying the Manipulation Theory along with the translator’s subjectivity. Typical examples are involved in this process. It is found that, during the process of Lin Shu’s translation, he was manipulated by mainstream ideology, poetics and patronage of Late Qing; at the mean time, in the face of internal and external troubles, Lin Shu aimed at inspiring Chinese enthusiasm of patriotism, advocating political reform and spreading western advanced science and technology. To achieve his aims, Lin Shu adopted translation strategies like omission, addition and abridgement. All of these resulted in his cultural mistranslations. However, Lin Shu’s cultural mistranslations did not bury his works. On the contrary, it made great contributions to later generations. On the one hand, Lin Shu was manipulated by many objective and subjective factors; on the other hand, Lin Shu and his cultural mistranslations had a giant effect on then ideology and poetics and it also promoted the development of Chinese modern literature.