An Analysis Of The English Translation Of Huo Zhe Under The Guidance Of Toury’s Norm Theory

Gideon Toury develops his theory of translation norms from the polysystem approach put forward in the early 1970 s by Itamar Even-Zohar and elaborates on it under the umbrella of Descriptive Translation Studies. Toury contends that translation is a norm-governed activity and the three norms that govern the translation activity are initial norm, preliminary norms and operational norms. Huozhe by Yu Hua has won several world-class literary prizes and become well-acknowledged in the English world since the publication of its English version, To Live. Therefore, studies on the English translation and translator of Huozhe are of great necessity in order to promote the further dissemination of Chinese contemporary literature and Chinese culture.This thesis is an attempt to study the English translation of Huozhe under the guidance of Gideon Toury’s norm theory. The translation norms are reconstructed by examining the socio-cultural factors, the translation process and the translation product, which is To Live in this case. The initial norm is explored in order to find out the translator’s choice between the two tendencies of adequate translation and acceptable translation. The directness of translation and translation policy under preliminary norms concerning the English translation of Huozhe are discussed. The matricial norms and textual-linguistic norms under the operational norms are investigated by examining the translated text To Live compared with the original text. The omissions, additions, changes of location and textual segmentations that the translator has made are studied to find out whether the translated text maintains the completeness of the original one. The textual-linguistic norms are also discussed by inquiring into the English translation of the lexical items, phrases and stylistic features in the original text.The thesis concludes that the English translation of Huozhe is more adequate than acceptable for the reason that the translator adopts different translation methods and strategies to maintain the cultural information embedded in the original text, which can be manifested in the translation product. After examining the preliminary norms of the translation, this paper comes to a conclusion that it is the translator that plays a significant role in the execution of the English translation of Huozhe since the translation activity of Huozhe is initiated by the translator out of his personal interest in Chinese culture and literature. The matricial and textual-linguistic norms under the operational norms are also investigated. The translator makes few changes to the original text and maintains its completeness. By employing different translation methods and strategies in dealing with the lexical items and Chinese-specific phrases and stylistic features in the original text, the translator tries his best to preserve as much cultural information indicated in the Chinese version as possible to make the translated text more adequate.The English translation of Huozhe is skillfully executed by the translator, but still it is not impeccable. There do exist some mistakes due to the misunderstanding of Chinese culture. Therefore, this thesis indicates that an English translator and a Chinese translator or several translators from the two different cultural backgrounds can work together to co-translate a Chinese literary work. In this case, the English translator can ensure the acceptability and readability of the translation and the Chinese translator can make sure that the original literary work won’t be misunderstood and misinterpreted.