A Comparative Study Of Three Chinese Versions Of The Happy Prince From The Perspective Of The Polysystem Theory

The polysystem theory, first brought forward by the famous Israel scholar Itamar Even-Zohar in the nineteen seventies, and well developed and improved in later periods, has opened a new road for translation studies which provides a dynamic and descriptive way focusing on the target culture system and has led the translation studies to the cultural level.As the most popular fairy tale of Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince not only received huge responses in Great Britain at that time, but also made great contribution to the world literature due to its unique language style and deep social implications. Since it was introduced to China, The Happy Prince has gained wide attention and there appear a large number of Chinese versions with the development of the times.Through close reading, the author conducts a comparative study on the three Chinese versions of The Happy Prince (translated by Zhou Zuoren, Ba Jin and Cai Rongshou respectively), and discusses the reasons of the three translators’selection to translate The Happy Prince in the three different historical periods and the reasons of the three translators’adoption of different translation strategies. Under the guidance of the polysystematic views on choosing the translated texts and translation strategies, the discussion will mainly focus on the following two aspects:one is to analyze the reasons why the three translators chose to translate The Happy Prince from the poly-systematic perspective (social, historical, cultural, translator, reader, etc.); the other is to explore the three translators’different translation strategies with specific examples, and to talk abut the reasons why those translation strategies are preferred based on the relevant viewpoints of the polysystem theory. Finally, the author gets to a conclusion that the reasons of three translators’selection to translate The Happy Prince and adoption of different translation strategies are not random, but closely link with the social, historical, cultural, personal forces, etc. and bear the unique characteristic of the macro environment.