Study On The French Translation Of The Poems Of Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong is celebrated as an eminent statesman, proletarian revolutionist, and one of the great minds in the20th century. In effect, he is also a remarkably gifted poet of his time. Mao’s poems, as the epitome of China’s revolution, have combined the essence of Chinese traditional metrical patterns and the ideas of revolutionary romanticism. In France, Mao’s world-renowned poems have enjoyed prestige. From1960s to1970s, France witnessed an upsurge of French translations of Mao’s poems. During the decade, there appeared several versions of French translations.This thesis focuses on the French translations of Mao Zedong’s poems and explores at length three major issues, namely, the reasons of the upsurge of French translations of Mao’s poems in the1960s and1970s, the roles of translators during the translating process, and the impacts of politics, ideology and aesthetics on the French translations of Mao’s poems.The thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One gives an overview of the French translations of Mao Zedong’s poems. With a view to giving a full account of the surge of French translations of Mao’s poems in the1960s and1970s, the author compared the historical, social, political, and ideological contexts between China and France, using two historical events as entry paths, i.e. Cultural Revolution in China and May Movement in France. The French translations of Mao’s poems were then classified into two groups:the translations for publicity campaign and the translations by French intellectuals on a voluntary basis. Translators of the two groups were introduced and their roles in the translation process were analyzed.Chapter Two is a comparative text analysis. Two aesthetic dimensions were taken into account, that is, the metrical patterns of Chinese traditional poems as well as Mao’s unique use of language. Through statistical data and in-depth qualitative analyses, the author looked into the differences between variant versions of translations and interpreted the underlying reasons. The results show that aesthetic value is one of the significant parameter in the French translations of Mao’s poems, which implies that apart from the political appeal, Mao’s poems boast high artistic value.Chapter Three touches upon the influence and reception of French translations of Mao Zedong’s poems in France. During the1960s and1970s, Mao’s works, with Mao’s poems as representative, have exerted far-reaching influence in France. The support of many renowned French intellectuals keeps Mao’s poems alive. Through an analysis of the readership of Tel Quel Magazine together with leftist intellectuals, the author probed into the characteristics of the audience of French translations and the influence of the French translations.The conclusion of the thesis is that although translating of Mao’s poems into French has past its prime, the French translations per se has their significance in investigating the interactions between translation and the three factors, i.e. politics, ideology and aesthetics.