Study Of The Translation Of Selected Short Stories Of O’Henry With The Theory Of Susan Bassnet’s Cultural Translation

O’Henry is an American realist author, one of the world top three short story masters, and a great humorist. O’Henry writes American society in his uniquely humorous style. His short stories have intricate plots, dramatic scenarios, and vividly display the early 20th century New York life and society. In his life, O’Henry wrote over 380 novels, mostly short stories. Classics such as The Last Leaf and The Gift of the Magi are some of the best novels in American literature and translated versions are studied by translators and scholars of different times at home and abroad.At the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese writers began to translate O’Henry short stories in China. Among different chinese translation three versions are widespread, Wang Yongnian version of People’s Literature Publishing House, Huang Yuanshen version of Shanghai Translation Publishing House and Zhang Jinghao version of Publishing House of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. This thesis uses the cultural translation theory and compares the above three versions on the title, lexical and discourse levels with the aim of diversely interpreting classics. Of the three versions, Wang Yongnian version is the earliest, most influential and classic literary translation, while Huang Yuanshen and Zhang Jinghao versions are popular as well. The aims of this translation study are two folds, linguistically and culturally, or socially. On linguistic level, the words of O’Henry short stories are plain and straightforward, the style humorous and sardonic, and the depiction vivid and exact. On cultural and social level, the early 20th century New York metropolitan life is written by the author like a realist painter, such as the evil rich, the kind poor, tough life and sudden death. Ordinary life goes on like the changing New York city in the 20th century. The comparative study helps learn O’Henry cynical words, know the 20th century American society, and find out the cultural diversity in Chinese and English context.Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory is applied in the thesis. Susan Bassnett insists that communication and cultural exchange are the core of literature translation. For this purpose, translation study should focus on, instead of language discordance, the cultural difference and historical background so as to facilitate communication in literature translation.