A Case Study On The Chinese Version Of The Sun Also Rises From The Perspective Of Toury’s Theory Of Translation Norms

As a world-renowned postwar novel, The Sun Also Rises has received full attention in China since the appearance of the first Chinese version in 1984. Then, increasing translators have been attracted by the rich imagination, distinct writing skills, and multiple theme of the novel, and many translations have come out like mushrooms. Among them, as a female translator, Zhao Jingnan‘s translationdevelops a style of her own and is very popular among Chinese readers.Israeli translation theorist Gideon Toury explicitly outlined Holmes‘ concept of descriptive translation studies and therefore systematically put forward theory of translation norms for the first time, which views translation as an activity taking place in a sociocultural context, broadens the scope of translation studies and promotes the cultural turn in translation field. Toury‘stheory of translation norms includes preliminary norms, initial norms and operational norms, which are closely related to and influenced by each other. Since then this systematic theory has served as a wonderful framework for many scholarsin translation field.Based on Toury‘s theory of translation norms, the thesis analyzes the translation strategies and methods under three translation norms model on lexical, syntactic and stylistic levels in Zhao Jingnan‘s translation of The Sun Also Risesby employing exemplification and case study, the thesis aims to explore what kinds of elements in the source-language norms and target-language norms affect the translator‘s translation and how the translational norms influence her translation in terms of macro and micro levels. The results show that different translation norms influence choices of the translator at different stages of translating. From the selection of text and translation policy to the decision of translation strategiesat the macro level, and then to the choice of specific translation methods at the micro level, the translator is influenced and restricted by translation norms. Translation is a choice-making process; translators should pay full attention to both textual and extra-textual factors during their translating.This thesis falls into six chapters. Chapter one is a general introduction to the whole thesis, in which the background, purposes as well as significance of the study are presented. Chapter two mainly presents an overview of previous studies on Hemingway‘s The Sun Also Rises and Toury‘s translational norm theory in China from different perspectives.Chapter Three is the theoretical framework, which is a detailed introduction to the three important parts of Toury‘s translational norm theory. In the fourth chapter, research questions, research methodology and data collection of the study are put forward in this part. Chapter five analyzes Zhao Jingnan‘s translation of The Sun Also Rises from the perspective of Toury‘s translational norm theory, the translation norms behind the Chinese version and the way they influence the translation are made.Finally, a conclusion will be drawn in chapter six.Through this study, the thesis is hoped to provide references for the translation studies of The Sun Also Rises.